In a move unprecedented in the history of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), the highest tribunal of the WZO ordered that the results of the elections for French WZO representatives be nullified. In the wake of that ruling, French delegates will not participate in the World Zionist Congress that is opening in Jerusalem in about two weeks.

The French delegation, the second-largest after the United States delegation, has taken part in every WZO Congress held until now.

The tribunal, headed by former Supreme Court justice Moshe Bejski, made its decision in the wake of serious irregularities in the elections to the WZO in France. In those elections, held on May 21, a list that was headed by the Likud and included representatives from Labor and Meretz won 21 of the 23 delegate seats. The two remaining delegate seats went to the Mizrahi list.

The tribunal's decision to void the election results is seen as a major blow to the prestige of the chairman of the World Likud Movement and Likud France, Jacques Kupfer, whose close associates led the rejected list.

Kupfer's people, termed "the Kahanists" by their rivals, have in the past instigated riots at World Likud conventions in 1997 and 2002. Kupfer's rivals in the WZO yesterday expressed joy that the tribunal had "put an end to the violence and aggression of the Likud people in France."

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