A sensational rumor which swept through Zionist circles here last night that six Nazis had been arrested for plotting attacks against the Eighteenth World Zionist Congress which opens here tonight at Lucerno Hall, was officially denied here today by Prague police and by the congress bureau.
The Actions Committee of the World Zionist Congress, which has been in constant session for the past week in an attempt to decide the attitude toward the German-Jewish situation for adoption by the Congress, has been unable to reach a formula on which all fractions of the congress could agree, it was learned today. As a result, each fraction, individually, will make its declaration on the congress floor regarding the Jewish catastrophe in Germany. The Zionist executive thus will not have the responsibility for the declarations. This situation, however, does not alter the plans for presentation to the congress of a project for the removal of 250,000 Jews from Germany.
JEWISH AGENCY COMPOSITION
With all fractions of the Congress in agreement that the proportion of non-Zionists on the executive bodies of the Jewish Agency for Palestine should be reduced from its present fifty percent, the Actions Committee heard a series of speeches to this same end. A recommendation by the Zionist executive to the Actions Committee urged it not to break the agreements on which the Jewish Agency is based but to reach a gentlemen’s agreement to reform the structure of the Agency on a basis of reduction of non-Zionist representation on the Jewish Agency executive. The Actions Committee was considering this today.
If the congress, as at present seems likely, takes some action to reduce the non-Zionist representation on the Agency, it is reported here that the non-Zionist members of the Agency are inclined to leave the Jewish Agency altogether.
The special commission appointed by the Actions Committee at the demand of the Zionist Laborite fraction to investigate activities of the Revisionist, Zionist extremist groups, today was examining into Laborite charges that certain Revisionist leaders advocated the use of terroristic, “strong-arm” methods contrary to Zionist principles.
APPEAL FOR HARMONY
A dramatic appeal for harmony at the congress was made last night by Nahum Sokolow, president of the World Zionist Organization, addressing a session of the conference of General Zionists. He urged the General Zionists to unite to form a mighty centrist group maintaining an equilibrium in the congress between the extreme parties which are now in a heated state of mind.
Referring to the German situation, Dr. Sokolow likened it to the situation in 1897 during the Dreyfuss trial. The conditions resulting from the Hitler program against the Jews are worse than those resulting from the trial of the French Jewish army officer, he said, but both have had the same result, an anti-Semitic wave which has brought back the indifferent Jew to the Jewish nation.
PROTEST AGAINST GERMANY
A demand that the Zionist congress make a vigorous protest against the persecution of the Jews in Germany was made this afternoon by Vladimir Jabotinsky in the course of a speech to his followers at a conference of the Revisionist party. In one of the most powerful addresses thus far delivered in the congress preliminaries, the Revisionist leader exhorted his followers to behave peacefully and to refrain from demonstrations. He also outlined the demands which the Revisionists will make at the Congress on the basis of the party’s program.
REVISIONIST PROGRAM
These are firstly, for a Jewish State in Palestine; secondly, opening of the Transjordan for the Jews; thirdly, opposition to the projected two and a half million pound loan for Palestine; fourthly, opposition to the French Report on the development of Palestine; fifthly, opposition to the establishment of a legislative council in Palestine; sixthly, change in the system of allocation of immigration certificates and immigration generally; seventhly, security of life and property in Palestine; eighthly, liquidation of the Jewish Agency; ninthly, liquidation of class struggle by establishment of public arbitration, and tenthly, enlargement of the Zionist organization and the transformation of the congress into a Jewish national congress by giving election rights to every Jew who recognizes Palestine as the Jewish national home. (Election rights are now restricted to purchasers of “shekels” issued by the World Zionist Organization.)
‘WAR WITH MURDERERS’
A “merciless fight” in connection with the German situation was demanded by the Revisionist leader.
“The present congress is duty-bound to put the Jewish problem in Germany before the entire world,” he declared. “The sentiments of German Jews as well as of German Zionists should not be taken into consideration in this fight. The Jews in Germany are not responsible for the Congress.
“We are conducting a war with murderers,” he asserted. “Not only should we harm our enemies but destroy, destroy, destroy them, not only with the boycott, but politically, supporting all existing forces against them in order to isolate Germany from the civilized world.”
VICTORY IN 1935
Discussing the congress, Jabotinsky declared that Revisionists do not put much hope in it and consequently will not be disappointed with the results. “The congress of 1933 is paving the way for a Revisionist victory in 1935,” he asserted.
He demanded iron discipline of his followers and ordered them to refrain from temperamental outbursts with one exception—on the subject of the arrests in Palestine of Revisionists in connection with the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, Palestine Labor leader.
“This is a matter for the Palestine courts, not for the Zionist Congress,” he declared. “Even if it be proved that I murdered the Chinese king, I must be expelled and sentenced, but not the Jewish State. The congress must not be turned into support for the public prosecutor of Palestine,” he exclaimed.
The Congress court today declared the Jabotinsky Revisionists’ world list invalid and cancelled four of the mandates held by the Revisionists.
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.
