The Basel Program was the first manifesto
of the Zionist movement, drafted between 27-30
August 1897 and adopted unanimously at the
First Zionist Congress in Basel (Basle), Switzerland
on 30 August 1897.
In 1951 it was replaced by the Jerusalem Program.
== History ==
The Basel Program was drafted by a committee
elected on Sunday 29 August 1897 comprising
Max Nordau (heading the committee), Nathan
Birnbaum, Alexander Mintz, Siegmund Rosenberg,
Saul Rafael Landau, together with Hermann
Schapira and Max Bodenheimer who were added
to the committee on the basis of them having
both drafted previous similar programs (including
the "Kölner Thesen").The seven-man committee
prepared the Program over three drafting meetings.
== Goals ==
The program set out the goals of the Zionist
movement as follows:
The original draft did not include the word
for "publicly recognized"; this was the only
amendment made during the debate at the Congress,
and can be seen in the final version with
the word öffentlich inserted via a curly
bracket.
The amended draft was approved unanimously
by the 200-person congress
