Last update - 00:00 13/01/2008
Bereaved families' group: Kadima whip bars us from party meeting
By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondent
The Forum of the Bereaved Families of the Second Lebanon War have accused Kadima faction whip MK Eli Aflalo of barring them from a party meeting in order to prevent them from vocalizing criticism of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is expected to be implicated in the publication of the Winograd Committee war report, set to be released on January 30.
David Einhorn, whose son Yonatan was killed in the war, spoke to Aflalo last week and asked him to let people who lost their relatives in the war speak at Monday's Kadima meeting, as they did at Labor, Likud, Meretz and Shas party meetings.
Einhorn said Aflalo had made it clear their request would not be approved before the publication of the report, telling him "I know what your motives are."
The forum is one of a myriad of groups that call on Olmert to resign over the failures of the Second Lebanon War.
The forum members have decided in turn to come to the Knesset building on Monday, and wait for Olmert outside the meeting room. Before coming to the Knesset the forum members will meet Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv.
"The report is going to be harsh and the Kadima faction is trying to protect Olmert and the other ministers who brought this disaster upon us, and they are unwilling to listen to us," Einhorn said. "I was ashamed to hear that all Aflalo had to suggest was that we write a letter. Until now I believed the prime minister has loose morals, but now it turns out the people around him are the same. They don't understand what it is like to send your son to war and never see him return," he added.
In response, Aflalo said that "the Einhorn, Muscal and Zemach families have already held lengthy meetings with Kadima MKs around the publication of the interim report, during which they were given the opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings. They were told that such meetings would be held again if they wished after the publication of the final report."
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