FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On February 22, 1952, The Jerusalem Post reported on the details of the new legal tender – the paper money in small denominations, issued by Bank Leumi L’Israel in order to stop the hoarding and shortage of coins. The new banknotes were issued in 50 and 100 prutot denominations, replacing the 50 and 100 mils coins, parts of a new Israeli and previous Palestinian pound, comprising 1,000 mils or prutot.
Increased milk and egg prices were expected to go into effect shortly, as a result of higher fodder costs charged under the revised rate of exchange.
The lively shopping spree that crowded most Jerusalem shops during the previous week fell off noticeably. “But it was only because we have hardly anything left to sell,” one shopkeeper explained. “A lot of people are coming in, but they soon leave when they see that almost all we have left are bedroom slippers.”
The 535 newcomers from Romania, who arrived in Haifa aboard the s.s. Transylvania, told the press that an unusually large number of emigration permits was granted to Jews wishing to emigrate to Israel, but the recent Romanian currency devaluation left many of them unable to meet the cost of the customs duty on their luggage, port fees and the passage, and thus many prospective would-be immigrants were left behind.
50 YEARS AGO
On February 22, 1967, The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel would introduce the question of the basic “peace provisions” of the Armistice Agreement with Syria, should its delegates continue to disagree from the agreed agenda of the extraordinary UN Mixed Israeli-Syrian Armistice Commission meeting on border cultivation. The sessions had been held up for two weeks after persistent Syrian efforts to depart from the mutually agreed agenda on a practical arrangement on the border land cultivation question.
Prime minister Levi Eshkol confirmed his intention to hold the Independence Day military parade in Jerusalem. He noted, however, that the Armistice Agreements limited the scope of such parades in the capital, which was [until June 1967] on the Jordanian border, and added that Israel should not be the one to violate the Armistice Agreements, even if the Arab states still did not honor the clauses calling for free access to Jewish holy places in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The government had reiterated its categorical denial of press reports and rumors regarding Israel’s alleged involvement in the kidnapping of Moroccan politician Mehdi Ben Barka, who had been abducted in Paris in 1965.
10 YEARS AGO
On February 22, 2007, The Jerusalem Post was told by the world-famous historian Martin Gilbert the “astonishing truth” about the renowned British Arabist Lawrence of Arabia by claiming that he was a warm Zionist who backed a state “from the river to the sea.”
The new chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi said that the IDF might have to stop Hezbollah from rearming.
Russian-born billionaire Arkadi Gaydamak officially began his political career by attacking prime minister Ehud Olmert and defense minister Amir Peretz in a press conference at a Tel Aviv hotel. Gaydamak announced the formation of a new socio-economic movement called Tzedek Hevrati (Social Justice), which he hinted would eventually become a political party that would run for the Knesset.
– Alexander Zvielli