August 23, 1903
The Sixth Zionist Congress, the last to be presided over by Theodor Herzl, convenes in Basel, Switzerland. The Sixth Congress is the largest to date with approximately 600 delegates.
The major issue discussed is the Ugandan Proposal. In an April meeting with Herzl, Joseph Chamberlain, the British colonial secretary, proposed an autonomous Jewish settlement in East Africa. Herzl thought this plan could be an interim solution to the suffering of Jews in Europe until Palestine is viable.
In his opening address, Herzl says about the Uganda Proposal, “The offer has been extended to us in a way which cannot but contribute to the improvement of the condition of the Jewish people, without our relinquishing any of the great principles on which our movement is founded. … Zion this certainly is not and can never become. It is only a colonizational auxiliary help — but, be it noted, on a national and state foundation.”
On a vote of 295-178 with 98 abstentions, the Congress agrees to send a commission to East Africa to investigate the possibility.
Shortly after the vote, members of the Russian delegation walk out in protest, claiming that the plan violates the Basel Program by abandoning the Land of Israel as the sole Jewish homeland.
The Uganda Proposal is rejected at the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905.
