The Central Committee of the dominant Mapai party voted here tonight a resolution calling upon Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and other members of the Cabinet to refrain from resigning.
After a meeting lasting nearly all night, at Mapai’s Educational Center in the village of Kfar Hayarok, north of Tel Aviv, the party leaders also voted two other demands. They called for: 1. The naming of a special committee to probe into all statements made by Pinhas Lavon, ex-Defense Minister and now secretary-general of Histadrut. 2. All members of Mapai to discontinue publication of statements or the voicing of further statements regarding the “Lavon affair.”
The 301 members of the Central Committee, attending the meeting, made it clear that they want neither Prime Minister Ben-Gurion nor any of the other members of the Cabinet to resign. In instructing members to keep from making further public statements, the party leaders obviously meant both Mr. Ben-Gurion and Mr. Lavon.
While Mapai’s Central Commission was in session, the Secretariat of another of the coalition parties, Ahdut Ha’avcdah, also held a caucus here. Yitzhak Ben-Aharon, political secretary of the party, called upon Mr. Ben-Gurion at this meeting to accept the findings of the seven-man Ministerial Committee that had exonerated Mr. Lavon.
Three others of the coalition partners–Mapam, the National Religious party and the Progressive party–have called meetings of their central bodies to be held here tomorrow.
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