Current Flow by Shamir Ronen;

Author:Shamir, Ronen; [Shamir, Ronen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2013-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

5

Assembling a Jewish Economy

THE LETTER FROM THE JERUSALEM OFFICE to the London headquarters of the Zionist Executive was exceptionally angry. It concerned the position of the Jaffa Electric Company on a proposed amendment to the government’s Customs Exemption Ordinance. The amendment exempted from import duties buyers of small “prime movers” (electric or steam engines) who intended to use them for generating power in their factories without having to rely on a wired connection to the electric grid (“the general distribution system”). The letter opened with a recap of a meeting between Pinhas Rutenberg and Frederick Kisch, a senior official of the Zionist Executive: “I enclose a note on a somewhat astonishing interview which I had yesterday morning with Rutenberg, who came in and out of my office with that astounding combination of resemblance to a steam-roller and a whirlwind which he alone is capable of achieving,” he wrote, and “his intervention in the matter of the Customs Ordinance is ‘thoroughly unjustifiable’ and ‘intolerable.’” Kisch explained that many “small industrialists” were in dire need of that exemption and that the Zionist Executive was lobbying the government to introduce it. Yet Rutenberg, Kisch complained, “is ignoring the interests of the country” and is “thinking only of his own project.”1 These allegations were not unfounded.

The Electric Company had approached the High Commissioner and demanded the cancellation of the exemption. Rutenberg explained his position to the Zionist Executive:

[You insist that] I should withdraw my demand for cancelling the exemption from custom duties of power producing machinery. . . . I strongly object to the fact that the Palestine Executive of the Zionist Organization was conducting negotiations with the government [on this issue] without previously consulting us. . . . Whilst I cannot have any objection to have the advice of such a competent and authoritative in this matter person as Sir Alfred Mond, I regret not to be able to agree to Sir Alfred Mond being the arbitrator in this question between the Palestine Zionist Executive and our company, this involving an important issue of principle that our company should in its relations with the government in connection with their interests have a third party. I cannot create such a precedent without previously consulting my board of directors.2

A month later, aware that the intervention of the Electric Company had created a storm among the members of the Zionist Executive in London, Rutenberg wrote another letter, this time using a more conciliatory tone: “I was convinced that this clause was introduced by some of our enemies in order to fight the interests of the Concession. Had I known that the Zionist Executive was engaged in negotiations about such an important question, I would have discussed with the Executive this matter before taking any steps with the Government.”3

So the Zionist Executive, operating as a proxy for “small industrialists” and promoting the goal of Jewish industrial development in Palestine, strongly embraced the amendment to which the Electric Company objected. The latter considered the matter as no less than a war waged against it.

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