The Histadruth Council meeting which was convoked to reconcile the differences of opinions within the ranks of the Palestine labor government, today adopted a compromise resolution covering the instructions to be given the delegation of the Histadruth which is going to London to participate in the International Trade Union Congress in June.
Voting for the resolution were 94 members of the Council, including the delegates of the Palestine Labor Party and the opposition group in the Histadruth. Sixty-seven members abstained from voting. An alternative resolution offered by the Hashoer Hatzair received 34 votes. The Council also voted to call elections for delegates to the Histadruth conference which will elect officers for executive bodies of the Palestine Federation of Labor. The elections are to be held within three months.
The compromise resolution stressed the importance, both for the Zionist movement and for the Palestine labor movement, of the Histadruth appearing at the Trade Union Congress as a united body. It instructs the Histadruth delegates to support at the Congress all political demands of the Zionist movement “in accordance with the decisions of the Zionist Actions Committee of November 10, 1942,” which approved the Biltmore Declaration. Those delegates who disassociate themselves from any of the detailed instructions, will refrain from taking action against them, but will not be obliged to defend them.
The instructions provide for support of the Biltmore Declaration, which asks for the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth for keeping the doors of Palestine open for Jewish immigration under the jurisdiction of the Jewish Agency; and for granting to the Jewish Agency the authority to develop and upbuild Palestine, including the uncultivated and unsettled areas of the country.
The Histadruth delegation is also instructed to demand that Jews be given representation in the future League of Nations; that all countries permit Zionist activity and organization of immigration to Palestine; and that international support be given to efforts to secure an agreement between Jews and Arabs in Palestine on the basis of mutual acknowledgement of their freedom and independence. Other instructions authorise the delegation to ask the Trade Union Congress for urgent efforts to rescue Jews from Nazi Europe, to restore Jewish property and to ensure Jewish rights in all countries of the world.
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