December 30, 1990
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir dismisses Science Minister Ezer Weizman from the Israeli Cabinet for making contact with the Palestine Liberation Organization. Shamir’s move threatens to destabilize the unity government because the Labor Party stands behind party member Weizman and questions the legality of his dismissal.
Announcing his decision at a weekly Cabinet meeting, Shamir accuses Weizman of meeting with a senior PLO member in Europe in 1989 and of corresponding with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat through an intermediary.
Shimon Peres, then the finance minister and the Labor Party leader, says that although the prime minister legally may fire any Cabinet minister, the coalition agreement between Labor and Likud states that the prime minister will not tamper with Labor Cabinet appointments.
Shamir responds that he understands the agreement, but the law empowering the prime minister to fire any minister supersedes the coalition agreement.
Weizman is an outward opponent of Shamir’s tortuously slow method of orchestrating a peace deal with the Palestinians. Though Weizman refuses to give details about the meetings and communications, Israeli Army Radio reports that he met with PLO veteran Nabil Ramlawi in Geneva, mediated by Egyptian officials Weizman met during the 1978 Camp David negotiations.
