A few weeks have elapsed since the stormy incidents took place in the Assefath Ha’nivcharim (Assembly of Representatives) and people are still arguing about who was wrong and who was right. However, this is unimportant. There is no difference whether Ruben has sinned or whether Simon. What does matter is to know just what actually happened and whether what occurred was merely something casual or something revealing a deep wound.
The latter is the case. The fight between the parties in the Assefath Ha’nivcharim is not a mere accident. The relations between the parties and the groups in Palestine have been at variance for quite a long time past and have become more acute among the Lefts and the Revisionists. Day in and day out the newspapers “Dwar” of the Socialist Party and Vladimir Jabotinsky’s “Doar Hayom” conduct acrimonious polemics, thus augmenting the reciprocal hatred. At conferences and meetings, and even at private reunions, the same thing always happens: harsh disputes saturated with hatred. However, the Revisionist-Socialist attitude is only, as it were, the top of the mountain and not the whole mountain itself. It merely serves to show in bolder relief what is going on in the Jewish settlement in general in all its parts. Unfriendly and even hostile relations exist also among the Lefts and the manufacturers and artisans, and then again among the Lefts and the colonists. Even among the Lefts and the teachers and other intellectuals there is a marked absence of friendship. The brutal incident of the Asse### Ha’nivcharim is thus only a natural outcome of these extremely strained relations existing for quite some time past.
Other bourgeois parties react but little to the “class policy” of the His###druth Ha’ovdim (the organization of the workmen) because these bourgeois ### feel that they have no power ### ### ### ###(Continue on Page 4)
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acter, as we witnessed in the Assefath Ha’ nivcharim.
One of the painful problems in Palestine is the condition of our Sephardic brethren and our Oriental brethren in general: Yemenites, Georgians, Kurds. Hardly a day passes that a tale of woe cannot be read in the papers concerning one of these communities. The largest and most intellectual among them is the Sephardic community, which is better organized. The International Sephardic Union is in touch with the Zionist Executive, also with the Vaad Leumi (National Council), and very often obtains something. The other communities, however, are too poorly organized and have no influence whatever, but even the Sephardic are not satisfied and declare that promises have so far not materialized in anything. The Zionist Congress passes resolutions and the Executive in Jerusalem makes promises to satisfy their claims, but in reality nothing is being done and the interests of these communities are steadily neglected.
What is it that our Oriental brothers are clamoring for? It is a shame to confess: nothing but equal rights. They declare that with regard to immigration, colonization, schools and all other necessities, they are treated as step-children. By this they mean they receive less immigration certificates to bring over immigrants; they receive smaller shares when ground is divided among colonists;; fewer schools are opened for their children than for those of the Ashkenazic children; the credit which they get is a small one, and that in general less attention is given to their needs than to the needs of the Ashkenazic colonists.
Unfortunately, it must be acknowledged that there is a large part of truth in these assertions, although very often nobody is to blame for this situation, as life itself leads to such an abnormality. The way to improve the condition is undoubtedly the way pointed our by our Oriental brothers, i.e., representation in the Zionist institutions. At the present time they have practically no representative at all in the Zionist institutions and there is no one to think about them and minister to them in the questions of everyday life. This should be taken into consideration when the Jewish Agency is formed. It is only right, and in fact, essential, that in the Jewish Agency there should be at least one Yemenite who should represent the interests of this clever but unfortunate Jewish tribe.
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