Minister of Tourism Moshe Kol was re-elected chairman of the Independent Liberal Party at a stormy closing session of its convention here last night at which strong demands were made by some members for new leadership. Kol said he had not decided whether to stand for re-election to the Knesset May 17 but observers noted he has used this tactic before to get his supporters to persuade him to remain on the list.
Nevertheless, criticism of the present ILP leadership was rampant at the convention. Some delegates insisted that the party must show new faces if it is to gain voter support in the elections. The ILP holds only four seats in the present Knesset. At one point fisticuffs erupted on the floor over a proposal to limit the term of office of party MKs. The motion was defeated.
The ILP tried unsuccessfully to leave Premier Yitzhak Rabin’s coalition government last year. It was prevented from doing so when the Supreme Court ruled that the resignations of its ministers were invalid because they became effective only after the Rabin government was transformed into a care-taker regime. Nevertheless, the ILP convention supported the Labor Party’s election platform which states Israel’s readiness to negotiate territorial concessions in all sectors in exchange for peace.
The ILP platform supported reconvening the Geneva conference at which, it said, the Palestinian issue should be dealt with by Israel and Jordan and a Palestinian delegation that recognized Israel. It stated that the issue should be resolved within the context of a Jordanian-Palestinian state in which the Palestinian entity would find self-expression.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
