A Knesset committee has given approval for two new groups, each with seven members, to replace the Democratic Movement for Change (DMC). One group is the Democratic Movement, headed by Deputy Premier Yigael Yadin, and the other is the Movement for Change and Initiative (SHAI), led by Prof. Amnon Rubinstein and Meir Amit. Amit resigned last week as Minister of Transportation and Communications. One of the DMC’s former 15 MKs, Assaf Yaguri, will serve as a one-man faction in the Knesset.
SHAI had its constituent meeting last week with Rubinstein and Amit declaring that the new movement’s motto is: “We shall not repeat the mistakes of the DMC, we shall learn from those mistakes.”
Meanwhile, Yadin’s group is under attack from Likud MK Geula Cohen, who said that since the DMC is no longer in existence, the coalition agreement which Premier Menachem Begin signed with the DMC no longer applies. Cohen, a member of Likud’s Herut wing, charged that the clause giving the DMC the right to vote against the government on the settlement issue was adopted at the insistence of the Rubinstein group, which no longer supports the government. She said Yadin’s group should agree to its deletion.
Yadin rejected her demand. He regards his Democratic Movement as the successor of the DMC and insists that it inherits all the agreements approved by the DMC. ( By Yitzhak Shargil )
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.
