Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 12

minorities, provided only that the solution is one that is perfectly compatible with the character of our Organisation in general. Although the endeavours in this direction have not been fully successful, we are nevertheless able to place on record that mutual relations have become almost normal, that inadmissible methods of conflict have been suppressed, and that a feeling of self-restraint is growing in wide circles of the movement. The most difficult and serious relations have been those with the Revisionists, who finally withdrew from the Zionist Organisation in April of this year and announced their intention of establishing a rival organisation. In the course of the struggle for the unity and solidarity of the Zionist Organisation, extensive circles of the movement have shown a gratifying appreciation of the implications of a political organisation and a mature sense of the quasi-civic responsibility of every member of the Zionist Organisation towards " the State on the way." Not only has the expectation of the Revisionist leaders that their secession would result in a diminution of the number of Shekolim and a decline of interest in the Congress elections not been realised, but in fact the number of Shekel-payers in comparison with that of 1933 has risen by about 300,000, and the Zionist Organisation has become more than ever the all-embracing expression of the will of the Jewish people to rebuild Palestine. It can be said without exaggeration that the last two years have not only witnessed a numerical increase in the membership of our Organisation, but also a notable strengthening of the feeling of solidarity on the part of the constructive forces in the movement. The negative phenomena of inter-party struggle cannot be denied, nor should the strong centrifugal tendencies be overlooked. But we believe that the feeling of cohesion and of the mutual inter-dependence of the various sections of the movement is more vigorous to-day than in previous years, and that an understanding for the problems of organisation and for the need of fundamental reforms has been greatly enhanced. It will be the task of the next working period to further and to develop these tendencies, and to introduce changes in organisation in a manner that will mean simplification in the various countries, whilst allowing autonomy in spiritual and general respects to the various sections so far as that would be compatible with the general aim of the movement. The position of the Zionist Organisation among the Jewish people and especially in the Jewish Agency has become appreciably firmer. The continual growth of the multitudes devoted to the Zionist movement has not failed to make a strong impression upon the other sections of the Jewish people. The stability maintained by the Funds, despite all attacks, and the upward trend in their achievements, as well as the placing of our finances under Zionist leadership upon a sound basis, the consolidation of our old settlements, and the renewal of national enterprise in the field of colonisation, have considerably strengthened the prestige of the I 2