Efforts to conciliate a growing split within the Mapai party over the controversy surrounding the 1955 resignation of Pinhas Lavon as Minister of Defense marked the second day of a marathon meeting of the Mapai secretariat.
This development was disclosed as Attorney General Gideon Hausner studied a secret report by the Cohen commission which made a new probe of the circumstances surrounding the resignation of Lavon, who is now secretary-general of the Histadrut, Israel’s Labor Federation.
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion ordered the new investigation, when evidence developed that forgeries and perjured testimony might have been involved in a first probe which ended with Lavon’s resignation. Lavon demanded the second investigation as rehabilitation, contending he was forced to resign under conditions which made it impossible for him to defend himself publicly in a dispute involving security issues.
It was indicated that the Attorney General was expected to decide this week on whether there was reason to start criminal proceedings against those charged by Lavon with having given false testimony in the 1955 investigation. The results of that probe also never were made public.
The efforts at conciliation began last night when Finance Minister Levi Eshkol returned from an overseas visit, and began discussions aimed at creating a conciliation commission. He took part in the deliberations of the Mapai secretariat today, pushing his conciliation effort.
During a hot, eight-hour session yesterday, Yosef Almogi, the Mapai secretary, worked strenuously to restrain contending speakers and to maintain the unity of the party.
Speakers talked either for Lavon or for Shimon Peres, who was director general of the Defense Ministry when Lavon was Defense Minister. Peres is now Deputy Defense Minister. The Prime Minister was sharply critical of Lavon’s statements in the renewed controversy. Mr. Ben-Gurion said that, as Defense Minister, he could be censured–but that he would not permit slandering of the Army and its officers, which he alleged Lavon had done.
Peres criticized his fellow party members for not acting to check Lavon’s criticism of him, and he referred repeatedly to the “personality cult” which he said was being developed by Lavon’s supporters in the controversy.
The Prime Minister declared strongly that “truth is more important than the party,” at one point in the debate. He said that the Attorney General would have to decide whether two Army officers alleged to have forged documents. or to have manipulated evidence in the first investigation, should be brought to trial.
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