Published: 13 March 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
THE WORLD ZIONIST CONGRESS (WZC) an international parliamentary body comprised of Jews from Israel, the United States, and the rest of the diaspora—is in the final days of its weeks-long election to select US delegates.
These delegates will represent US Jewry at the 38th WZC in October, where the self-described “parliament of the Jewish people,” which assembles twice a decade, will administer the disbursement of nearly US$5 billion for Israel-related projects over the next five years.
To participate, voters must do two things: pay a small fee and click a button to affirm that they sign on to the Jerusalem Program, a platform of Zionist beliefs.
Hadar Susskind gets why some people might not want to click the button. Susskind, who is coordinating the liberal Zionist Hatikvah slate’s efforts to maximise the votes from progressive Jews, acknowledges that the language in the Jerusalem Program makes some potential voters uncomfortable.
For instance, the final principle says “[s]ettling the country as an expression of practical Zionism.” Most progressive Jews are well aware that the primary “settling” effort in “practical Zionism” today is the further establishment of settlements in the West Bank.
Left-leaning Zionists—as well as non-Zionists and anti-Zionists—have railed against such settlements for decades. So how can these critics affirm the WZC’s platform in good conscience?
FULL STORY Urgency and compromise: progressives run for the World Zionist Congress (Jewish Currents)
Photo: The first or second meeting of the Zionist Congress, Basel, Switzerland, 1897 or 1898.
