Zionism: Organization. Part 3.

The multi-national, worldwide Zionist movement is structured as a representative democracy. Congresses are held every four years (they were held every two years before the Second World War) and delegates to the congress are elected by the membership.

Members are required to pay dues known as a shekel. At the congress, delegates elected a 30-man executive council, which in turn elected the movement's leader. The movement was democratic from its inception and women had the right to vote (before they won the right in Great Britain).

Until 1917, the ZO pursued a strategy of building a homeland through persistent small-scale immigration and the founding of such bodies as the Jewish National Fund (1901 - a charity which bought land for Jewish settlement) and the Anglo-Palestine Bank (1903 - provided loans for Jewish businesses and farmers).

In 1942, at the Biltmore Conference, Zionists changed their program and demanded the establishment of a Jewish state as the aim of the movement.
The 28th Zionist Congress, meeting in Jerusalem 1968, adopted the five points of the "Jerusalem Program" as the aims of Zionism today.

They are:
The unity of the Jewish People and the centrality of Israel in Jewish life
The ingathering of the Jewish People in its historic homeland, Eretz Israel, through Aliyah from all countries
The strengthening of the State of Israel which is based on the prophetic vision of justice and peace

The preservation of the identity of the Jewish People through the fostering of Jewish and Hebrew education and of Jewish spiritual and cultural values
The protection of Jewish rights everywhere

Since the creation of Israel, the role of the movement has declined and it is now a peripheral factor in Israeli politics although different perceptions of Zionism continue to play a role in Israeli and Jewish political discussion