The Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, today defeated a non-confidence motion submitted by the opposition Herut Party which charged that the Government had repeatedly slighted the Knesset by withholding information on the Soblen case.
The motion, which was rejected by a vote of 58 to 40, arose from the refusal of Transport Minister Israel Bar-Yehuda to disclose to the Knesset Finance Committee details regarding the deportation of Dr. Robert A. Soblen, the American psychiatrist who was convicted in the United States of spying for the Soviet Union.
Mr. Bar-Yehuda’s appearance before the Knesset Finance Committee was in connection with a hearing on his Ministry’s budget, which has consequently not yet been approved by the Committee for the fiscal period which expired last night.
After a heated discussion in the Knesset today, in which the entire opposition supported the Herut motion. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion defended Mr. Bar-Yehuda’s position. The Premier said that the questions put to Mr. Bar-Yehuda about the Soblen affair were not within the competence of the Finance Committee, since the Government had set up a ministerial committee to look into the matter.
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.
