The annual meeting of the Zionist General Council will open here Sunday night and continue for the next four days. Its immediate task will be to implement the decisions taken at the international conference on solidarity with Zionism and Israel held in Jerusalem last month, Council chairman Yitzhak Navon said at a press conference yesterday, But most attention will be focussed on the hotly contested race for the chairmanship of the World Zionist Organization Executive.
The two candidates are Leon Dulzin, acting chairman of the WZO since the death of Pincas Sapir last August, and Yosef Almogi, the Mayor of Haifa who is the Labor Party’s choice for the post. Dulzin concedes that the vote will be a close one. Almogi says he is certain of victory. The chairman of the WZO Executive is, by tradition, automatically elected chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive. Whoever wins this week will have to stand for reelection when the World Zionist Congress convenes in Jerusalem next summer.
Navon said the opening session would be addressed by Premier Yitzhak Rabin, Dulzin and Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem. The rest of the sessions will be devoted to Council business and the final one will be a ceremonial celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Jewish National Fund to be addressed by Yaacov Tsur, chairman of the JNF Board, Navon said.
The Zionist General Council is the governing body of the WZO between Zionist Congresses and deals with matters that arise in that interim. It consists of 110 voting members of whom 42 are from Israel and the rest from diaspora countries. There are also 47 members without voting rights.
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