Mapai Court ‘cancels’ Membership of Ben-gurion, Three Other Leaders

The Mapai Court of Honor handed down a ruling today “canceling” the membership of former Premier David Ben-Gurion and three of his followers for creating an independent list of candidates for the November 3 municipal and Parliamentary elections.

The charge of “self-expulsion” as “party splitters” had originally been made against seven Mapai personalities, but three of them resigned from the party last week. The court decision was directed at Mr. Ben-Gurion, former Deputy Defense Minister Shimon Peres, former Housing Minister Josef Almogi, and Mrs. Hanna Lamdan. The four said last week they were withdrawing from the hearing because they had found it impossible to defend themselves against the party-splitting charge under Court of Honor procedures. The three who resigned were Amos Degani, Gideon Ben-Israel and Yizhar Smilansky.

In announcing the decision, Court Chairman D. Herman did not use the term “expulsion.” The ruling maintained that the four leaders “gave up their membership in Mapai, they themselves left the party and their membership, therefore, is canceled.”

The court also held that it had been proved that Rafi, the Ben-Gurion Israel Workers List, “is a separate political party, and the four defendants are active members of Rafi. They do not accept Mapai’s way. They left Mapai of their own free will and we cannot accept membership of individuals in two parties at the same time.” Dr. Herman expressed regret that the election atmosphere had created “disturbances” during the course of the hearing.

Mr. Ben-Gurion met tonight with Moshe Dayan, who resigned as Agriculture Minister in support of Ben-Gurion’s challenge to Premier Levi Eshkol’s leadership of the party. Gen. Dayan has not, however, joined Rafi. The former Premier reportedly offered the top place on the Rafi list to Mr. Dayan if he would join Rafi.