British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 760

CHAPTER XVII.

(ii) Twenty workers' loan and savings societies with 28,500 members. Capital £P.160,000; deposits £P.2,900,000.

(iii) Hassneh, A workers' life insurance company. The total value of the insurances for which it was liable amounted at the end of l945 to £P.2,807 ,000.

46. The Federation has its own educational system in towns and villages embracing, in the scholastic year 194.4/45, 135 schools and 207 kindergartens with 1,095 teachers and 20,568 pupils. It also provides for the training of teachers. The labour school system forms part of the Jewish school system administered by the General Council of the Jewish Community.

47. The Federation issues two dailies, Davar and Hegge. The latter is specially designed to meet the needs of new immigrants still learning Hebrew; it is printed in pointed Hebrew and contains explanations in other languages of difficult terms. Davar has a circulation of about 20 ,000 and is the most widely read newspaper in the country.

48. Am Ovnl, the publishing house of the Federation , publishes both original Hebrew literature and Hebrew translations of books on a variety of subjects including belles-lettres. The Federation also maintains a theatre named Ohel ('The Tent') which plays an important part in the cultural life of the Jewish worker and gave in 1944-45 331 performances attended by 227,000 persons.

49. Hapoel is the Federation's sports club. It provides training in gymnastics, games, athletics, swimming, water sports and seamanship.

50. Evening schools for workers and technical schools for working youths, vocational and cultural activities for women workers, women's cooperatives, training farms and day-nurseries for the children of women workers are among the wide variety of the Federation's other activities.

51. The Federation is one of the Palestine trade union organizations affiliated to the World Federation of Trade Unions established in Paris in September 1945. The delegates representing the Federation at this congress included one from the Palestine Labour League, an organization of Arab workers sponsored by the Histadruth, The League, in fact, like the Federation, is separately represented on the General Council of the World Federation. With the rise of an independent Arab trade union movement, however, the League is ceasing to have any effective influence in Palestine.

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