After a sharp internal fight, the centrist General Zionists closed their annual convention yesterday with a decision to put off indefinitely the issue of merger with the right wing Herut party. The merger issue was disposed of by a secret ballot vote to turn the problem over to a special committee which suggested that the party’s “new executive could study the possibilities and conditions for such merger”
Another dispute, this one involving organizational differences between two factions, was settled by a compromise. The groups were the Popular faction, headed by Joseph Saphir and Joseph Serlin, which had a heavy majority in the convention of 600 delegates, and the Union faction headed by Peretz Bernstein and Israel Rokach.
The compromise substituted for the single party chairmanship a chairman and an executive chairman. The compromise, however, gave veto power to the chairman. A third group, the Union faction, rejected the compromise because the convention had bypassed a vote on merger with Herut, the primary objective of the Union faction. Mr. Bernstein was elected chairman and Mr. Saphir was named chairman of the executive
The delegates approved a resolution to contact all elements favoring national centralization and free initiative for Israel’s economic life with the goal of coordinating such elements. Another resolution criticized Prime Minister David Ben Gurion for “belittling Zionist organizations. The delegates also urged lower taxation among a number of economic demands.
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.
