FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On February 20, 1952, The Jerusalem Post reported that Peretz Naphtali, minister without portfolio and principal government speaker, told the Knesset that the government should consider income-tax reforms in the light of the changes in values arising from the government’s New Economic Program. He added, however, that the reforms should not provide exemptions to cover the entire economic increase in wages and pointed out that on the expenditure side of the budget, the Treasury would have to pay the full increases, and this must be reflected on the review side.
Completing her intensive four-day trip to Israel, Eleanor Roosevelt told a press conference in Jerusalem that Israel should play an “impressive role” in a Mediterranean pact “if the tensions and disputes in the area could be ended.”
Leading clothing, footwear and textile shops in Tel Aviv had been left with empty shelves, as the rush buying of rationed goods reached its peak. Owners of large shops stated that they had drawn upon their stocks of summer clothing and shoes, but thought that many small shops remained boarded up until the new prices would be announced. The black-market dollar price reached IL 3.30 to the dollar.
One thousand Commerce and Industry Ministry inspectors were instructed to take inventories of stocks in factories, at wholesalers, and importers in their warehouses.
A barter agreement was signed with Denmark amounting to $700,000. Citrus fruit was to be sold for potatoes and fish, due for Passover.
Higher prices were announced for cigarettes, except for the Lacol brand,
50 YEARS AGO
On February 20, 1967, The Jerusalem Post reported that the editor and assistant editor of the weekly magazine Bul were each sentenced to a year in prison for publishing matters “implying secret information, contrary to the State Security Law.”
Information minister Yisrael Galili warned that the rulers of Syria should not over-estimate Israel’s patience.
A Syrian Army soldier was shot dead by an IDF patrol some 800 meters inside Israeli territory near Notera, in the Hula basin. The Syrian patrol was apparently probing Israeli defenses. His body was returned to Syria at the Bnot Ya’acov bridge.
The Coalition Committee was due to meet in Jerusalem to tackle the extra cost-of-living allowance payments issue. The two main issues on the agenda were the “ceiling of eligibility” and who would pay for the allowance.
25 YEARS AGO
On February 20, 1992, The Jerusalem Post reported that Yitzhak Rabin beat his arch-rival Shimon Peres in the Labor Party primaries. Rabin won 36,640 votes to Peres’s 32, 868.
Helicopter gunships again struck at Hezbollah targets in South Lebanon, and the loyal-to-Israel South Lebanese gunners continued to blast villages south of the Israeli security zone. Thousands of Shi’ites had fled their homes in the wake of IDF helicopter blasts.
Thirteen people were treated, mainly for shock, after a Katyusha rocket exploded at the Kiryat Shmona bus station.
The Likud’s first-ever three-way race for leadership began with prime minister Yitzhak Shamir winning the first round. He was being challenged by housing minister Ariel Sharon and also by the foreign minister David Levy.
The UN Security Council deplored the recent rising violence in southern Lebanon and called upon all parties to exercise maximum restraint.