Knesset Elects Navon As Israel’s Fifth President

The Knesset today elected veteran Laborite Yitzhak Navon as Israel’s fifth President, thus giving Israel its first Sephardi President. He will succeed Ephraim Katzir, whose four-year term expires next month. Katzir declined to stand for re-election for personal reasons.

Navon was the only candidate for the prestigious but largely ceremonial office. Himself a longtime member of the Knesset and chairman of its powerful Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, he received the votes of 86 of the 109 MKs present at today’s Knesset session. Twenty blank ballots were cast, presumably in protest by disgruntled members of Likud’s Liberal Party wing and a few others who had favored Liberal Party leader Elimelech Rimalt. Rimalt withdrew his candidacy last month.

Nevertheless, Navon, 57, a one-time school teacher and former political secretary to the late Premier David Ben Gurion. was elected by the larg

Although the outcome of the elections was a foregone conclusion, Navon waited at his brother’s home for the results. He heard them from Labor Alignment chairman Shimon Peres who came to the house with a delegation of Labor MKs. “We have something to tell you,” said the smiling Peres.

LONG-TIME INVOLVEMENT

Navon was born in Jerusalem in 1921 and studied Hebrew literature, pedagogy and Moslem culture at the Hebrew

He served as director of the Education Ministry’s culture division until his election to the Knesset in 1965. He was by then active in the newly formed Rafi faction which consisted of Ben Gurion loyalists who broke away from Mapai. He became that faction’s leading “dove,” a political stance for removed from the majority of his Rafi colleagues.

Navon sought the Presidency five years ago but was rejected by the Labor Party leadership in favor of Katzir, a non-political scientist with a world-wide reputation in the field of bio-chemistry. When Katzir announced that he would not seek a second term, Navon announced his candidacy again.

But with Likud in power, a Laborite appeared to have little chance. The picture changed when Premier Menachem Begin personally selected an obscure nuclear scientist, Dr. Yitzhak Shaveh, to succeed Katzir. This aroused the ire of the Liberal Party which favored Rimalt and, to avoid a political battle within Likud, Shaveh stepped down. When

Israel’s President-elect is married and is the father of two children, aged 3 and 5. Navon, who is a member of the old Jerusalem Sephardi community, depicted that community in his popular Hebrew play “A Spanish Garden.” He is a member of the advisory board in Israel of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.