Zionist Congress

The supreme institution and legislature of the World Zionist Organization, it formulates policy and elects and oversees the organizations' institutions. The Congress meets once every four years. It has approximately 600 delegates, 38 percent Israelis, 29 percent from the U.S. and 33 percent from the rest of the world. Since 1951, delegates have been chosen by means of country-wide agreements. The Israeli delegation is also not elected directly; it is appointed according to the relative number of each Zionist party's Knesset members.

The Zionist Congress elects the Executive, which runs WZO affairs in Israel and in the Diaspora, and the Zionist General Council, which meets once a year and to which the Executive is subordinate.

At the First Zionist Congress (1897), the Zionist Organization was founded and the first Zionist program, known as the Basle Program, was approved.

Since the establishment of the State of Israel, Zionist Congresses are held in Jerusalem, and the bulk of the deliberations revolve around Israel - Diaspora relations, the centrality of Israel for the Jewish people, and immigration as a Zionist obligation.

Source: Israeli Foreign Ministry