Zionism/The Basel Programme

by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

§ 12. The Basel Programme

The First Zionist Congress established the Zionist Organization and laid down its programme, known as the Basel programme, in the following terms:

Zionism strives to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law. The Congress contemplates the following means to the attainment of this end:

1. The promotion on suitable lines of the colonization of Palestine by Jewish agricultural and industrial workers.
2. The organization and binding together of the whole of Jewry by means of appropriate institutions. local and international, in accordance with the laws of each country.
3. The strengthening and fostering of Jewish national sentiment and consciousness.
4. Preparatory steps towards obtaining Government consent where necessary to the attainment of the aim of Zionism.

As has been seen, the second and fourth parts of this programme almost monopolized attention in the earlier years. But, later on, after political conditions had changed in Turkey, the first and third parts of the programme assumed greater importance. Practical work in Palestine and the education of the national sentiment in the younger generation came to the front.