Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 38

obtain certificates direct from the Government. For this purpose the branches of the Betar in the different countries were requested to draw up their lists of candidates and it was declared that if this method of obtaining certificates through employers in Palestine succeeded, it would become possible to render the immigration of members of the Betar in the future independent of the Palestine Offices of the Jewish Agency. 11. When this secret circular became publicly known the Executive wrote in a letter dated November 29th, 1933, to the Committee of the Betar that the intention announced therein must be regarded as a direct attack upon the status of the Jewish Agency as the sole representative of the Jewish people, and requested the Betar to withdraw its circular. The Committee of the Betar replied in two letters dated December 11th and 22nd, 1933, that it did not recognise a monopoly on the part of the Jewish Agency in its present constitution to the regulation of immigration and .the selection of immigrants, and that it would not comply with the request of the Executive. 12. In reply to these letters of the Betar the Executive wrote a further letter dated January 29th, 1934, in which it said : The Jewish Agency is the instrument which embodies the organised will of the Jewish people to construct a Jewish National Home in Palestine and carries out this purpose. The right of the Jewish Agency as laid down in the Immigration Ordinance of the Palestine Government to co-operate in the determination of the Labour Schedule and in the distribution of certificates for labour immigrants is a corollary of its public legal status, and every attempt to weaken this right of the Jewish Agency is to be regarded as an attack upon its status, as an undermining of the Jewish work of reconstruction, and as a blow to our national interests. In view of the negative attitude of the Betar the Executive declared that they found themselves obliged to take steps to protect the Zionist interests against the intended injury, and, in accordance with the resolutions of the 18th Congress, addressed a request to the Attorney of the Congress Court to take proceedings as prescribed in such a case. The Attorney of the Congress Court thereupon submitted to the Chairman of the Court a charge against the Brith Trumpeldor of gross violation of the duty of discipline, and, in accordance with the decisions of the Congress, proposed to the Executive the suspension of the rights which the Brith Trumpeldor possessed within the Zionist Organisation in the sphere of the regulation of immigration. The Executive accepted the proposal of the Attorney of the Congress Court, and on February 22nd, 1934, notified the Betar of the suspension of its rights. 13. The Immigration Department of the Palestine Executive thereupon issued an instruction on March 26th, 1934, to the Palestine Offices that the collective rights of the Betar were suspended until the judgment of the Congress Court was pronounced, but that the right of the members of the Betar to obtain 38