Cabinet Acts on the Disturbances; Attributes Them to Instigators

The Cabinet met in extra ordinary session today to discuss the riots which broke out during the night in Beersheba and the disturbances Sunday in Migdal Haemek in which 12 policemen were injured. At the same time increased police forces were sent to new immigrant centers where tension was reported developing.

Following the four hour Cabinet meeting, the Government instructed the police to employ all measures at their disposal to secure non-recurrence of rioting. An official communique issued after the meeting attributed the disturbances to groups of instigators. These were small groups whom the public condemned, the communique said.

The Inspector General of the police, Yosef Nachmias, who attended the Cabinet meeting, told the press that there was no doubt that the current propaganda in connection with the forthcoming national elections in November was a contributing factor. He refused to elaborate on the Government’s statement regarding the groups of instigators.

A Government spokesman who briefed reporters after the Cabinet meeting emphasized that the official communique contained not “an iota” of any suggestion of communal differences as being involved but he hedged when the reporters asked whether the Beersheba disturbances were motivated by such differences.

Behor Shitreet, Minister of Police, and Mordecai Namir, the Labor Minister, told the special Cabinet meeting that there was no relation between the incidents which have occurred at Haifa, Migdal Haemek and Beersheba. Each riot had special characteristics, they said.

Joseph Avidar, director general of the Ministry of Labor, reported on the system of relief work provided for jobless immigrants at development centers. He said Migdal Haemek workers were set “norms” for daily pay which, he said, could be completed easily in six hours bat, acting on agitation from instigators, they sought to reduce the norms to the equivalent of a four-hour day.