Rabin resigns over illegal funds

Press, 9 April 1977, Page 1

Rabin resigns over illegal funds

I NZPA-Reuter Tel Aviv The Prime Minister of ! Israel (Mr Yitzhak Rabin) : has thrown his country in- ! to political confusion and ■ cast uncertainty on Middle I East peace moves by ani nouncing his resignation. Mr Rabin, who is 55, said • on television on Thursday : evening that he was resigni ing because of an official investigation into a bank account he and his wife, Leah, held illegally in the United States.

His resignation comes five w'eeks before he was due to lead the Israeli Labour Party into a General Election. It is not clear who wall succeed him as party leader. Mr Rabin said he accepted full responsibility, with his wife, for any infringement of currency laws and had no alternative but to resign.

But he also said that he feared Israel might be losing the Prime Minister best suited to furthering

peace and preventing war in the Middle East.

Mr Rabin held long talks with President. Carter in Washington last month, when both men said they had formed a personal relationship as well as an understanding of each other’s policies.

Mr Rabin’s American trip began a succession of visits by Middle East leaders to Washington to help the Carter Administration to shape its attitude towards Middle East peace talks.

The Rabins’ United States bank account — which Mrs Rabin said contained about SNZ2OOO — was disclosed last month. Israelis are banned from holding foreign currency abroad. Mr Rabin said he was resigning because he had been told his wife might be brought to trial. He said he would not seek parliamentary 7 immunity but would face charges with her if necessary.

Mr Rabin, a former chief of staff and ambassador in Washington, became Prime Minister in June, 1974. on

the resignation of Mrs Golda Meir. He now heads a caretaker Cabinet which must

by law stay in office until the General Election on May 17. But he may be able to take leave of absence and- thus effectively retire from his post. The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Yigal Allon), who is also Foreign Minister, saw Mr Rabin early yesterday and said he was told the decision to resign was final. Mr Allon also said he had been approached by several top personalities—whom he did not identify—to stand for the Labour Party leadership. Another candidate will presumably be the Defence Minister (Mr Shimon Peres), who only narrowly lost a leadership election against Mr Rabin last month. The existence of the bank account was revealed by an Israeli reporter in Washington, who learned that Mrs Rabin has visited a bank there while her husband was with President Carter. The reporter. Dan Mar-

galit, of the “Daily Haaretz” went to the bank and made a deposit on her account to verify that it existed. Then he published his story, which made headlines in Israel. Mrs Rabin said the account had been opened while her husband was Israel’s Ambassador to the United States betwen 1968 and 1973. It had been left active to pay off debts after the Rabins returned to Israel. —

She said she had not known that the account was illegal. She closed it and gave the money to a fund for children.. Meanwhile, the Israeli Treasury launched a routine investigation and discovered from documents supplied by Mr Rabin that the account contained far more than $2OOO. Mr Rabin offered to pay a fine but the AttorneyGeneral (Mr Aharon Barak) ruled the matter

was too serious to pass without legal proceedings.

One of the leaders of the Likud Right-wing Opposition. Mr Simma Erlich, said the resignation was “a final and compelling proof of corruption through the country as a result of extended Labour leadership.” Although Mr Rabin himself was not a prime target, his resignation came amid increasing public anger at evidence of bribery and corruption in high places Up to a dozen members of the top Israeli establishment have been convicted on corruption charges, including Mr Asher Yadlin, Governor-designate of the Bank of Israel, who was given a five-year jail term in February for bribery and tax evasion.

The Housing Minister, (Mr Abraham Ofer). a leading supporter of Mr Rabin, committed suicide three months ago after being accused in the press of misusing public funds