The Herut party issued an official denial last night of press reports that Premier Levi Eshkol had agreed to the transfer of the remains of the late Zeev Jabotinsky from the United States to Israel.
The statement, issued after several hours of party discussion, stressed that no Herut party official had any discussion on the subject with the Prime Minister. A similar denial was issued by the Premier’s office. It was explained that the Herut party had decided not to raise the long-standing issue of the transfer unless the Government raised the matter on its own initiative.
The Histadrut daily, Davar, meanwhile, for the first time published an article calling for the transfer of Jabotinsky’s remains to Israel. The article, written by one of the paper’s editors, Yehuda Gothelf, declares that the Histadrut attitude toward Jabotinsky may remain as it is but that the State should consider the question in a factual and realistic way and order the transfer of the remains to Israel.
“Jabotinsky has won the right to be buried in Israel irrespective of whether there is a will or not. The transfer of the remains would strengthen the feeling that all parts of the nation are part and parcel of Israel and, therefore, one should not take into consideration any political rift and difference of opinion,” the article declared.
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.
