Zgc: Zionism is Jewish National Liberation Struggle; Part of General Liberation Movement

The definition of Zionism as the national liberation movement of the Jewish people and part of the world-wide struggle for the liberation of mankind in general, has been adopted by the Zionist General Council’s permanent committee here. According to Deputy Education Minister Aharon Yadlin, chairman of the committee, the broader definition of Zionism represents the thinking of student and youth groups which make up 50 percent of the permanent committee’s membership. The question of ideology was tackled at the committee’s meeting last week. The reconstituted Zionist Council will hold its second plenary session here beginning tomorrow. It hopes to avoid the polemics of its first session last year at which Zionist youth representatives created a furore by threatening a boycott unless they were given a role in the decision-making process. Some of the youngsters branded the movement obsolete and its leadership outmoded.

The decision to divide the permanent committee’s membership evenly between the youth groups and their elders was an acknowledgement that the absence of a strong youth contingent would defeat the main purpose of the Zionist Council which is to link Israel and diaspora Jewry. The committee itself was established by decision of the last World Zionist Congress. It is composed of representatives of 90 organizations in Israel and claims to speak for 90 percent of the population. The basic principles of the Zionist movement were laid down at the committee meeting. They were defined as the unity of the Jewish people; the State of Israel as a center for the entire Jewish people and the “ingathering of the nation’s exiles.” Zionist terminology for the migration of Jews to Israel.