The Mapam Party council, highest policy making body of the left-wing Socialist party, today decided to expel Dr. Moshe Sneh and other leaders of the extremist faction which has set itself up as the “Socialist Workers Party.” The vote was 222 to 21, with nine abstentions. Sneh’s supporters on the council boycotted the meeting.
The council also authorized the party’s steering committee, its administrative body, to expel any member of the party who joins the Sneh group. The motion for expulsion, previously adopted by the steering committee, was presented in the council by Jacob Chazan. Dr. Chanan Rubin, speaking for the opponents of expulsion, told the council that although he disagreed with Dr. Sneh’s anti-Zionist attitude, he did not agree that expulsion was justified.
The members of the Sneh group distributed leaflets explaining their reasons for boycotting the council session and demanding another meeting of that body in six weeks. Meanwhile, Meir Yaari, Hashomer Hatzair leader, attacked Dr. Sneh and his new faction in an article in Al Hamishmar entitled “A Sorrowful Annex.” In it, Mr. Yaari accuses Dr. Sneh of having attempted to disassociate the Mapam from the Zionist movement and predicta that the Sneh group will eventually join with the Communist Party.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.