In one of its most rancorous sessions in a long time, the Knesset today defeated a Gahal motion for a debate on Foreign Minister Abba Eban’s recent remarks on escaped Nazi criminals. The vote was 27 to 22,. Dr. Benjamin Halevi, a German-born, Berlin-educated former Israeli Supreme Court Justice now serving as a Gahal MK, accused Eban of lying in presenting his explanation of his remarks to the Knesset and the Israeli public.
Eban opened a hornet’s nest Oct. 18 when, on the David Frost television show taped in New York, he said that the question of hunting down escaped Nazi criminals “hardly interests me.” Eban said that while he did not oppose trials of captured Nazi criminals, their crimes were not “capable of expiation” and the essence of the holocaust did not rest on “some wretched man in Paraguay or Brazil.”
On returning to Israel, Eban stressed that the holocaust should be viewed in terms of its impact on and lessons for humanity, rather on the search for individual criminals.
CHARGES CHEAP, IRRELEVANT
Dr. Halevi charged that Eban had tried to mislead Israelis with his explanation and that the practical effect of Eban’s remarks would be a slowing down of what the MK called the already laggardly searches for wartime killers of Jews. “I accuse the Foreign Minister of publishing a deliberately mendacious statement,” Dr. Halevi declared, “and I take full responsibility for what I say. The Foreign Minister’s personal credibility is under debate. Such behavior is not appropriate for a Minister in Israel.”
Eban replied that Dr. Halevi’s charges were the cheapest and most irrelevant he had ever heard. He said public reaction in Israel had praised him for displaying profound understanding of the holocaust and genuine feeling for its victims. In the flood of letters he received–from Jewish leaders and wartime partisans and average Jews–not one was critical, he asserted.
(In London, Joseph Rosensaft, president of the World Federation of Bergen-Belsen Associations, said this week he could find no fault with Eban’s remarks and said he thought Eban was rather effective on the subject of the holocaust. He added that perhaps Eban’s phrasing was unfortunate with reference to the apprehension of war criminals.)
In the Knesset vote Eban received coalition support, but Avraham Silberberg of the Labor Alignment abstained, as did three members of the National Religious Party. Eban was also supported by the Independent Liberals and Haolam Hazeh. Voting against him were Gahal, the Free Center, the State List and the pro-Moscow Rakach (New) Communist. Agudat Israel supported an unsuccessful alternate motion by Shmuel Tamir, chairman of the Free Center, to refer the matter to committee.
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