Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 463

co-operation. The Political Department of the Jewish Agency, together with the Executive of the Vaad Leumi, took the initiative in preparing the ground for this collaboration of Jews and Arabs on the Council. The. first results of the strengthening of the Jewish position on the Council may already be seen in the allocation of municipal contracts to Jewish labour and in the new programme of road building in which the needs of the Jewish quarters have been taken into account. 8. The Political Department of the Jewish Agency kept in touch with municipal developments in Haifa, where the election has increased the Jewish representation on the Municipal Council from one-fifth to one-third and the appointment of a Jew as Vice-Mayor of the city was secured. 9. The question of the municipal future of the new area of Jewish urban development in the Haifa Bay (Emek Zebulun) became one of urgent importance during the period under review. The Executive convened a number of consultations at which the land-owning companies, the housing and industrial interests connected with the area, representatives of urban settlements already established, as well as the Jewish communal authorities of Haifa were represented. An agreed policy was fixed aiming at the development of a self-contained Jewish municipal unit in the Haifa Bay area. 10. The question of the municipal status of Petach-Tikvah engaged for some time the attention of the Executive. A question of principle was here involved. Petach Tikvah is the first rural Jewish centre about to be raised to the position of a municipality. It will thus be the second Jewish Municipality in Palestine, Tel- Aviv being the first. When special electoral provisions were incorporated in the Municipal Corporations' Ordinance for the Municipality of Tel-Aviv as distinct from all the other cities, this was naturally taken to constitute in some measure a precedent for all future Jewish municipalities. It was regarded as an important departure in municipal legislation, opening up the prospect of the evolution of more progressive tendencies of municipal government in centres of Jewish settlement. When, however, the question of the future constitution of Petach Tikvah arose, the Local Council decided by a majority vote to insist on a rate-paying qualification of £1—similar to that which is in force in the Arab and mixed towns. The adoption of this recommendation by the Government would have meant not only the disfranchisement of a large body of former voters—since the rate-paying qualification for the Local Council had been only 500 mils—but would have constituted a retrograde step from the precedent of Tel-Aviv. The Executive took the view that the matter was of national and not merely of local concern and informed the Central Government and District Administration that it would have to raise strong objections to the proposed change. It explained that the restriction of franchise was bound to prejudice very seriously the prospects of a successful 463