By a vote of 41 to 29, the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, last night rejected two motions by Herut deputies to discuss the granting of immunity by the Government to two former Nazi SS officers to enable them to appear as witnesses for the defense of Adolf Eichmann.
Attorney General Gideon Hausner last week told the court trying Eichmann that the Government had approved the granting of immunity to Wilhelm Hoettl and Walter Huppenkothen, both former Gestapo officers, after defense attorney Robert Servatius had requested that they be permitted to appear at the trial. The Herut motion proposed to discuss the Cabinet action in granting immunity.
Socialists, Communists, one representative of the National Religious Party and the deputies representing Agudat Israel, voted in favor of full debate of the issue and, on a second motion, in favor of referring the issue to a committee of the Knesset. Almost 40 members of the 120-member Parliament abstained in the voting.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
