A new and explosive element was introduced today in the bitter dispute between Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Histadrut secretary-general Pinhas Lavon when a high army officer involved in the situation was ordered dismissed from service by Mr. Ben-Gurion in his capacity as Minister of Defense. The dismissed officer immediately announced that he would fight to clear his name.
The officer, identified only by the letter “Y” in his last name, is the senior officer accused by a seven-man Ministerial committee of having forged a document purporting to prove that Mr. Lavon, as Israel Defense Minister in 1954, gave the order which led to a disastrous security mishap and to Mr. Lavon’s forced ouster from the Ministry in 1955.
In a rapid-fire sequence of events during the past 24 hours, Attorney General Gideon Hausner notified Mr. Ben-Gurion that the evidence was insufficient to prosecute the former senior army officer; Mr, Ben-Gurion as Defense Minister instructed the Israel Chief of Staff to release the officer from active service; and the former officer, through his Haifa
attorney, said that as a civilian. He considered himself free “to choose ways to prove my claim that I am not guilty.”
It was recalled that a committee headed by Justice Haim Cohen, which investigated the 1954 security mishap last year, charged that the senior officer induced another officer to give false testimony in a prior investigation of the mishap. Following the submission of the Cohen commission report in October, 1960, the senior army officer was suspended. At that time, the officer asked that a special investigation committee be set up to clear him but he withdrew the request.
The former officer also said, in his statement today, that it was not surprising that the Attorney General had found there was insufficient evidence of a forgery or of distribution of forged documents. He said he had always claimed he had not committed any forgery.
It was indicated that his former secretary, when interrogated by Attorney General Hausner in Paris last year, testified she forged a letter at the instruction of the army officer.- However, it was reported, she retracted that statement when she was brought face-to-face with the officer in Israel and could not point out what forgery had been done in the letter. The secretary was to return today to her post in Paris.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
