The crisis created in the Zionist Actions Committee last week by the statement of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, that Palestine must become a bi-national state and that the aim of the Zionists was not a Jewish State but the creation of an autonomous commonwealth, was solved to the satisfaction of all groups within the Actions Committee after Dr. Weizmann had appeared before the Actions Committee at its closing session and explained his remarks.
The solution was effected when Dr. Weizmann briefly explained that his words about the Jewish State which he used “in a momentary discussion should not be taken as an age-enduring axiom. I am particularly interested in the activities which we have to carry on now, but I have no intention of limiting the activities of the future.”
URGE COOPERATION WITH ARABS
In the political resolutions adopted by the Actions Committee the creation of a special department in the Palestine Zionist Executive for cooperation with the Arabs was urged and the readiness of the World Zionist Organization to cooperate with Great Britain in the preparation of a constructive program for Palestine was expressed. The Actions Committee also voiced its great satisfaction with the contents of the Mandates Commission’s report on Palestine, characterizing the report as “moral and legal support for the views expressed in the memorandum of the Jewish Agency.”
The optimistic political resolutions voicing the willingness to cooperate with Great Britain declared that “because the British government is going to formulate a constructive program for Palestine after the report of Sir John Simpson is published, the Actions Committee hopes that his program will consider in a friendly manner the memorandum which the Executive of the Jewish Agency submitted, and will on this basis create such a constructive program as will comply in spirit and letter with the Mandate and with the aim of guaranteeing and speeding up the establishment of the Jewish National Home.”
A similar resolution in connection with Arab-Jewish relations recommended that special means be employed by the Palestine Zionist Executive to conduct a policy of understanding with the Arabs. The question of the appointment of Zionist members to the Executive of the Jewish Agency remains open and was left for the Zionist Executive to decide.
WEIZMANN SATISFIES EVERYONE
The explanatory statement of Dr. Weizmann concerning his startling remarks not only satisfied all groups that had been sharply critical of his words and had threatened to quit the Zionist Executive but is seen as putting an end to Dr. Weizmann’s offer to resign as president of the World Zionist Organization, an offer that came in the midst of the criticism against his remarks. His offer to resign had already been rejected by the Actions Committee on Friday morning following which the Committee adjourned until the termination of the Sabbath.
As an indication that Dr. Weizmann’s explanation had ended the crisis the Mizrachi, World Orthodox Zionist Organization, and other groups within the Actions Committee, have withdrawn their threats and resolutions announcing that they could no longer support a Zionist Executive that supported and shared the sentiment expressed by Dr. Weizmann.
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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.
