Jewish National Fund Will Seek to Double Its Present Land Holdings, Granovsky

The policy of the Jewish National Fund towards land-acquisition in the light of the establishment of the state of Israel was outlined to today by Dr. Abraham Granovsky, head of the J.N.F., at a conference marking the 47th anniversary of the founding of the official land-purchasing instrumentality of the Zionist movement.

Reviewing the immediate problems of the Fund, Dr. Granovsky emphasized that Israeli military conquests cannot alter ownership of land. “So long as the ownership rights of the Palestine Arabs who abandoned the land are not cancelled by Israel,” he stated, “we must respect the Arabs’ property rights.”

Outlining the J.N.F’s programs, Dr. Granovsky said the Fund will: 1. Purchase all lands suitable for colonization, paying the cost of the land to the Israeli Government which will in turn be responsible for reimbursing the Arabs. 2. Seek to double its present land holdings from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 dunams, for which reason the J.N.F. adopted a record budget of $104,000,000 for the Hebrew year 5709.

Jewish Agency treasurer Dr. Israel. Goldstein, addressing the meeting, announced that the Agency’s colonization department has allocated $29,000,000, of which the Keren Hayesod will contribute $18,000,000 and the Jewish National Fund $11,000,000. Dr. Goldstein said that the Agency’s colonization program includes plans for the establishment of 130 new settlements as well as reconstruction of colonies damaged during the war.

In a message of greetings to the conference, President Chain Weizmann said: “We have as yet redeemed only a small part of Israel’s land and have as yet not reached our entire goal. The tie between the people and its Fund must be even stronger in the future than in the past. Far greater efforts than we ever made before are landed of us so that our great plans for the settlement and absorption of the destitute migrants from the diaspora can be fulfilled in peace. I see the functions of the Jewish National Fund in the present and in the future as being much greater than in the past.”