Shamir Accused of Cover-up Involvement

Israeli Communications Minister Amnon Rubinstein said Saturday that he was told by an official of Israel’s internal security service that Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir was involved in a cover-up of the killing of two captured Arab guerrillas.

Shamir, prime minister when the incident occurred after a bus hijacking in 1984, refused to disclose whether he was aware of an alleged attempt by the security service, the Shin Bet, to suppress information on how the terrorists died.

“One (Shin Bet official) contended--and I am a witness to this--that this whole thing was done with the knowledge of the so-called political echelon, namely the then-prime minister,” said Rubinstein, a member of the centrist Shinui Party.

“In October, we are going to hand supervision of the security service back to (Shamir), who has to clear himself of these suspicions,” he told state television. “I am not saying he did it; I am not a judge.”

Power-Sharing Accord

Shamir, leader of the right-wing Likud Bloc, is due to trade jobs with Prime Minister Shimon Peres, head of the centrist Labor Alignment, in October under a power-sharing agreement signed after inconclusive elections in 1984.

Rubinstein’s statement followed the granting of immunity Wednesday to Shin Bet chief Avraham Shalom, who is alleged to have ordered the guerrillas beaten to death and then supervised a subsequent cover-up.

Shalom resigned Wednesday after receiving a presidential immunity from prosecution that has outraged jurists and the left wing. Government leaders had opposed an official investigation, warning that it would damage the top-secret counterterrorism agency, Israel’s equivalent of the FBI.

State radio said two Labor members of the Cabinet, whom it did not identify, have threatened to resign unless the government orders an investigation. Peres called a meeting of Labor ministers Saturday night to discuss the Shin Bet case in advance of today’s weekly Cabinet meeting.

Essential to Democracy

One Labor minister, Deputy Prime Minister Yitzhak Navon, said Saturday that it is essential to Israeli democracy that there be no whitewash of the affair.

“I supported the amnesty, but it is absurd to conclude the pardon puts an end to demands for a commission of inquiry,” said Navon, who is also education minister.

In Jerusalem, an estimated 300 supporters of the left-wing Peace Now movement demonstrated outside Peres’ residence to press for a state inquiry. They held signs reading, “You Are Not Above the Law” and “What Does Shamir Have to Hide?”