The Origins of Israel, 1882–1948: A Documentary History

22. Platform for the 1931 Elections to the Representative Assembly (1931)

135 22 Platform for the 1931 Elections to the Representative Assembly (1931)      Originally, the name “General Zionist” was assigned to those members of the World Zionist Congress who did not officially belong to a specific faction such as the Labor, Revisionist, and Religious Zionist camps. The vast majority of General Zionists did not live in the Yishuv itself, so while their power within the Zionist Congress was considerable, their popularity in Palestine itself was much less so. Though General Zionists coalesced into an official bloc in the World Zionist Congress in the early 1920s, General Zionists in the Yishuv failed to unite and form a single faction, and were represented in the Representative Assembly, the legislative body of the Yishuv, by an assortment of “civic” parties. On the eve of the establishment of the Union of United General Zionists, General Zionists in the Yishuv were clearly split into two camps, with one leaning to the Right and the other to the Left. Most differences in opinion between the two camps regarded economic policy and the group’s relation to and cooperation with the labor camp, as well as foreign policy to a lesser extent. As a faction in the political life of the Yishuv the General Zionists protested against the increasing partisan activity of Zionist groups within the Yishuv, as well as the distribution of social services according to party lines. The flag around which the group rallied was that of “national responsibility” and preference Source: Lavon Institute V-411–3. Translated by Hillel Gruenberg. for the general national interest over a specific class or ethnic interest, as well as a preference for “general” Zionism over Zionist ideologies compounded with socialism, militant territorial maximalism, and/or religious dogma. The majority of General Zionist supporters were middle-class professionals, small business owners, and independent farmers, craftsmen and artisans living in Tel Aviv and its suburbs, with some coming from Jerusalem as well. Soon after the 1931 elections there was a palpable rift among the General Zionists along the same lines as the party had been split before, with a rightleaning “civic” group and a left-leaning “progressive” faction. The two General Zionist factions came to be known as General Zionists A and B with their official names being Histadrut ha-Tziyonim ha-Klaliyim (Union of General Zionists) and Brit ha-Tziyonim ha-Klaliyim (Federation of General Zionists), respectively. Group A advanced an “above party” and collectivist (though nonsocialist) ideology, had its members join the Histadrut trade union, and tended to be conciliatory toward Labor Zionists. Group B was of a more markedly pro–middle class and pro–free market orientation and, in opposition to the Histadrut trade union, created its own federation of General Zionist workers. ❖ In this trying time, as ‘Am Yisrael (people of Israel) fights for its right to rebuild its homeland in the land of its forefathers, the United General Zionists recognize their obligation to emphasize, more so than at any other time, the values that unite and bond the nation and not those that divide and separate it. We call to the Hebrew Yishuv in the land to marshal its forces in Knesset-Yisrael1 through the elections to the Representative Assembly, to unite around this flag [of national unity]. In order to constitute a bloc in the Representative Assembly, whose task will be to bring together all the forces of Knesset-Yisrael toward productivity and construction on the basis of preference for the general national interest over all other class, partisan, and ethnic ambitions. A. The statutes of Knesset-Yisrael, with all their defects, can be used as a foundation for facilitating the organization of the Yishuv. It is incumbent upon the Representative Assembly to reform, improve, and adjust itself to our demands, so that the Yishuv may be firmly organized on the bases of obligation and selfdetermination in all areas of its life and its needs. Those regulations of the statutes that differentiate between the different religious and ethnic communities and lend legal legitimacy to the tendency towards divisiveness, the fruit of the exile, must be rescinded. The organization of the Yishuv must be singular and total, the organization of one nation on the basis of complete equality of duties and 136 :      rights. By means of gradual and systematic work Knesset-Yisrael must reach a situation of a living and thriving organization operating according to its needs and those...