FROM OUR ARCHIVES

65 YEARS AGO

The Higher Study Bill, which would establish a Council for Higher Studies, passed its first reading in the Knesset. The legislation would also provide for the establishment of a Hebrew Language Academy, as well as requiring newspapers and book publishers to supply two copies each to the various ministries, state archives and university libraries. A number of MKs took the opportunity to attack the government’s press policy and censorship, with some calling for an easing of the censorship setup by making provisions for appeals against the censor’s decisions.

Several thousand residents had already officially refused Israeli citizenship, according to the Interior Ministry. Under the Nationality Law, residents had to apply in order to renounce Israeli nationality. Although applicants were not required to cite the reasons for their refusal to become citizens, the Immigration Division reported that “it had been determined that the great majority did so for business reasons.” Many residents owned businesses in countries where they would be forced to sell out if they acquired foreign citizenship. A number of other residents observed that their country of origin did not permit dual citizenship and that they were not yet ready to lose their original nationality. Most of the applicants refusing citizenship came from North Africa and Turkey, with a large number also coming from English-speaking countries.

50 YEARS AGO

An Egyptian armored company crossed the Suez Canal into Sinai and engaged Israeli troops, in violation of the cease-fire. No further information was available at press time. An Egyptian communiqué claimed that Israeli forces had pushed into Egyptian territory and that Egyptian forces were fighting back. According to military observers in Tel Aviv, the likeliest explanation for the Egyptian move was that Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser was trying to rally his shattered army by creating a threat of an Israeli “invasion” of the Egyptian mainland.

It took two hours and 50 minutes to destroy the Egyptian Air Force, according to Maj.-Gen. Mordechai Hod of the Israel Air Force. He said IAF planes attacked 10 Egyptian airfields simultaneously. Over 300 Egyptian planes were destroyed. (The tally at the war’s end was 452 enemy aircraft destroyed, of which 60 were downed in air battles.) Hod also explained the abysmal failures of the Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi attacks. He provided as an example an Iraqi bomber who dropped three bombs over Netanya before being shot down. Captured pilots who returned from Iraq said the Iraqis had questioned them endlessly about the fate of the plane they sent to bomb Tel Aviv. It appeared that the pilot, a colonel and one of the commanders of the Iraqi Air Force, simply made a mistake.

25 YEARS AGO

A leaflet from a PLO affiliate warned Palestinians not to place great hopes in a government led by Yitzhak Rabin and called for the intifada to continue.

Ten Jewish women from Beit Hadassah blocked a street in Hebron for 30 minutes, before being removed by troops. They were demanding the IDF close Arab shops in the area. The protest followed the stabbing of Hebron Jewish resident Hillel Horowitz outside Beit Hadassah the week before.