Palestine Pioneers Group Asks for Reopening of Chaluzim Immigration

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The international Palestine pioneer’s organization, He’Chaluz, submitted a memorandum to the Zionist General Council urging the need of reopening Chaluzim immigration to Palestine. The memorandum calls attention to the decision of the Fifteenth Zionist Congress to make possible an immigration of 1500 Chaluzim during the year 5688 and claims that the Zionist Executive elected after the adoption of the resolution to this effect is pledged to carry it into effect. Ten months have passed, the memorandum says, and the Zionist Executive has done nothing to realize this decision of the highest organ of the movement. It would be an unpardonable crime if the bar against immigration in Palestine is to be maintained even when the economic position has improved. The harmful effects of this stoppage of immigration are already beginning to appear. A continuation of this policy will rob the movement of its big reserve of Chaluzim.

There are over 3,000 Chaluzim now waiting in the Diaspora, it proceeds, who have already completed three to five years training for the purpose of immigrating to Palestine. If the bar against immigration is maintained, it must result in a spiritual demoralization among the Chaluzim and also of the Zionist movement which is strengthened by the Chaluzim spirit. We demand, the memorandum says, that the leaders of the Zionist movement should take up this question and we hope that a way will be found to force the Zionist Executive to carry into realization the decision of the Congress, and in view of the improved labor position in Palestine to demand that 3,000 certificates should be placed immediately at its disposal for Chaluzim immigration.

The memorandum further deals with the position of the Chaluzim who are suffering persecution in Russia. The persecution of the Chaluzim in Russia, it says, the forcible suppression of the Chaluzim training farms in the Crimea, the renewed arrests and the sufferings of the exiles in Siberia makes swift action essential. The Zionist movement must once for all throw off the stigma of its indifference to these most loyal of its sons and must make it possible for the hundreds of Chaluzim who are languishing in Russia to immigrate to Palestine. The Soviet Government is prepared to give them their permits to leave the country, and also to reduce their passport fees, and a certain amount of financial assistance may be expected from various institutions. The chief condition now is the issue of the necessary immigration certificates and a grant of fifty per cent of the travel costs from the Zionist Executive. We demand the certificates and financial aid in order to make possible the immediate immigration of 4,000 Chaluzim and prisoners from Russia to Palestine.