Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is to serve as acting defense minister, for the first time since an Israeli commission of inquiry found him unfit to hold the position twenty years ago, after the Sabra and Shatilla massacres in south Lebanon, reported Haaretz newspaper.
Sharon assumed the post after Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer left for France on Thursday to attend the Paris air show in Le Bourget.
This is the first time Sharon has been directly in charge of the defense ministry since his resignation following the findings of the Kahan Commission, which investigated the 1982 massacres at the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Chatilla by Phalangist militia during the Israeli siege of Beirut.
Officials from Sharon’s office said that this transfer of authority was standard procedure, and that Sharon always received security establishment reports and intelligence forecasts at his bureau. During Ben-Eliezer's absence, Sharon will manage the ministry from his office in occupied Jerusalem, said the paper.
Arab Israeli MK Ahmed Tibi demanded that the government's legal adviser order Sharon not to serve as acting Defense Minister, as the Kahan Commission disqualified him from holding the post two decades ago, according to the paper - Albawaba.com
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