A new platform stressing the Mapam’s independence of foreign labor and Socialist movements and underscoring its national mission is slated for approval from the left-wing party’s third national conference opens in Haifa tomorrow under the shadow of the latest government crisis.
The party suffered a number of reverses in the past few years, resulting chiefly from the implications of foreign developments notably the “doctor’s plot” in Moscow and the arrest and subsequent release of Mordecai Oren by the Czehofliovak Communist regime. In 1953 a group led by Dr. Moshe Sneh split leftwards to the Communists, while in 1954 a minority of the Mapam split away to the right and re-formed the Achdut Avoda Party.
Nathan Peled, the party’s political secretary, told a press conference today that though the party endorses the ideals of the Soviet Union and other Socialist republics it maintains its freedom to criticize what is going on the USSR as well as Soviet foreign policy. “Even as Socialists, ” he said, “we regard with gravity Russia’s Middle Eastern policy and its anti-Israel attitude. ” Mapam, he continued, demands the right of self-determination for the Jewish minority in the USSR and permission for Jews to emigrate.
As a result of the government crisis it is expected that considerable attention will be paid by the Mapam parley to Israel’s foreign policy and the Mapam position, which includes opposition to any Israeli link with NATO or any other world bloc. It holds such ties would endanger Israel’s mission of ingathering of exiles and building up of the country.
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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.
