New Public Controversy Feared Justice Minister Shapiro Resigns in Aftermath of Legal Fees Dispute

In a move feared likely to spark a new public controversy, Justice Minister Yaacov Shapiro handed a letter of resignation to Premier Golda Meir today and refused to retract it despite efforts by Mrs. Meir to persuade him to do so. Under Israeli law the resignation will become effective in 48 hours unless Shapiro withdraws it. He refused to answer questions from newsmen and said he would give his explanation to the Knesset on Tuesday.

His resignation was a surprise. He had threatened last week to resign if he was forced to back legislation to reduce the level of payments to lawyers appearing before government bodies. The specific issue had been a public protest against the size of fees asked by attorneys who had appeared before the Vitkon committee investigating the Netivei Neft Oil Company. As a result of mediation efforts by Finance Minister Pinchas Sapir, the Government will pay about $40,000 instead of the $118,000 originally billed by the attorneys and authorized by the committee headed by Supreme Court Justice Albert Vitkon. Justice Shapiro’s Ministry had been responsible for establishing the fees for the lawyers but it had been assumed that with the compromise worked out by Sapir, the matter had been settled.

Shapiro handed in his resignation immediately after the Cabinet approved the appointment of Reserve Major Gen. Meir Zorea to head the Israel Lands Authority, an important division of the Agriculture Ministry which controls almost 90 percent of land in Israel. Gen. Zorea had been a member of the 3-man Vitkon committee and the only one to demand the resignation of Netivei Neft General Manager Mordechai Friedman because of irregularities in the company’s administration. Justice Vitkon and industrialist Avraham Kalir had opposed the resignation demand, which had strong public support. Friedman did resign.

Two weeks ago. Gen. Zorea wrote an article in the daily Yediot Achronot, in which he also dissociated himself from the attorneys’ fees approved by the commission. He wrote that the Justice Minister had “trapped him” into believing that such fees were customary and that the guidelines for determining them had been applied in many instances previously. In the article, Gen. Zorea called for Shapiro’s resignation.

When Gen. Zorea’s nomination came up for action in the Cabinet today, one of the Ministers said that a member of a state commission should not afterwards make public statements explaining his decisions. However, it was learned that none of the Cabinet members referred to the substance of the Zorea article and none came to the defense of Shapiro against Zorea’s charges.

It was not clear whether the failure of his Cabinet colleagues to come to his defense was the crucial factor in Shapiro’s decision to resign. After Shapiro left, the Cabinet approved a unanimous resolution to reverse his decision.