The Foreign Ministry denied here today that the Israel Government had been involved in the dismissal of Jon Kimche, editor of the Jewish Observer and Middle East Review, of London. The Ministry’s spokesman said the issue was one that concerned solely the British Zionist Federation.
The Foreign Ministry’s spokesman said the only action taken by the Government was a protest by Israel’s envoy to London, Ambassador Aharin Remez, against the Observer’s call for the resignation of Minister of Justice Yaacov Shapiro, and the periodical’s criticism of the Israeli Judiciary as a result of the secret arrest, trial and sentencing to one-year prison terms of two editors of Bul magazine.
Maxim Gilan, one of the two editors, was granted 48 hours of leave from prison today “for family reasons.” It was reported that his mother was seriously ill and that he also had to take care of urgent financial matters. Under Israel’s prison regulations, a prisoner who had served three months of his sentence may ask for “leave” on humanitarian grounds. Gilan and his co-editor, Shmuel Mor, have been in prison since December 13.
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