Revisionists

   A Zionist political party founded in 1925 by Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky. It reflected the demand for a revision of the Zionist executive's conciliatory policy toward the British mandatory government and of the system and pace of Zionist activity in Palestine. In the Revisionist conception, the Zionist aim was to provide an integral solution to the worldwide Jewish problem in all aspects—political, economic, and spiritual. To attain this objective, the Revisionists demanded that the entire mandated territory of Palestine, on both sides of the Jordan River, be turned into a Jewish state with a Jewish majority. The contention of the Revisionists was that worldwide political pressure must be exerted to induce Great Britain to abide by the letter and spirit of the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine mandate. They stressed the imperative necessity of bringing to Palestine the largest number of Jews within the shortest possible time. The financial instrument of the movement was the Keren Tel Hai (Tel Hai Fund).

   Within the World Zionist Organization (WZO), Revisionism met with increasingly strong resistance, particularly from the labor groups. The World Union of Zionists—Revisionists was founded in 1925 as an integral part of the WZO, with Jabotinsky as president. The Revisionists strongly opposed expansion of the Jewish Agency through inclusion of prominent non-Zionists, which, they felt, would impair the national character, independence, and freedom of political action of the Zionist Movement. From 1929, when the expanded Jewish Agency took over the political perrogatives of the WZO, Jabotin-sky consistently urged increasing independence for the Revisionists. In 1935, a referendum held among Revisionists resulted in their secession from the WZO and the establishment of an independent New Zionist Organization (NZO). Eleven years later, when ideological and tactical differences between the NZO and the WZO had diminished, the NZO decided to give up its separate existence. The United Zionists Revisionists (the merger of the Revisionist Union and the Jewish State Party) participated in the election to the 22nd Zionist Congress in Basle in 1946.