The immediate purpose of Zionism is to create a Jewish majority in Palestine as the only sure way of preserving the tangibility of the Jewish nation, declared Vladimir Jabotnisky, leader of the League of Zionist Revisionists, at a Zionist meeting in the Capetown City Hall. “The Germans in the Baltic countries and the Greeks in Turkey proved that a minority race may be submerged or evicted,” Jabotinsky declared.
Outlining his program for a Jewish state in Palestine, Jabotinsky said: “A large state, supported by immigration, agrarian reform, the setting aside of uncultivated lands as a state reserve for colonization, a tariff policy of promoting local industry and taxation to encourage the new settler are necessary for Palestine as are Jewish units in the police and military garrisons.”
He attacked the personnel of the British administration and the attitude of the Zionists in tolerating the Palestine administration. “Only the British administration and not the Jewish community or Jewry as a whole is responsible for the failure. Under a favorable political regime, $50,000,000 is a sufficient dowry for 100,000 immigrants. Unless the Zionists explain to British public opinion that the present Palestine government is incompatible with the letter and spirit of the Mandate, no improvement is possible.”
Mr. Jabotinsky then termed the present Zionist leadership “unqualified to bring the truth home to the British, for it always proclaimed its position satisfactory and said it was constantly improving. It is evident that leaders guilty of such lack of foresight cannot denounce the regime they defended.”
He charged Zionist officialdom with being “weak and apologetic before the Inquiry Commission instead of unmasking administrative sins.”
Concluding with an expression of faith in the British collective conscience despite “the ghastly failure of an inept and iniquitous beaurocracy that is dishonoring the fair name of British administration,” Mr. Jabotinsky declared that “confidence in the Zionist Executive is lessened and what is needed now is a drastic change in Zionist policy which implies a change in leadership.”
Jabotinsky making a striking impression at a number of earlier meetings, indicated that he came to South Africa to disturb the quiet of South African Jews and to urge them not only to give money but also advice regarding changes in Zionist policy.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
