Zionist Executive Favors Horev Report; Jewish Agency Board to Consider New Zionist Congress Date

The World Zionist Organization Executive has decided to support the Horev report under which immigration and absorption in Israel will be concentrated under one authority instead of, as at present, being divided between the Jewish Agency and the Ministry of Absorption.

The decision was carried by a substantial majority at the Executive’s two-day meeting which ended here Friday. It will be discussed by the 53-member Governing Board of the Jewish Agency which will open here tomorrow under the chairmanship of Yosef Almogi.

Almogi told the press Friday that the Executive had empowered him to consult with the various parties in an attempt to fix a new date for the 29th World Zionist Congress. Although the Executive had voted, by 8 to 7 for a congress in the summer of 1977, this was too narrow a majority to be enforced without general consent. Almogi doubted whether the congress would be held next summer and believed that it would only take place after the Israeli general elections next November.

It had also been agreed that elections would also be held by the World Zionist Movement prior to the congress. Almogi told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “I think elections are essential for bringing new young forces into the Zionist movement and we should do all in our power to hold them.” For the first time, too, elections for the Zionist Congress will also be held in Israel.

He disagreed with the view that world-wide Zionist elections were too costly. “If we want the Zionist movement to flourish and to raise the spirit of the Jewish people, of course it costs money,” he said. Almogi expressed personal disappointment that, due to disagreement over the holding of elections, the congress could not be held next January as originally decided. He had been looking forward to a good conference, after which he would have four or five years clear in which to concentrate on practical Zionist work.