Ben Gurion Warns He Will Not Vote for a Joint Election List to Histadrut

Former Premier David Ben-Gurion continued today in his opposition for plans to align the dominant Mapai Party with the left-wing Ahdut Avoda, declaring he would not vote for a joint election list to Histadrut, Israel’s federation of labor, made up jointly of candidates from both parties.

Alignment of the two parties on a Histadrut ticket, he maintained, meant only that after the elections Mapai and Ahdut would become independent groups. He reiterated his opposition at a Mapai meeting here, stating: “Such alignment would not be true unification. I am all for true union, but not in the form currently proposed.”

Meanwhile, at another Mapai meeting, David Hacohen, a Mapai member of the Knesset; supported Mr. Ben-Gurion’s call for a new Judicial committee to investigate the “Lavon Affair,” declaring that formation of such a committee “would be less harmful than no commission at all.” Mr. Ben-Gurion has been demanding a new judicial probe into the “security mishap” of 1954 which, later, caused the dismissal of Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon as well as the removal of Mr. Lavon from his post of secretary-general of Histadrut.

Israel’s Attorney General issued a ruling today, holding that Mr. Ben-Gurion violated no law by the manner in which he has used certain classified documents connected with the Lavon Affair. Minister of Labor Yigal Allon had requested an opinion from the Attorney General, on whether Mr. Ben-Gurion had used those classified documents illegally in issuing a new “white book” dealing with the Lavon case. The Attorney General held, however, that no violation of law was involved in the manner in which the former Premier had collated evidence supporting his demand for a new judicial inquiry.