A demand for a “greater measure of free enterprise in agriculture” was voiced today by I. Izakson, chairman of the Farmers Federation of Israel, at the opening session of the organization’s two-day general conference, which is being held for the first time in seven years. The Federation represents 40,000 members, while some 300 delegates are attending the convention.
In a message to the parley, Premier David Ben Gurion emphasized that the economic soundness of the Jewish state is dependent on “the solidity of its agriculture.” The Premier added: “Neither sympathy nor the United Nations decision would have secured a country for the Jews, had it not been for the alliance between the soil and labor, created by Jewish farmers.”
Levi Eshkol, Jewish Agency treasurer, reported in an address to the convention that more than 200 new settlements were founded since the proclamation of Israel statehood, as compared with 350 settlements established from the time the settlement movement was launched until Israel was proclaimed.
Haim Halpern, director-general of the Ministry of Agriculture, told the convention that an agreement has been concluded between the Israel Government and the Jewish National Fund for the planting of orange groves in a 150,000-dunam area extending from Zichron Yaacov to Migdal Gad in the very near future.
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.
