Testimony revealed in the magistrate’s court at Jaffa, Palestine, Friday, alleging that Revisionist extremists had contemplated recourse to murder, overshadowed all other issues here as the Eighteenth World Zionist Congress entered its second week of deliberations with a determined drive on the part of Zionist Laboritcs to have the Revisionists, who form the extreme right-wing of the Zionist movement, expelled from the World Zionist Organization.
The testimony was brought out in the preliminary hearing of the case of three Revisionists, Aba Achimeir, Abraham Stavsky and Zvi Rosenblatt, who are accused of the murder, on the night of June 16, of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, head of the political department of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and one of the leaders of the Zionist labor movement.
In view of Rosenblatt’s reported confession, and extracts purportedly from a diary kept by Achimeir that his group contemplated murder, the telegraph and telephone systems between Prague and Palestine were kept busy all day today as leaders of all factions at the congress sought to establish further details in the case.
PRESIDIUM IN SECRET SESSION
The congress presidium held a secret session today with the special commission of inquiry appointed by the Zionist Actions Committee to investigate Laborite charges against the Revisionists. The Revisionists, who first announced their non-confidence in the commission and their refusal to appear before it, later announced they would do so only as individuals, not as representatives of the party, and then reversed their-stand again and refused to do even this as it might denote their recognition of the commission. The commission, it is known, wishes to question only the Palestine Revisionists who are now at Prague for the congress.
A cable from Achimeir’s attorney in Palestine, stating on behalf of the defendant that the remarks read to the court as extracts from his diary were, in reality, just notes on gossip and comment in Palestine taken down after the murder of Dr. Arlosoroff, was submitted to the investigating body.
The underlying tension of the congress over the Arlosoroff case was heightened early today when, just before dawn, Dr. Leo Motzkin, president of the congress, interrupted the long drawn-out session for a consultation of the presidium as to whether to admit a declaration by Berl Katzenelson, Palestine Labor leader, on developments in the hearing of the three men accused of the murder.
DELAY UNTIL MONDAY
After deliberation, he announced that the declaration would be postponed until tonight (Sunday) while the presidium obtained authoritative information from Palestine. It was later announced that tonight’s session would be put over until Monday, with today being given over to special sessions of the presidium and the various congress commissions.
Should Katzenelson’s declaration be read to the congress, it is expected that Vladimir Jabotinsky, leader of the Revisionists and one of the most powerful orators in Zionist ranks, will reply.
It was learned today that the Democratic Revisionists, a faction of the Revisionist Party headed by Meer Grossman, had abandoned the Revisionist title and would henceforth be known as the Jewish State Party. Establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine is the chief Revisionist goal.
A recommendation that a special investigating body be sent to Palestine immediately after the adjournment of the congress to examine charges against a certain Revisionist organization was made to the Actions Committee tonight by the commission of inquiry appointed to hear charges preferred by the Laborites against the Revisionists.
The commission reported that no proof had been presented to it establishing any connection between the suspected group in Palestine and the World Revisionist executive body.
SUBJECT OF DEBATE
Whether the proposed investigating body should be appointed by the Actions Committee or elected by the full congress, was the subject of heated debate at the Actions Committee session which was expected to last throughout the entire night.
Professor Selig Brodetzky, of Leeds, England, delivering the first half of the report of the political commission, severely attacked the Revisionists, accusing them of acts harmful to Zionist policy. He expressed himself as pessimistic over
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.
