world zionist congress

I was a delegate to the 36th World Zionist Congress this week. In its history, the congress has served some important functions. Today, its main function seems to be to haggle over who gets to serve in various appointed positions, such as head of KKL. Its also an opportunity to network with like-minded people and exchange nasty words with people who disagree with you.

One question on my mind is whether the congress is a democratic forum. There are clearly a number of procedures that resemble democracy. Voting (on some things), Robert's rules of order (sort of), elections (in theory).

There were no elections for the 36th WZC. Representation was based partially on the elections for the 35th WZC and partially on elections for the Knesset. The number of coalitions, factions, and sub-factions is astonishing. I was a diaspora Labor delegate, which was part of the World Labor party, which was temporarily aligned with World Meretz and the Reform Movement. Together, the Labor-Meretz-Reform faction was the largest, which enabled it to choose the next head of KKL.

This morning, an election was supposed to be held within the faction to choose the head of KKL. Before the election began, the candidates -- Menachem Leibovitch (who was not a serious candidate) and Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon (who was anointed by I-don't-know-who) -- introduced themselves. I thought that prior to the vote would be a good time to ask questions of the candidates. Acting partially as a representative of Habonim Dror (and youth movements more generally, which have been impressively united against land privatization), I asked Minister Simhon about his opinion of land privatization and the law suit between Kadima and KKL regarding a controversial vote about land swaps with the state.

Rather than allow Simhon to answer the question publicly, several faction leaders (mostly Reform) deflected it and hurried people into the voting booths. I protested loudly that Simhon had introduced himself partially by trying to establish credibility with youth movements as a former secretary of Bnei HaMoshavim, and yet was ignoring the question that was most important to youth movements. The Reformniks arranged a private meeting between me and Simhon, mostly in order to shut me up.

Nadav agreed to come with me to meet Simhon, who brought along his assistant Aliza and a former director of KKL, Yitzchak Elishiv. Simhon was polite but evasive. We spoke with him for about 15 minutes and he promised to meet with me again. My favorite part was when I told him that land privatization was against Jewish values (Yovel). He responded that even Ovadia Yosef had no objection. I pointed out that Ovadia Yosef doesn't define my Jewish values or Simhon's either.