A three-day conference of the Confederation of General Zionists concluded here today after reaching an agreement for joint action with the Progressive Party on a minimum program at the Zionist Actions Committee session which opens in Jerusalem Wednesday.
The program that the joint delegation will sponsor will recommend that no elections be held in the United States in advance of the forthcoming World Zionist Congress, but that an inter-party agreement be reached on the number of delegates each group shall receive. Another point on the joint program is that the Israel delegation shall not receive more than the absolute number of electors to which it would be entitled on the basis of population figures. At previous World Congresses the Israel delegation was given credit for double the number of electors in Palestine.
The General Zionists and Progressives will also demand an end to the system of selling shekels and will recommend replacing it with membership fees in the Zionist organization. Also, they will ask that absorption and settlement functions should not be removed from the World Zionist Organization, but that the Organization continue to discharge these functions in close cooperation with the Israel Government. In addition, they will demand that the World Zionist Organization be accorded a recognized status in Israel.
During the party deliberations on the future of the Zionist organization, its functions and relationships with the Israel Government, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency, advocated that the party back a demand for a special status for the World Zionist Organization rather than a special charter to be issued by the Israel Government. He asked for consolidation of the various Zionist funds into one, with special autonomous status for the Jewish National Fund.
The General Zionist leader threw his support to Labor Premier David Ben Gurion’s position that absorption and colonization must be Israel Government functions, with the burdens being shared by the Agency and the government. He also called for ending of the sale of shekels.
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