Balloting was underway today throughout Israel in the elections for offices in the Histadrut, Israel’s Labor Federation, after a burst of last minute electioneering by some of Israel’s best vote-getters.
Some 635,000 Histadrut members were eligible to vote. In the last Histadrut elections, 85 percent of the eligible voters cast ballots. The balloting got underway last night when night shift workers voted.
Pinchas Lavon, Histadrut general secretary, made a final appeal for a quiet and orderly election at the 2, 000 polling stations throughout Israel. Prime Minister David Ben Gurion spoke last Friday night at the Haifa stadium. Yesterday morning he spoke at a meeting in Tel Aviv. Former Prime Minister Moshe Sharett and former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Moshe Dayan also addressed meetings as did Mapam Ministers and Knesset deputies at rallies in the major cities.
The Prime Minister, in his speeches, stressed Israel’s goals in the second decade, which he listed as populating the Negev, fostering Israel’s security, providing high educational opportunities for the masses, total integration of newcomers and absorption of another one million immigrants.
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.
