FROM OUR ARCHIVES

65 YEARS AGO

On January 23, 1952, The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli delegates walked out of all UN committees in protest over the hanging of two Jewish youths in Baghdad. They announced that they would not take part in any current UN work. In the Special Political Committee of the UN General Assembly discussing the Arab refugee problem, Abba Eban said he was leaving the proceedings as a “matter of conscience, grief and protest.” He added that the events in Baghdad had been a public degradation of human dignity. In Paris, after a brief debate, the Special Political Committee approved the quadripartite proposal on Arab refugees, despite the earlier walkout of Israeli delegates. The vote was 44 for, with none against, and seven nations abstaining: Argentina, Byelorussia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Ukraine and the USSR.

Yitzhak Raphael, head of the Jewish Agency’s immigration department, announced that a group of 140 immigrants from Iraq would arrive shortly and denied reports that the transfer of immigrants by air would be discontinued.

Interior minister Moshe Shapiro told the Knesset that the situation did not permit the lifting of restrictions on travel outside Israel, but efforts were constantly being made to reduce the difficulties to a minimum. Exit visas were still required.

The Knesset completed the first readings of two measures designed to immunize the parliament against terror and pressure from inside and outside, such as occurred during the debate on negotiations with Germany on reparations.

Five Israelis taken prisoner by Syrians in August 1951 were released.

50 YEARS AGO

On January 23, 1967, The Jerusalem Post reported that finance minister Pinhas Sapir told the cabinet that it was obvious that the present round of talks with the European Common Market was likely to be drawn out and Israel should not expect a quick outcome.

Reclamation work had been completed on a tract of 90 hectares in Upper Galilee, where seven Jewish National Fund workers were wounded by a Syrian mine four months earlier.

Israel had agreed to the postponement of the date of a special meeting of the UN Israeli-Syrian Armistice Commission, intended to discuss practical arrangements of borderland cultivation, but was not prepared to wait indefinitely. Syrian shepherds were again grazing their flocks inside Israeli territory at Tel Katzir and Korazim areas.

25 YEARS AGO

On January 23, 1992, The Jerusalem Post reported that senior Chinese officials took a conciliatory public tone toward the Arab-Israeli conflict, and indicated a willingness to participate in the Middle East peace process during the first day of foreign minister David Levy’s visit to Beijjng. Senior Israeli officials hailed the new pragmatism in Beijing’s approach to the conflict in the Middle East. Budding Chinese-Israeli relations were kept on hold during the 1980s, largely out of Beijing’s fear they would alienate their supporters in the Arab world.

Israel had no need to choose between US loan guarantees and further settlement in the territories, prime minister Yitzhak Shamir told the press. He sent a letter to US secretary of state James Baker pledging Israel’s continued commitment to the momentum of the peace process, despite any domestic political price he might have had to pay.

Israel had turned down a request by UN Secretary-General Boutros Ghali to accept the world body as a full participant in the multilateral talks which were to open in Moscow.

– Alexander Zvielli