Mayor Eliahu Nawi of Beersheba, a veteran Laborite, accused the Labor Party today of following the same course to destruction in the upcoming Histadrut elections as it did in the Knesset elections of May 17. He threatened to resign from the party and no less a figure than Foreign Minister Yigal Allon will meet with him later this week to try to persuade him not to.
Nawi charged that the Labor Party has failed to absorb the lessons of the elections and is resorting to the same techniques that resulted in its downfall. He cited as an example the appointment of the party’s candidates for the Histadrut elections by an appointments committee rather than by internal party balloting. He also alleged that the Labor Party had claimed a fictitious consensus in Beersheba where 10,800 persons supposedly registered as members but only 9200 voted for the Labor Alignment on May 17.
“On the basis of the fictitious consensus, we set up fictitious institutions and a fictitious leadership,” Nawi said. “And now they are quarreling among themselves over spoils that no longer exist. Since this is the case, I see no reason to continue wasting my time in the Labor Party.” He agreed to withhold his letter of resignation until after his meeting with Allon.
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