The Knesset approved tonight by a 40 to 25 vote the appointment of Binyamin Mintz of Poalei Agudat Israel, as Minister of Posts. The 40 supporters of the appointment included Mapai Deputies, the Arab members affiliated with Mapai and the three members of the Poalei Agudat Israel faction.
Twenty-five members of the opposition voted against the measure. They included deputies of Herut General Zionists, Communists and Agudat Israel. Twenty-five coalition members, including Mapam, Achdut Avoda, the Progressives and the National Religious party, abstained on the measure.
The vote was preceded by a heated four-hour debate in which opposition members heaped invective on Mapai’s “unholy alliance” with the ultra-Orthodox faction who “defected from the parent body for a Cabinet portfolio. ” Critics charged that the new members of the coalition had made a secret pact with Mapai whereby they would support the Premier in bid for electoral reform to do away with the country’s proportional representation system in favor of a district representation system.
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