Shimon Peres, who is serving as caretaker Minister of Immigrant Absorption in the new coalition cabinet has been officially assigned additional responsibilities in connection with the occupied territories and Arab refugees.
Mr. Peres, a former deputy minister of defense, will coordinate plans and programs concerning refugees in the occupied territories. He will also coordinate the activities of a special committee on the territories. He special sphere will be new undertakings that involve links between Israel’s economy and that of the occupied regions. He will be responsible directly to the Prime Minister.
Mr. Peres was named to the Cabinet as a minister-without portfolio and was assigned to head the Absorption Ministry on a temporary basis. That post is earmarked for the Mapam faction which is a member of the government but still refuses to join the coalition because of ideological differences with the rightwing Gahal faction.
The Cabinet today confirmed the appointment of Hanoch Givton as director general of the Ministry of Tourism. Mr. Givton was director of Israel’s Broadcasting Services for seven years and more recently headed the information and public relations section of the Israeli delegation to the U.N.
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