The Israeli Government today announced preparations for national elections for members of a Constituent Assembly which must be established by October 1 of this year, according to the terms of the General Assembly partition decision of last November. A committee to prepare for the elections has been appointed, the announcement said, and its members are expected to begin Forking within the next few days.
The presidium of the Zionist Actions Committee, the supreme ruling body of the world Zionist movement between World Zionist Congresses, announced today that the Actions Committee will meet here beginning Aug. 8.
The Ministers of Religion, Finance and Justice, in conjunction with the Jewish National Council, announced today that the Jews of Israel would continue to pay the present Jewish community tax to the Council until January, when the tax will be absorbed into the government’s tax set-up. This will facilitate the gradual handing over of services of the Jewish National Council to the Israeli Government, it was explained.
The names of Israeli ministers to these Latin American countries which have recognized Israel will probably be announced, shortly, a Foreign Office spokesman said today. He added, however, that it has not yet been decided whether a minister will be named for each country or will be assigned to several capitals.
GRUENBAUM CALLS FOR INCLUSION OF JERUSALEM IN ISRAEL
Israel must make every effort to bring the city of Jerusalem within its boundaries, Dr. Isaac Gruenbaum, Israeli Minister of the Interior, declared today in an address here before the first conference of the General Zionist Party of Israel held since proclamation of the Jewish state.
Dr. Gruenbaum, who was in Jerusalem throughout most of the Arab siege of the city, is the first member of the Israeli Government to voice the demand that Jerusalem, which was to have been internationalized under the U.N. partition plan for Palestine, be incorporated in the territory of Israel. The Jewish state, he said, cannot afford to leave Jerusalem in an Arab sea. He charged that the issuance of the second truce order had been hastened because of the danger that Jewish forces would otherwise have captured the entire city.
Dr. Fritz Bernstein, Israeli Minister of Trade and Industry, told the conference that Israel needed a strong economy to insure free enterprise and economic liberty which would attract foreign capital. He said that the Arab states had failed to destroy the email state of Israel because of their weak economic structure.
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