FROM OUR ARCHIVES

65 YEARS AGO

On March 10, 1950, The Palestine Post reported that the Israeli authorities were accused by a Swedish report of “astonishing negligence” in their search for the assassins of Count Folke Bernadotte in September 1948. The report ordered by the Swedish Crown charged Israeli officials with having given “directly misleading” information about the murder of the UN mediator. It was believed in Israel that the UN Trusteeship Council would continue its course on the internationalization of Jerusalem until the third reading of the Jerusalem Statute had been concluded. Other pressing questions on the council’s agenda were expected to be dealt with, after which in all probability the council would to adjourn until June 1950. By that time the council was expected to have the official reaction of the parties most concerned in the Jerusalem problem to the extraordinary terms of the statute. It was understood that behind the scenes the US was still insisting on a solution which would be agreeable to Israel, Jordan and the Vatican.

50 YEARS AGO

On March 10, 1965, The Jerusalem Post reported that Egyptian premier Gamal Abdul Nasser said that Bonn’s decision to seek full diplomatic relations with Israel “was a major threat to the Arab world.” Nasser said that “if the Jews win this battle, there will be no future for the Arabs.” Both the cabinet and the Knesset were expected to agree to the establishment of diplomatic relations with West Germany. It was understood that Dr. Kurt Birenbach, the special German envoy, carried back a positive reply to Bonn. Birenbach kindled at Yad Vashem the Eternal Flame to the memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. In Bonn, an anonymous swastika-headed letter was circulated threatening death to any member of the German Bundestag who voted to extend the period for the initiation of prosecution for Nazi crimes.

15 YEARS AGO

On March 10, 2000, The Jerusalem Post reported that prime minister Ehud Barak’s chief of staff Danny Yatom said that the fate of the Abu Dis area, to the east of Jerusalem, was still an open question. Yatom signaled a readiness to discuss Palestinian demands for Israel to relinquish control of the area. Yatom’s remarks, in an interview with Israel Radio, immediately led the Likud to accuse Barak of having decided to divide Jerusalem. Barak made it clear in a statement that villages in the Jerusalem area would not be handed over to the Palestinians as part of the upcoming 60 percent West Bank withdrawal. Negotiations between Israel and Syria would resume within a month, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak said at a Sharm e-Sheikh summit with Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat. – Alexander Zvielli