TASK OF ZIONISM

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 17 June 1933, Page 14

TASK OF ZIONISM

Jewish People at Work

Ty/TB, BERL LOOKER, member of the World Zionist Executive and leader of the Labour group of the movement, speaking at Manchester, said that the Jewish problem in Europe iWas largely an economic one. Large numbers of Jews were business men, middlemen, or petty graders, but comparatively few were engaged in industry or on the land, and this fact was to a great extent responsible for Jewish antagonism on the Continent. The Jewish people were beginning to be tired of being a nation of merchants. They -wanted to share in the world’s work in industry and on the land. This opportunity was now afforded by Palestine, and the rapid growth of prosperity in the country proved the eagerness of the Jewish people to develop the industry and agriculture of the country. Unfortunately, there were not the opportunities to absorb all those who wanted to work in the country; there was an insufficiency of funds, restrictions, and lack of facilities. But the whole of Zionism was a long task, and might not be completed even within a lifetime. In the first phase of Zionism fifty years ago, Jewish immigrants into Palestine had shown little willingness to work on the land, and the colonies had been developed largely by the Arabs Gradually, however, the Jewish immigrants had come to realise that in order to make Palestine their own they must develop it with their own hands.