Ouster of Tv Head Sparks Revolt

The managing committee of the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) voted 4-2 today not to renew the term of Arnon Zuckermann, director of national television. His ouster, however, has sparked a revolt by television employes who charged that Zuckermann was not removed for professional reasons but because he refused to follow the Likud party line in the performance of his duties. Four coalition representatives on the managing committee voted against Zuckerman, two of the Labor Alignment voted in his favor and another, representing Likud’s Liberal Party wing, abstained.

While the committee was deliberating, several hundred television employes marched outside of IBA headquarters chanting “independent television” and “free State, free television.” They accused Likud of politicizing the Broadcasting Authority an independent qoast-government agency. Prof. Reuven Yaron, the Likud appointee who heads the IBA, said in an interview yesterday that he would quit in Zuckermann was approved for another term. He said the management committee was acting in accordance with the broadcast law and that IBA employes had no right to dictate its decisions. Education Minister Zevulun Hammer, a leader of the National Religious Party, has demanded on several occasions that Zuckermann be replaced.

Yosef Lapid, another Likud appointee who is director general of the IBA, is expected to take over Zuckermann’s job until a new TV director is named. The television workers committee issued a statement tonight saying that they have lost confidence in the ability of the managing committee to discuss or rule on any issue without political bias. The workers said the managing committee has no right to appoint a new TV director and that anyone so appointed would have no cooperation from the workers.