FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On March 28, 1952, The Jerusalem Post reported from The Hague that haggling had begun in the talks between the World Jewry and German delegations. The German press had expressed “surprise” that payment must be made within five years, and it was clear that Germany’s intention was to fight not only for a smaller sum, but for a longer period of installments.
Prof. Franz Boehm, the head of the German delegation, expressed his regrets to the Israeli delegation over the irresponsible reports published in the German press regarding the conference and quoted numerous examples. In New York, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, the chairman of the Jewish Agency, said that talks must avoid delays in order to succeed.
The Israeli flag appeared for the first time in the Vatican City on a limousine which carried foreign minister Moshe Sharett on a courtesy call to pope Pius XII. Sharett was accompanied by Dr. Moshe Ishai, Israel’s minister to Rome. The private audience lasted for about 15 minutes.
“Critics on the Left and on the Right must admit that, despite their gloomy prophecies, more progress had been made in this country during the past four years than anywhere else in the world,” commerce minister Dr. Dov Joseph told the Tel Aviv Chamber of Commerce. Joseph promised the audience that intensive steps would be taken to increase the ice production for home use.
50 YEARS AGO
On March 28, 1967, The Jerusalem Post reported that a Syrian anti-vehicle mine was discovered by an army patrol on a track north of Kfar Szold and was safely dismantled. Tracks of two men led to the Syrian border. A complaint had been lodged with the UN Joint Israeli-Syrian Armistice Commission.
In a letter to the UN Security Council, Israel again accused Syria of failing to provide “any reasonable explanation” for its continuing refusal to resume participation in the extraordinary session of the UN Mixed Israeli-Syrian Armistice Commission, which adjourned in February 1967. A note from Shabtai Rosenne, the acting head of the Israeli delegation to the UN, charged that Syrian president Dr. Nur e-Din al-Atassi continued “to extol the outrages” against Israel committed by the sabotage gangs operating under Syrian encouragement.
Labor Minister Yigal Allon had ruled that the 40 temporary workers in Ashdod Port, who the previous month staged a hunger strike to press their claims for permanent employment in the port, be hired by the Ports Authority for two years with “full rights for guaranteed employment.”
10 YEARS AGO
On March 28, 2007, The Jerusalem Post reported that for the first time since 2000, Israel and the Palestinians would begin regular discussion on all aspects of a future Palestinian state except for borders, Jerusalem and refugees, a senior Israeli diplomatic officer declared. This official comment followed US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice’s announcement at a Jerusalem press conference that prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas had agree to hold bi-weekly meetings. Rice senta message to the Arab League that the meetings would be “creative.”
Palestinian workers searched for bodies in Gaza’s Umm Naser village, where six people died and everything was lost “in a flood of some 60,000 cubic meters of sewage.”
– Alexander Zvielli