Avraham Shenker head of the World Zionist Organization’s information department, said today that allegations of leftist tendencies within his department were not the subject of an investigation by a three- man committee set up last week by WZO acting chairman Leon Dulzin.
Shenker, a member of Mapam, who flatly dented the a legations, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the committee was established to examine the conduct of Moshe Gilboa, one of the department’s two deputy directors, after Shenker formally complained in a letter to Dulzin that Gilboa was a disruptive influence.
Shenker’s remarks were prompted by implications that the committees, consisting of Raanan Weitz, Moshe Krone and Ezra Shapiro, was charged with investigating allegations that the in- formation department’s activities abroad were leftist oriented.
MOST SHLICHIM NOT MAPAM MEMBERS
Dulzin himself had implied as much when he stated, after a visit to Argentina last month, that leftist tendencies among Jewish youth there were influencing shlichim (emissaries) from Israel and charged “Mapamization” of the WZO information department, Shenker noted that a majority of shlichim, particularly those from the information department, were not members of Mapam. He said they were selected on the basis of their professional capabilities and include journalists and diplomats.
Shenker stressed that the Gilboa issue was in no way connected with the allegations which he dismissed as unfounded. He told the JTA that he had written to Dulzin that he could no longer accept Gilboa’s employment as one of his department’s two deputy directors because Gilboa disturbed relationships within the department, between the department and other departments and with bodies outside the WZO.
Gilboa, a former member of the Rafi wing of the Labor Party, was appointed deputy director of the information department over Shenker’s objections. The purpose of his appointment, reportedly, was to counter the alleged leftist tendencies in the Zionist information apparatus. The committee has met separately with Shenker and Gilboa and will submit its report to the WZO Executive this week.
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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.
