Leon Dulzin, Jewish Agency treasurer, who was here as guest of the United Jewish Appeal for a week and visited several cities on behalf of the UJA campaign, is now in London where he is participating in the meeting of the World Zionist Organization Plenary and the Jewish Agency Board of Governors.
While in New York, Dulzin was interviewed about the recent decision of the Zionist Congress Court which demanded elections all over the world for the Zionist Congress which had been scheduled for next January but which has not been postponed as a result of the Court ruling.
Dulzin, who is also the president of the World Union of General Zionists, expressed the opinion that the Zionist Congress should take place January-February 1978, contrary to the opinion of the chairman of the World Zionist Organization, Yosef Almogi, who, Dulzin noted, is proposing that the congress take place in June, 1977.
Dulzin noted that in view of the fact that elections to the Knesset will take place November, 1977, having a Zionist Congress just several months earlier, during the heat of the election campaign in Israel, would be “most damaging” to the congress. “There would be a great danger that the congress would be used as a platform for all political parties for their election campaigns,” he said, “and the problems of the Zionist movement itself would be shoved into the background.”
Additionally, and not of lesser importance, the Israel representation at the congress, which is almost 40 percent, is being decided by the Knesset elections, Dulzin observed. “It is unthinkable to have the Israel representation delegation decided on the basis of elections of 1973 and not on the elections to the Knesset of 1977,” he said. “That is why it is absolutely illogical and unthinkable to have the congress take place a few months before the elections to the Knesset in Israel.”
Continuing, Dulzin stated; “Furthermore, the very sentence of the decision of the Congress Court is that the Zionist movement must observe its democratic character and that is why elections all over the world are essential. To have a Zionist Congress a few months before the elections in Israel, which is also the basis for the elections to the Zionist Congress, is against the very principles of the Congress Court.”
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