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Pro-soviet Party in Israel Split on Stand Toward Prague Trial

November 26, 1952
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Reports of the proceedings of the Prague trial continue to be major news here and people remain glued to their radios for hours to listen to the testimony of the defendants, which are being broadcast from the Czechoslovak capital, where the press and the radio is engaged in an ever-mounting campaign against Jews and the Jewish State.

The central council of the pro-Soviet Mapam Party here held an all-night session on the stand of the party with regard to the trial. In the early morning hours the council approved an editorial in the Mapam newspaper which rejected Czechoslovak Government charges of espionage against Mordechai Oren, Israel Mapam leader, whose “confession” was introduced as evidence against the 14 defendants at the Prague trial.

The vote on approval was 25 to 9, with Dr. Moshe Sneh and members of his radical group in the minority. This is the first time that representatives of the Hashomer Hatzair faction within the party voted against the Sneh group. The minority had demanded that the party disassociate itself from the editorial in order “not to hamper” the party’s relations with the Soviet bloc of nations.

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