FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
A municipal garden would soon be superimposed on the sand dunes of Tel Aviv. The park, which would be open to the public, covered an area of 70 dunams [seven hectares], from Max Nordau Boulevard to Jabotinsky Street. Named by the municipality “Gan Ha’atzmaut [Independence Garden]”, it featured wide lawns which were originally grown in fertile black soil, evergreen pine shrubs, tamarisk trees and palms. The pines and tamarisks were uprooted from Tel Aviv streets where they grew too profusely.
The American press devoted prominent space to an exhibition of Israeli fashion goods on show at the Rockefeller Plaza in New York, which was connected with the Israel Bond Drive and aimed at displaying a wide variety of products turned out by Israel’s expanding industries. At the opening of the exhibition the wife of the mayor of New York wore an item made by “Rachel, Tel Aviv,” a fact proudly underlined by Mrs. Suzy Eban, under whose patronage the show was ceremoniously inaugurated. Dr. E Justic, general secretary of the Union of Israel Fashion Industry, who accompanied the models to New York, mentioned that Hadassah had “pledged itself to go out of its way in order to make its hundreds of thousands of members “Israel Fashion-minded.”
50 YEARS AGO
The shopkeepers’ closure in the eastern part of Jerusalem was complete, and Arab bus lines also did not operate. The strike was designed to demonstrate to a visiting UN envoy “the citizens’ dissatisfaction at the annexation of Arab Jerusalem by Israel,” according to residents interviewed. The leaflets ordering this strike were signed by a nebulous “Organization for the Defense of Jerusalem,” whose headquarters and motivators appeared to be on the other side of the Jordan. A haberdasher told a Post reporter that a man wearing a keffiyeh had warned her that fedayeen would burn down her shop if she tried to open.
Jordan agreed to resume the transfer to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of funds sent to people by relatives in Transjordan or elsewhere. The agreement had been reached with the International Red Cross for the opening of special bank accounts for this purpose in Geneva and Amman. These remittances had in the previous 14 years been a large part of the “national income” of these areas. The government also decided to pay full salaries to all its erstwhile employees in the West Bank who refused to cooperate with Israeli authorities. Jordan’s finance minister also said “Every refugee should return [to the West Bank] to help his brothers to continue their political action and remain a thorn in the flesh of the aggressor until the crisis has been solved.” All refugees who refused the opportunity to return would be denied further aid by the Jordanian government.
10 YEARS AGO
World chess champion Garry Kasparov announced his plans to play the world’s best chess computer, Deep Junior, in Jerusalem. Kasparov said Jerusalem was chosen for the contest because Deep Junior’s creators were Israeli, and he wanted to “take this opportunity to express my solidarity with the Israeli people who are now subject to an unprecedented reign of terror.” Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert said he was betting on Kasparov to win. [It turned out to be a 3-3 draw.]