David Ben-Gurion, veteran Palestine labor leader and influential member of the Zionist Executive, today accused the British Government of having “committed robbery” against the Jewish people by artificially cutting the immigration quota of Jews into Palestine.
In an address at this morning’s session of the 19th biennial World Zionist Congress, he declared that “despite the sympathetic interest of the Palestine high commissioner, the Mandatory Power has robbed us nevertheless in these difficult years of oppression for world Jewry of justified immigration possibilities and of thousands of Jewish laborers who might have been employed on public works.”
Later in the day, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, former president of the World Zionist Organization who retired from active leadership at the 1931 Congress, was elected congress president after the first clash of the Congress had broken out.
In the hall of the Congress and Arts Palace crowded with delegates, newspapermen and guests, Rabbi Brod of the Mizrachi faction declared following Dr. Weizmann’s nomination that Mizrachi would not participate in the praesidium, in the Congress committees or in the general debate because the outgoing Zionist executive did not keep its agreement with Mizrachi concerning enforcement of religious observance in Palestine.
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.
