Page 102 - ISRAEL'S CRADLE

geographic division: 38% from Israel, 29% from the United States and 33% from all other countries. The delegations of international Zionist organizations are also represented in the Congress, such as the women's organizations, student delegations and a delegation from the Commonwealth of Independent States that comprised the former Soviet Union. In Israel, the representatives to the Congress are divided according to the balance of power between the Zionist parties in the Knesset. The Congress elects the Zionist Executive and the members of the Zionist General Council. This Council convenes once a year and is the senior Zionist institution among the Congresses. It additionally elects the President of the Supreme Zionist Court, the WZO Attorney and the Auditor of the Zionist Institutions.
The WZO representatives hold 50% of the positions in the governing bodies of the Jewish Agency: 259 seats in the Agency Assembly, 50 seats in the Board of Governors and 13 seats on the Executive of the Jewish Agency.
WZO has a series of dedicated departments that operate in Israel and around the world. The primary Zionist activity in Israel is carried out by the "Zionist Committee" on its behalf.
Keren Kayemet Leisrael – Jewish National Fund
The Keren Kayemet Leisrael – Jewish National Fund (hereinafter: KKL-JNF) was established by the Fifth Zionist Congress in 1901, during the tenure of the "Visionary of the State" Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl. It is the oldest among the entities of the World Zionist Organization, which was established in 1897. Its establishment was initiated by Prof. Zvi Hermann Schapira, a mathematician from the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He raised the proposal in the First Zionist Congress in Basel, in the summer of 1897, but it was not approved. Schapira passed away less than a year later and in 1901 his proposal was approved. Prof. Schapira was also one of the first to suggest the establishment of a Jewish university in Jerusalem.
The initial goal of KKL-JNF was to purchase lands that would remain the eternal property of the Nation of Israel, upon which Jews would be settled when making Aliya. KKL-JNF began operation soon after, and its first center was in Cologne, Germany. The first lands were purchased in Ben Shemen and Hadera. The first olive grove was also planted near Ben Shemen, which received the symbolic name of "Herzl Forest," shortly after the death of the Zionist leader.
Until the establishment of the state, KKL-JNF primarily engaged in the purchase of lands and the planting of forests throughout the Land of Israel. It also assisted in raising settlements on the land and paving roads to them. In the first half of the 20th century, KKL-JNF purchased about a million dunams. After 1948, the state transferred to them millions of dunams of abandoned land upon which hundreds of new settlements were established for new Olim and for veterans of the War of Independence.
100