Israel Cabinet Resigns over Education Policy; President Summons Party Leaders

Premier David Ben Gurion’s coalition Cabinet resigned today after the Israel Parliament, by 49 to 42, with three abstentions, voted against acceptance of the Cabinet statement of policy on the education of children in the immigrant camps submitted to Parliament last week by Education Minister David Remez.

Mr. Ben Gurion said that he considered the vote one of non-confidence and left for Rehovoth to submit his resignation to the President. After the two conferred, Dr. Weizmann also met with Joseph Sprinzak, chairman of the Parliament. The President then announced that he would invite the representatives of the various political parties in the Knesset to confer with him on the formation of a new government. However, it is considered a virtual certainty that general elections will be held.

The resolution rejecting the government statement was offered by the General Zionists, centrist group which is not represented in the Cabinet, after the Premier wound up a ten-hour debate on religious education with an ultimatum to the Religious Bloc to accept the government position.

The Premier declared that he was categorically opposed to the “unfortunate situation” created by the existence of four different school systems in the country and that he hoped to achieve a unified school system. He warned the Religious Bloc that if the government’s education policy was not accepted, he would relinquish his post.

Efforts to reach a compromise were made during the past week but the parties were unable to come to any agreement. A proposal by the Progressives that two school systems be set up in the camps was rejected by both sides.

ISRAEL MINISTERS IN UNITED STATES REFUSE TO COMMENT

(Reached by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in Boston, where he was today, Israel’s Minister for Religious Affairs Rabbi Judah L. Maimon, who is one of the leaders of the Religious Bloc in the Jewish state, refused to comment on the Cabinet crisis. Israel’s Minister of Agriculture Pinhas Lavon, who is now in New York, also declined comment. Rabbi Maimon is touring the U.S. in behalf of the Mizrachi Organization of America, while Minister Levon has just completed negotiations with U.S. officials to obtain food and farming equipment from the U.S. Government.)

(In London, Minister of Finance Eliezer Kaplan, who is in Britain to help spark the 1951 Joint Palestine Appeal which was launched this week, would say only that pending the formation of a new government the members of the old Cabinet would carry on their work. This statement is expected to alley the concern of British Zionists, upon whom today’s crisis burst like a bombshell.)