Premier David Ben Gurion will appear here in District Court, summoned as a witness for the defense by the Communist newspaper Kol Haam, which is standing trial for libeling the Premier. The court today granted the defense motion that the Premier be summoned but rejected its request that Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett be put in the witness box.
The libel action was brought by the public prosecutor after the Communist news paper, on October 24, called Ben Gurion a traitor. Defense counsel told the court that the charge of treason was based on Ben Gurion’s personal order, as Defense Minister, to the Israel Army to withdraw from the Suez Canal area in 1948 during the war for liberation of the country.
Yitzhak Sadeh, former Army officer and one of the founders of the Palmach–the underground striking force of the Jewish pre-state defense movement–told the court that the Israel Army had not intended to invade Egypt but for obvious strategic reasons had occupied all of southern Palestine and was advancing close to the Suez Canal. Ben Gurion’s order to withdraw immediately, prevented, he said, the infliction of a crushing defeat on the Egyptian Army. Defense counsel told the court that Ben Gurion’s order was prompted by a Western Power and constituted an act of treason.
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