Mapai to Accept Artisans As Members; Acts on Plea by Ben-gurion

After a stormy debate, the annual convention of the dominant Mapai Party for the first time, threw open its membership rolls to Israelis who are not members of Histadrut, the Federation of Labor. Until now, membership in a trade union affiliated with Histadrut was required of all Mapai Party members.

The new move was adopted only after Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion himself spoke in its favor, as titular leader of the party. Mr. Ben-Gurion pleaded for broadening of party membership to include certain artisans who, while ineligible to Histadrut membership because they are employers, would nevertheless strengthen the party. This “creative group, ” he stressed, “has the right to join the party.”

In another address, the Prime Minister urged again his long-standing insistence upon the amalgamation of all labor parties in Israel. He proposed that the Mapai Central Committee be instructed to draw a basic set of principles for the labor movement, and to submit those principles to every worker in Israel. Those who accept the principles, he proposed, would be summoned to a nationwide “workers unity” convention.

The convention adopted a series of political resolutions calling for support of the government’s efforts for peace in the Middle East area; backing moves for total world disarmament; and supporting Mr, Ben-Gurion’s proposal for total disarmament in the Middle East, backed by international control.

In another resolution, Mapai expressed its “profound disappointment” with the fact that the United Nations and the maritime nations of the world have not yet succeeded in ending United Arab Republic “piracy” through blockade of the Suez Canal. The convention also condemned the anti-Israel boycott by the Arab states.

Jews throughout the world were urged in another Mapai resolution, to intensify emigration to Israel. The hope was expressed that the Soviet Union “would enable any Jew who desires to do so to emigrate to Israel.”