Israel Election Campaign Closes Today; Thousands of Rallies Held

Thousands of mass meetings and rallies were held, throughout Israel today and yesterday, as the national election campaign reached a climax prior to Tuesday’s balloting for candidates to the fourth Knesset. Under the law, no electioneering will be allowed after tonight.

Two of the biggest rallies, each attracting crowds estimated at well over 20, 000 apiece, were held in this city last night, with Prime Minister David Ben -Gurion addressing a Mapai rally, while Menachem Beigin talked to a mass meeting called by He rut. At the same time, a third meeting, attracting a smaller crowd, estimated at several thousand, was held in this city’s busiest center, Dizengoff Square, by the General Zionists.

Neither Mr. Ben-Gurion nor Mr. Beigin had anything new to say at their respective rallies, both reiterating their well-known party platforms, attacking the opposition parties. Other sizable meetings were held here, and in other parts of the country, by two of the other contending parties, Mapam and Achdut Avodah. Each drew capacity crowds to their meetings.

Arguments and, at times, fights, disrupted Sabbath services in many of the small synagogues in the Mea Shearim quarter in Jerusalem yesterday, as adherents of the Gerrer Rebbe and followers of Neturei Karta disagreed as to whether Hassidim should participate in Tuesday’s Knesset elections.

Neturei Karta followers hold that pious Jews should not participate in the balloting and should boycott all government activity. The followers of the Gerrer Rebbe, insisting that it is the duty of all pious Jews to participate as citizens, came to many of the synagogues in Mea Shearim to call upon religious Jews to vote Tuesday. Many of the Gerrer disciples were heckled and shouted down, and efforts were made in some of the synagogues to oust the “invaders. “