Between the Lines

The system which the Palestinian government has introduced in issuing certificates directly to applicants is a direct slap in the face to the Jewish Agency. It abolishes the monopoly of the Jewish Agency as the only recipient of immigration certificates for Jews.

Though the new provisions published by the Palestine government state that the Jewish Agency will continue to get immigration certificates under the so-called labor schedule, this statement makes it clear, however, that in the future visas for labor hands will be issued by the government directly either to the employed requiring such labor or to the laborer who is to be employed.

WHAT PRICE FAVORITISM?

This innovation is no doubt due to the disagreements which have arisen recently between the Association of Jewish Farmers and the Executive of the Jewish Agency. More than once has the Executive been accused by the farmers, as well by industrialists in Palestine, of utilizing the immigration certificates for party purposes and the resulting importation of immigrants not at all fit for the industrial and agricultural requirements of the Yishub.

This accusation has never been looked into properly by the non-Zionist part of the Jewish Agency which is as responsible for the distribution of certificates as the Zionist section. The distribution of the immigration certificates was left to the so-called “Palestine Amts,” in which the non-Zionists are not represented at all, and which are composed of representatives of Zionist groups only.

A LESSON FOR NON-ZIONISTS

The rebuke to the Jewish Agency by the Palestine government in taking away from it the monopoly on Jewish immigration is, therefore, something which will give the non-Zionists in the Agency food for thought. Their prestige, as the prestige of the Zionists, is equally affected by the mistrust which the Palestine government has just exhibited in removing the Jewish Agency from control of Jewish immigration into Palestine.

Partners in receiving the immigration certificates from the government, the non – Zionists should understand that it is high time for them also to be partners in the distribution of these certificates. The present system of distribution eliminates them from any voice in the matter. They will still be responsible to the Palestine government for the immigration certificates, but they will not even be consulted as to how their distribution is to be conducted.

A SERIOUS BLOW

There is no doubt that if the non-Zionists wielded the influence to which they were entitled in the distribution of the immigration certificates, the Palestine government would not have acted as abruptly as it did. The complaints against the system of distribution of these certificates would not have reached such proportions. There would have been no accusations that the Executive of the Jewish Agency was favoring a certain type of immigrant simply because this type strengthened the position of a definite political group in Palestine.

The change which the Palestine government has just instituted in the system of issuing immigration certificates is a very serious act. Politically it means that the Jewish Agency, as the Jewish representative body, is no longer trusted by the Palestine government. Practically, it means that the strength of the present Executive of the Jewish Agency will be weakened, since the activities of the Executive have been concentrated principally on the task of obtaining the immigration certificates and distributing them.

A WARNING IGNORED

Now that each farmer, each industrialist, each individual Jew in Palestine can apply for an immigration certificate and bring over whomever he wishes, much wind will be taken out of the sails of the Executive of the Jewish Agency. The next labor schedule granted by the Palestine government will certainly not be as large as the last. All the immigration visas issued upon individual applications will be removed by the government from this schedule.

That such a development is possible was known by the members of the Executive of the Jewish Agency long in advance. They were warned about it more than once by Mr. Smiliansky, head of the Farmers Association. They were warned about it by leading Jewish industrialists. It seems, however, that these warnings were not taken seriously. Now the non-Zionists are paying for something on which they were never given a chance to act. The responsibility of the Executive’s losing the sole control over Jewish immigration to Palestine rests equally on the shoulders of the non-Zionists as upon the Zionists.