The Israel Parliament last night voted to recommend to the government not to resume negotiations with the West German Government on reparations unless the Bonn Government makes a firm offer to pay Israel’s demands, including a schedule of payments. The vote was 50 to 34 in favor of the resolution, which was introduced by the Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee.
Just before the vote, Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett stated that since Israel is now in the midst of negotiations it is “inconceivable” to break off The Hague talks. “But,” he warned, “we will not stand in the London queue (of Germany’s pre-war creditors) and Germany understands it well. Germany will have to declare openly whether she wants to pay, independently of the London conference, the sum which will be agreed upon, or she will claim that she is unable to do so and then we will know.”
(In Paris, Menahem Beigin, leader of the Herut Party which opposes Israel’s reparations talks with Germany, addressed a meeting of 700 people last night calling for complete boycott of German goods by world Jewry. Mr. Beigin will leave for New York at the end of this week to conduct a campaign against the Israeli-German negotiations.)
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