The plenary session of the World Zionist Congress today voted against the plan that the World Zionist movement be reorganized on a unitary or territorial basis. Under this proposal, Zionist parties in each country would have been permitted to retain their sectarian identity and activities within a larger unit which would include both party members and non-partisans and in which each member of each Zionist party would have to be individually enrolled.
The Congress adopted instead a minority report which stated that “the Congress attaches great significance to the territorial framework in each country which should include all Zionist parties and organizations in order to represent the Zionist movement and implement its common tasks.” The Congress also instructed the World Zionist Executive to work in this direction, but to take into account local conditions in each land. The Congress imposed on the General Zionist Council the obligation “to decide on the practical steps to be taken in order to attain the creation of a territorial framework in each country wherein a Zionist federation does not exist.”
The plenary session of the Congress voted not to abolish the Shekel system under which delegates are elected to the Congress. It decided that the General Zionist Council–the supreme Zionist body between Congresses–be composed of 75 members and that it would meet at least twice yearly. The Revisionists urged that the Council be abolished and suggested the retention of the World Zionist Executive alone, but they were defeated.
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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.
