Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 64

the endeavours and vital hopes of the Jewish people, and are opposed to> the international obligations of the Mandatory Government as well as contrary to the economic requirements of the country. (2) The Zionist General Council considers it necessary to declare as: follows : — (a) The Palestine Government determines the scope of labour immigration in a manner contrary to the undertakings assumed by the Mandatory Government, and in marked contradiction to the Prime Minister's letter to Dr. Weizmann, without any regard to the present absorptive capacity of the Jewish economic life of Palestine. The Government actually pays ' regard to extra-economic grounds, which are contrary to the: provisions of the Mandate which makes it incumbent upon the Government to facilitate Jewish immigration. The restriction of the scope of immigration leads to a shortage-of labour in Palestine and endangers the development of Jewish agriculture and industry, whose workers, go over to building. The fact that the tourists who have remained in Palestine have found work and that the country is employing in an increasing degree non-Jewish labourers who have come in from other countries, sufficiently proves that the previous extent of immigration did not satisfy the economic possibilities of the country. (b) The delay in dealing with the applications of capitalists for certificates often deprives immigrants of this category, whose right of entry is not subject to any legal restriction, of the possibility of immigration and leads continually to the destruction of their economic position. Despite the express promise of the Government to facilitate the immigration of artisans with a capital of £250, the number of immigrants of this category in the past year was only little over 100, whilst the number of artisans who have applied to the Government for certificates amounts to thousands. The delay in dealing with the applications of residents to Palestine for the grant of certificates to dependent relatives, and the restriction of immigration certificates which makes it impossible for the Jewish Agency to provide a sufficient number of certificates for relatives of a working age, compel the families concerned to expend enormous sums for the maintenance of their relatives abroad. This state of affairs is economically detrimental to the country and quite unjustifiably imposes a burden upon its inhabitants. (c) In consequence of the restriction of the rights of Jewish immigration at a moment that is so critical to our people in the Diaspora, there is growing up in Palestine a lârge class of Jews who are declared as illegal immigrants and are living in fear of expulsion and the destruction of the foundation of their existence. Although, as a matter of fact, only a few dozen of them have been expelled from Palestine there are many thousands who are threatened with expulsion and have no possibility of bringing the members of their families from the Diaspora to join them. The fact that Jews who return to their homeland on the basis of their historic connection with Palestine, and on the basis of the Balfour Declaration and of the Mandate, are looked upon in it as aliens, whilst at the same time many thousands of aliens swarm into Palestine from the neighbouring countries and are allowed to carry on their living here undisturbed, is a great wrong and a violation of the rights of the Jewish people. At the same time the Palestine Government causes difficulty after difficulty for the purpose of impeding the development of the Jewish tourist traffic to Palestine, difficulties which cause great harm to the country and which, on the other hand, also do harm to the Jews who wish to visit Palestine. In addition to the previous difficulties, the Government has lately withdrawn the right of the Palestine Offices to furnish guarantees for tourists that they will return to their homes after their visit to Palestine. 64