Yakov Meridor was elected here to another term as chairman of the executive of the right-wing Herut Party after a riotous session of the badly split party’s central committee.
Tension became apparent immediately when the session opened with the expressed intention to choose a new executive. Supporters of Shmuel Tamir, an attorney who has challenged Herut’s current leadership, proposed a non-confidence motion against Dr. Johanan Bader, Herut chairman. The proposal was beaten 56 to 36, A similar vote defeated a proposal by Mr. Tamir to postpone the meeting.
Charges and counter-changes greeted Mr. Tamir’s effort to explain his position about the party’s long-time leadership, including his opposition to Menahem Beigin, who gave up the party leadership this summer. Suddenly supporters of the present leadership threw a handful of nipples of baby bottles at the opposition with shouts of “babies. ” In the uproar that ensued, Mr. Tamir and his followers left while the remaining executive members continued the meeting. Mr. Meridor was instructed to propose a new executive to the central committee.
Mr. Meridor said he would invite some members of the outgoing executive to serve in the new one. He added, however, that a party tribunal would have to clear Mr. Tamir of charges of initiating and backing an allegedly slanderous letter against Mr. Beigin which was the basic cause of the turmoil in the party. Mr. Meridor said that if Mr. Tamir was “miraculously cleared, ” by such a tribunal, he would also be invited.
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.
