The government bill to grant the Jewish Agency a special status passed its first reading today in the Knesset, and was referred to the Parliamentary judiciary committee, which is expected to re-submit the bill for its second reading in about a week.
On this basis, the measure is expected to pass Parliament in its final reading before the opening of the Zionist Actions Committee at the end of this month. The only deputy to vote against the bill today was Communist deputy Meir Wilner.
Concluding the six-hour debate on the bill, Premier David Ben Gurion reviewed the role of the Zionist movement in Jewish history and stressed the changes which have occurred in the movement since the establishment of Israel. “There is no discussion on whether the Zionist movement is needed after the establishment of the state, but a partnership between the Zionist Organization and the State of Israel is not a partner ship of law, but of common vision and of a common ideal,” he said.
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