Summary
Israel’s World Zionist Organisation - Jewish Agency (Status) Law, 5713-1952, passed by the Knesset on 24 November 1952: sections 1-2 declare the State the creation of the entire Jewish people, its gates open to every Jew wishing to immigrate, and credit the World Zionist Organisation, founded five decades earlier, with heading the movement for the return to the homeland and carrying the main responsibility for establishing the State; sections 3-4 recognise the Organisation, which is also the Jewish Agency, as the authorised agency that will continue to operate in Israel for development and settlement, absorption of immigrants from the Diaspora and coordination of Jewish institutions active in those fields, taking care as before of immigration and directing absorption and settlement projects; sections 5-6 make the gathering in of the exiles the central task of the State and the Zionist Movement, expect the cooperation and unity of all Jews, and preserve the conferred status for an enlarged body if the Organisation broadens its basis with the Government’s consent and the Knesset’s approval; and sections 7-12 leave the details to a Covenant between the Government and the Zionist Executive, also known as the Executive of the Jewish Agency, set up a coordination committee, make the Executive a juristic body that may contract, hold and relinquish property and litigate, and exempt the Executive, its funds and its institutions from taxes and other compulsory Government charges as the Covenant lays down (World Zionist Organisation - Jewish Agency (Status) Law, 5713-1952 (1952), PDF p.1-2).
What the file is
The English text of the Law in one 2-page file, about 680 words in the text copy: sections 1-11 on PDF p.1, section 12, the signatories and the passage footnote on PDF p.2, followed by closing matter identifying the source as Laws of the State of Israel: Authorized Translation from the Hebrew, Volume 7, Government Printer, Jerusalem, p. 3-4, (C) Israel Law Resource Center, February, 2007, and listing one amendment, (12.23.75), whose text is not in the file. The Covenant the Law provides for is not in the file. The text copy was checked against the original on both pages; the original reads the same, including the printed points recorded in Section by section and Open questions. The file spells the body “Organisation” throughout. No Hebrew text, table or figure appears in the file.
Section by section
- Section 1 (PDF p.1). “The State of Israel regards itself as the creation of the entire Jewish people, and its gates are open, in accordance with its laws, to every Jew wishing to immigrate to it.”
- Section 2 (PDF p.1). The World Zionist Organisation, from its foundation five decades ago, headed the movement and efforts of the Jewish people to realise the age-old vision of the return to its homeland and, with the assistance of other Jewish circles and bodies, carried the main responsibility for establishing the State of Israel.
- Section 3 (PDF p.1). “The World Zionist Organisation, which is also the Jewish Agency, takes care as before of immigration and directs absorption and settlement projects in the State.”
- Section 4 (PDF p.1). The State recognises the Organisation as the authorised agency which will continue to operate in Israel for the development and settlement of the country, the absorption of immigrants from the Diaspora and the coordination of the activities in Israel of Jewish institutions and organisations active in those fields.
- Section 5 (PDF p.1). The mission of gathering in the exiles, which is the central task of the State of Israel and the Zionist Movement in our days, requires constant efforts by the Jewish people in the Diaspora; the State therefore expects the cooperation of all Jews, as individuals and groups, in building up the State and assisting the immigration to it of the masses of the people, and regards the unity of all sections of Jewry as necessary for this purpose.
- Section 6 (PDF p.1). The State expects efforts by the Organisation for achieving this unity; if, to this end, the Zionist Organisation, with the consent of the Government and the approval of the Knesset, should decide to broaden its basis, the enlarged body will enjoy the status conferred upon the World Zionist Organisation in the State of Israel.
- Section 7 (PDF p.1). Details of the Organisation’s status — whose representation is the Zionist Executive, also known as the Executive of the Jewish Agency — and the form of its cooperation with the Government shall be determined by a Covenant to be made in Israel between the Government and the Zionist Executive.
- Section 8 (PDF p.1). The Covenant shall be based on the declaration of the 23rd Zionist Congress in Jerusalem that the practical work of the Organisation and its various bodies, for the fulfilment of their historic tasks in Eretz-Israel, requires full cooperation and coordination on its part with the State of Israel and its Government, in accordance with the laws of the State.
- Section 9 (PDF p.1). A committee for the coordination of the activities of the Government and Executive shall be set up in the spheres in which the Executive will operate according to the Covenant; the committee’s tasks shall be determined by the Covenant.
- Section 10 (PDF p.1). The Covenant and any variation or amendment made with the consent of the two parties shall be published in Reshumot and shall come into force on the day of publication, unless they provide for an earlier or later day.
- Section 11 (PDF p.1). “The Executive is a juristic body and may enter into contracts, acquire, hold and relinquish property and be a party to any legal or other proceeding.”
- Section 12 (PDF p.2). The Executive and its funds and other institutions shall be exempt from taxes and other compulsory Government charges, subject to such restrictions and conditions as the Covenant may lay down; the exemption shall come into force, as printed, “the coming into force of the Covenant”, with the second “the” as printed and no “with” in the text copy or the original.
- Signatories and passage footnote (PDF p.2). Signed by David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister, and Yosef Sprinzak, Chairman of the Knesset, Interim President of the State. Passed by the Knesset on 6th Kislev, 5713 (24th November, 1952) and published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 112 of 14th Kislev, 5713, printed “(2nd December, 195Z)”, p. 2 — “195Z” as printed. No Bill or Explanatory Note citation is given, unlike the other statutes in this batch.
Key passages
- “The State of Israel regards itself as the creation of the entire Jewish people” (section 1, PDF p.1)
- “carried the main responsibility for establishing the State of Israel” (section 2, PDF p.1)
- “which is the central task of the State of Israel and the Zionist Movement in our days” (section 5, on the mission of gathering in the exiles, PDF p.1)
- “The Executive is a juristic body and may enter into contracts, acquire, hold and relinquish property and be a party to any legal or other proceeding” (section 11, PDF p.1)
Evidence the work relies on
A statute, not an evidentiary work. Its one incorporated authority is the declaration of the 23rd Zionist Congress in Jerusalem, on which section 8 requires the Covenant to be based; the Congress declaration and the Covenant itself are not reproduced in the file. The operative content the Law defers — the details of the Organisation’s status and cooperation — is by sections 7-10 left to that Covenant, to be made after the Law.
Analysis
The Law is declaratory and enabling rather than regulatory: it states a self-description of the State (section 1), a historical credit (section 2) and a mission (section 5), recognises one named body as the authorised agency for immigration, absorption, settlement and coordination (sections 3-4), and then defers every operative detail to a Covenant the file does not contain, while in the Law itself conferring only juristic personality (section 11) and a Covenant-conditioned tax exemption (section 12). Two textual points matter for reading it alongside other sources. First, the recognised body is a non-State, diaspora-membership organisation: the Law expects cooperation from “all Jews, as individuals and groups” in the Diaspora and preserves status for an enlarged successor body, so the status is conferred by the State on a body that is not an organ of the State. Second, sections 3-4 confer functions — immigration, absorption, settlement, coordination of Jewish institutions — without in this file stating any corresponding function for, or benefit to, non-Jewish citizens, and no other body is recognised in the Law. What the Covenant provided, and how the status worked in practice, are outside this file and are recorded from other sources on World Zionist Organisation - Jewish Agency (Status) Law, 5713-1952, World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency.
People, organizations, places and events
World Zionist Organisation - Jewish Agency (Status) Law, 5713-1952, World Zionist Organization, Jewish Agency, Knesset, Israel, David Ben-Gurion
Concepts
How it relates to other sources
This is the primary text of the 1952 Status Law earlier sources summarise. Stateless Citizenship (2013) records that the World Zionist Organization – Jewish Agency in Israel (Status) Law (1952) authorizes the Agency and the Organisation to function as quasi-governmental institutions advancing the Zionist Movement’s goals, benefiting Jews only, with no non-Jewish organizations granted similar status (PDF p.107-108, footnote 91); this file is the recognition that summary rests on, and it states the fields as development and settlement, absorption of immigrants from the Diaspora and coordination of Jewish institutions (section 4, PDF p.1). Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights states that the 1952 Status Law authorizes the World Zionist Organization / Jewish Agency and subsidiaries including the JNF to control most land for the exclusive benefit of Jews (PDF p.194-195); the Law as printed here names no subsidiary and no land function, its settlement language being sections 3-4 in general terms, and that difference is held on World Zionist Organisation - Jewish Agency (Status) Law, 5713-1952, not reconciled — the land regime in this batch comes from the 1953 and 1960 laws that follow. The Jewish State: A Century Later lists the 1952 law on the status of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency among the enactments carrying an aura of basic definition of government alongside the Basic Laws and the Law of Return (lines 2617-2799), which matches this Law’s declaratory sections 1-2 and 5.
Open questions
- The Covenant between the Government and the Zionist Executive, which sections 7-10 make the repository of the status’s details, the coordination committee’s tasks and the tax exemption’s conditions, is not in the file, so the operative content of the status cannot be stated from this source.
- The closing matter lists an amendment dated (12.23.75) without its text, and the file does not mark any section as amended.
- The passage footnote prints the publication year as “195Z” (PDF p.2) and section 12 prints “shall come into force the coming into force of the Covenant” (PDF p.2); both are recorded as printed and checked against the original.
- Section 2 credits the Organisation “from its foundation five decades ago”; the file gives no foundation date, and the Organisation’s 1897 Basel foundation recorded from other sources would make the interval 55 years (computed from 1897 to 1952) — the Law’s own rounded figure is recorded as printed.
Coverage
PDF p.1-2 of 2, read in full.