The olive branch was extended to the Revisionist Zionists, secessionists from the World Zionist Organization, on the floor of the World Zionist Congress today by Berl Locker, head of the organization department of the Zionist Executive.
“The door is still open for the Revisionists, ” Mr. Locker declared, pointing out that the fact the Revisionists have left the Zionist organization means “a moral crisis in the ranks of the Zionist movement.” Mr. Locker added that he himself could not be indifferent to this fact.
Mr. Locker, however, defended the change in the text of the Zionist shekel, purchase of which entitles holders to vote in the election of delegates to the congress. It was the change in the shekel text which caused the Revisionists to secede and to start a movement for an independent Zionist organization. The revised shekel included a portion specifying the following:
“Membership of the Zionist Organization presupposes subordination to its laws and to the resolutions of its bodies. In all Zionist questions the duty of discipline in regard to the Zionist Organization must take precedence over the duty of discipline in regard to any other organization.”
While defending the revision which caused the split in the movement, Mr. Locker at the same time warned other groups in Zionism “not to stand one foot within the Zionist Organization and the other outside of it.”
Mr. Locker emphasized that the congress must adopt the organization plan advocated by David Ben-Gurion, Palestine labor leader, which would definitely lead, he said, to a unified, well-disciplined Zionist movement.
Isaac Gruenbaum, head of the immigration department of the Jewish Agency, declared that complaints of those unable to obtain immigration certificates to Palestine are justified. He said, however, that the Zionist Executive cannot satisfy all applicants under the present circumstances.
Mr. Gruenbaum stated that of the number of certificates received fifty percent must go to the chalutzim (Palestine pioneers) while the remainder is for other working elements, preferably artisans.
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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.
