A report of the World Zionist Executive and the Palestine political situation will form the central topics of discussion at the session of the Zionist General Council opening here next week, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency learned today. The Council is the supreme Zionist authoritative body between biennial Congress sessions.
Changes in the Palestine situation since the August, 1937, Zionist Congress in Zurich, Switzerland, will be fully considered. The Executive’s report is expected to deal largely with vacillations in British policy in the past six months resulting from strong propaganda against the proposed Palestine partition conducted by pro-Arab groups, non-Zionist Jews and opposition groups in the Zionist movement.
The report will also deal with repercussions of the international situation affecting Palestine, particularly Anglo-Italian relations in the Mediterranean and Italian anti-British propaganda in the Near East.
While it is not expected that the general partition question will be opened, the question of the World Zionist Organization’s relations with the Palestine Partition Commission will be thoroughly examined. The General Council is expected to instruct the Zionist Executive to cooperate fully with the commission, and also to demand the best possible boundaries for the proposed Jewish State as well as complete sovereignty.
Immigration is also one of the principal issues. The Council is likely to adopt a resolution demanding that the British Government abandon the “political high level” principle of Palestine immigration and return to the principle of economic absorptive capacity before the new immigration schedule is adopted at the end of March.
The J.T.A. understands that Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Zionist Organization, and David Ben Gurion, head of its Jerusalem Executive, are now negotiating regarding immigration.
Practically all of the members of the Council are expected to attend the session. Polish members will arrive Monday. The Palestinian delegation, including Menachem Mendel Ussishkin, chairman, is expected Monday evening. The session will probably not begin until Wednesday to enable the Palestinian members to participate.
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