The Mapai Party Court of Honor, which is hearing arguments for expelling Former Premier David Ben-Gurion and six of his followers for forming an independent Workers List for the November Parliamentary elections, decided today to summon the former Prime Minister and two of his followers to testify.
At Shapiro, the attorney representing the Mapai Secretariat, said, “I want them here to tell us what Rafi (the Ben-Gurion Israel Workers List) is, why they are against the party, and why they defame it.” He added that he would prove that Rafi actually was a separate party.
Micha Kaspi, representing Rafi, said that the former Premier did not have to appear before the prosecution ended its presentation. The court agreed to call Mr. Ben-Gurion, and two of his Rafi supporters, Yizhar Smilansky and Hanna Lamdan, to the next meeting of the tribunal tomorrow.
At the third session yesterday, the court overruled a series of objections raised by Rafi advocates concerning the competence of the court and its composition. Shimon Peres, who resigned as Deputy Defense Minister earlier this year to back Mr. Ben-Gurion’s challenge to Premier Eshkol’s leadership of the party and the nation, had contended at the first session that two of the five Court of Honor judges were not impartial.
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