ZIONIST COMMISSION.

Extremely rare and important large-format photographs of the first Zionist Commission visit to Palestine.

A group of 16 press photographs, dated 1918, (most 150 x 205 mm., one smaller), all but one with typescript descriptions on versos and stamps of 'Egyptian Official Photograph' and 'Official Photograph issued by Associated Illustration Agencies Ltd'. (One photograph with tiny marginal nick, a few lightly creased at margins.)

LARGE FORMAT OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE ZIONIST COMMISSION. Chaired by Chaim Weizmann, president of the British Zionist Federation, the commission was formed in March 1918, and travelled the following month to Palestine to study the land and conditions for the establishment of a programme of Zionist immigration into Palestine.

The images depict the Commission arriving at Lydda by rail on 2 April 1918, and then touring the country, with images of Tel Aviv dated 6 April and of Nes Ziona on 16 April. The commission was greeted with large crowds: the images of Tel Aviv show the members processing along lined streets, one image showing them proceeded by a banner-holding troupe of Maccabean boy scouts, as well as a large crowd listening to an address. Similar crowd scenes are shown in the photographs of the commission's visits to Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives and Mt Scopus. 6 images show a large banquet held for the commission in the palm groves of Rishon LeZion, with one of them showing 11 colonists.

Faces frequently seen in the photographs include: Chaim Weizmann, William Ormsby-Gore (later 4th Baron Harlech), James de Rothschild and Edwin Samuel. The latter was the son of Sir Herbert Samuel, later Palestine's first High Commissioner under the Mandate.

The Zionist Commission was later to evolve into the Jewish Agency, the organisation primarily responsible for Jewish migration and settlement in Palestine.