Pinhas Lavon was ousted today as secretary general of the Histadrut, Israel’s Labor Federation, by a solid vote of the 58 Mapai members who represented a majority on the executive of the Histadrut. Forty-six members representing other parties voted against the ouster and demanded a full vote of confidence in the Histadrut leader.
Mr. Lavon accepted the majority verdict in a lengthy letter which he read to the meeting of the Histadrut executive. The letter contained a dramatic warning of “woe to the public that depends on this or that man”–a reference to David Ben-Gurion, who had demanded Mr. Lavon’s ouster as one of the conditions of his acceptance of a mandate to form a new Government. Mr. Ben-Gurion resigned on January 31 as a protest against a Cabinet vote of approval for a Ministerial Committee report exonerating Mr. Lavon, as Defense Minister in 1954, of responsibility for a security mishap that year.
In his letter of resignation, Mr. Lavon expressed his regret at departing from his post and described in detail the findings of the Ministerial Committee. He stressed that there were “some people who could not agree with my exoneration” in the 1954 mishap, and said that this attitude had resulted in “unnecessary complications” which had an adverse effect on the public and the state.
He said he welcomed renewed appearances of students and intellectuals who, earlier in the struggle between the two Mapai leaders, had warned supporters of Mr. Ben-Gurion that their tactics were a possible threat to democracy in the Jewish State.
After the vote, leaders of the minority parties read statements in support of Mr. Lavon and demanded he remain in office. However, Mr. Lavon said that after the decision against him adopted last Saturday at a meeting of the Mapai central committee, it was clear that he could not continue in office.
Just before the Histadrut executive session started, a group of students tried to enter the Histadrut building with a petition supporting Mr. Lavon. However, they were dispersed by local guards.
The ouster ended one phase of the long-standing Lavon affair but the second phase, that of the Government crisis, remained unsolved with a growing number of Israel’s political parties beginning to think that the only solution was new national elections.
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