FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On January 3, 1947, The Palestine Post reported from London that following a British cabinet meeting, the British colonial secretary, Arthur Creech-jones, had a long talk with David Ben-gurion, the chairman of the Jewish Agency’s Executive. It was generally believed that Ben-gurion must have explained to the colonial secretary why the total revocation of the discriminatory Palestine land laws and free Jewish immigration to Palestine were the two essential conditions for future Jewish-british cooperation. Following the meeting the Colonial Office issued only a short noncommittal statement that the talks had taken place. However, certain Jewish sources believed that the breakdown of the British talks with Egypt and the prospect of the need to evacuate British soldiers from the Suez Canal Zone were the reasons why Britain continued to be interested in a speedy settlement in Palestine.
One British officer was killed and a number of soldiers and civilians were wounded in concerted attacks made by terrorists against British military installations throughout Palestine. The night attacks took place in five towns. In Tel Aviv, terrorists attacked the British headquarters in Citrus House. In Haifa they attacked the British camp at the Kurdani village. Separate attacks were carried out against British army camps in Kiryat Haim, Tiberias and Hadera.
50 YEARS AGO
On January 3, 1962, The Jerusalem Post reported that divergent views were expressed in the Knesset on cultural ties with Germany. There was, however, a striking unanimity of opinion on two points: that the entire German people must bear the responsibility for the slaughter of the Jews, and that there was no evidence that the German people had changed. Moshe Kol, a Liberal, said that while we must establish diplomatic relations with Germany, relations between the two peoples were a different matter. Yona Kesse (Mapai) said that Israel should not rule out both diplomatic and cultural relations with Germany.
Two infiltrators were wounded and taken into custody in the southern Negev.
Cypriots were expected to attend the Afro-asian Institute of the Histadrut for the first time.
10 YEARS AGO
On January 3, 2002, The Jerusalem Post reported that the Shin Bet (Israel’s security agency) had foiled Hamas plans to manufacture rockets in the West Bank. A Hamas operative was arrested at the Rafah border crossing as he attempted to leave for Saudi Arabia to gather funds for this project.
The deputy transportation minister Avi Yehezkel announced that he had frozen the transfer of some NIS 50 million to the Traffic Police, because it had not submitted a detailed program for tackling the carnage on the roads. Furthermore, the Knesset decided to establish a committee to investigate road accidents with Yehezkel’s blessing. There was a marked increase in the number of people killed on the roads in 2001 compared to previous years.
– Alexander Zvielli