More than 2,200 delegates joined by guests and well-wishers from 22 countries around the world, attended the founding conference here tonight of Israel’s new United Labor Party – Mifleget Avodah Yisroel (MAI) – composed of Mapai, the party of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol; Rafi, the dissident labor party established by former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, and Achdut Avodah, another Mapai offshoot which has returned to the fold.
The contract of union, combining the three labor parties, was signed earlier today by the secretary generals of each of them – Mrs. Golda Meir for Mapai, Shimon Peres for Rafi and Israel Galili for Achdut Avodah. Adding their signatures were the 187 members of the new party’s secretariat and the 15 founding members. Among the latter were Mrs. Rachel Ben-Zvi, widow of the late President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi of Israel and Mrs. Rachel Shazar, wife of incumbent President Zalman Shazar.
Noticeable by his absence from the ceremonies and conference was former Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion who bitterly opposed the merger of Rafi – the Israel Workers Party – with Mapai. Mr. Ben-Gurion stood firm on his refusal to join the new party under its present leadership. A Rafi delegation that visited his home at Sdeh Boker in the Negev yesterday was unable to persuade him to attend the merger festivities. Also opposed to the merger, but for different reasons, was Mrs. Meir, Israel’s former Foreign Minister and secretary-general of Mapai who refused an offer by the Mapai central committee yesterday to become secretary-general of the merged parties. “I received my mandate from you and on your dissolution I return my mandate to you,” she said.
The merged party will have three bodies – a 438 member central committee, a 187 member secretariat and a small body to be established next week. The merger of the three party factions in the Knesset (Parliament) and within the World Zionist Organization, will also take place next week. The three parties have already merged in several municipalities, including Jerusalem. Dissident factions of Rafi, opposed to the merger, have seceded and declared themselves “independent.”
Mr. Ben-Gurion did not attend the final meeting of the Rafi central committee. But his election to the secretariat of the new united party was proposed by Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, who, with Mr. Ben-Gurion, was one of the founders of Rafi. The nomination was greeted by applause.
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