The full text of the government-sponsored bill giving the Jewish Agency an official legal status in Israel was released here today. It reads:
1. The State of Israel, which represents only its inhabitants, sees itself as the creation of the entire Jewish nation and its gates are open to every Jew desiring to come to it.
2. The World Zionist Organization, from its inception to its jubilee, headed the Jewish nation’s movement to return to its homeland and with the assistance of other Jewish organizations and circles bore the central responsibility for the establishment of the State of Israel.
3. The World Zionist Organization, serving also under the title of the Jewish Agency for Israel, cares–as previously–for immigration and supervises absorption enterprises and colonization in the state.
4. The State of Israel recognizes the World Zionist Organization as the agency authorized to continue work in Israel for the development of the country, to colonize it, absorb immigrants from dispersion and coordinate the activities within Israel of those institutions and organizations working in these fields.
5. The mission of the “Ingathering of the Exiles,” which is among the central tasks of Israel and the Zionist Organization in our time requires the constant efforts of the Jewish nation in the dispersion. Therefore, the State of Israel expects the participation of all Jews–private individuals and organizations–in the upbuilding of the state, and assistance for mass immigration to Israel, and sees the necessity of uniting all Jewish communities for this purpose.
6. The State of Israel expects the World Zionist Organization to try to achieve this unity whether by widening the Jewish Agency’s framework to include Jewish institutions and organizations ready to participate in aid for immigration and the upbuilding of the country and take upon itself the duties emanating from this participation, or in any other form; if such an enlarged Jewish Agency is established it will, with the government’s consent, enjoy the same status that will be given in Israel to the World Zionist Organization.
7. The details of the status and conditions of work of the World Zionist Organization, whose representative in Israel is the Zionist executive, also called the Jewish Agency–with its seat in Jerusalem–shall be fixed in a pact to be signed between the Israel Government and the Zionist executive.
8. The pact shall be based on the declaration of the 23rd Zionist Congress in Jerusalem which says: “The Congress declares that the practical work of the World Zionist Organization and its organs is to fulfill its historical tasks in Palestine and requests cooperation and coordination from the State of Israel and its government according to the laws of the state.”
9. A coordinating committee shall be established on the basis of the pact to coordinate work between the government and the Agency in the fields where the Agency works.
10. The pact, as well as any change or amendment which will take place by mutual consent of both parties, shall be published in the Official Gazette and shall be lawful from date of publication, unless some earlier or later date is agreed upon.
11. The Agency is legally entitled to sign contracts, acquire property, hold this property and dispose of it, and be a party in any judicial negotiations.
12. The Agency and its funds and other institutions shall be freed from taxes and other compulsory payments which are usually imposed in behalf of the government in such measure and conditions as shall be fixed by the pact.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
