FROM OUR ARCHIVES
50 YEARS AGO
September 13, 1967 In a report on the unified Jerusalem to UN secretary-general U Thant, UN envoy Ernesto Thalmann wrote: “During my visit I was struck by the great activity in the streets of the city. The uniforms were few and the weapons were fewer. Military policeman went about their duties in a matter-of-fact way. They appeared to be mostly concerned with directing traffic, which was quite heavy. The picture of the crowd in the Old City was dominated by tourists. Arabs and Jews were mingling.” Thalmann also reported that local Arab dignitaries had complained to him of the razing of Arab houses in the Mughrabi (Moroccan) Quarter next to the Western Wall; the destruction of Arab homes in the Jewish Quarter, and the attempts by the chief chaplain of the IDF to institute Jewish prayer sessions in the area of the Temple Mount. [The Mughrabi Quarter, an extension of the Muslim Quarter founded by a son of Saladin in the late 12th century, was razed by Israeli forces three days after the Six Day War in order to broaden the narrow alley leading to the Western Wall and prepare it for public access by Jews seeking to pray there.]
Letters and other postal materials sent to Poland from Israel bearing stamps that “praise aggressive acts against Arab states” would be returned to Israel by Polish authorities.
A group of three leading Indian personalities spent a week’s visit in Israel and were impressed at the lack of bitterness between Arabs and Israelis. “We have the impression that the man-in-thestreet, Arab or Israeli, just wants to get about his business peaceably. There are just a few politicians stirring up trouble,” said Indian MP Atal Vayjapee.
A proposed “crash TV scheme”, would fill the gap before the longer plan for general public TV in Israel was instated. It was expected to provide three-and-a-half hours of daily broadcasts in Arabic and a half-hour in Hebrew. The accent on programs for the Arab population aimed to counter anti-Israeli incendiary broadcasts from neighboring Arab stations, mainly Cairo.
Yehuda Tamir, newly appointed coordinator for east Jerusalem, said that his job was “to speed the peopling of Jerusalem, especially the new parts.” He said that it was his task to “try as quickly as possible to create the conditions that will make it possible for those who wish and have the means” to move into the new parts of Jerusalem to do so. [By June 1993, a Jewish majority was established in east Jerusalem. At the end of 2008, 195,500 Jews comprised 43% of east Jerusalem’s population.]
15 YEARS AGO
September 13, 2002 A man accused of trying to blow up an airliner with explosives in his shoes told FBI interrogators he was driven by anger over the treatment of Muslims in Israel. Richard Reid, 29, a British citizen and convert to Islam, told investigators that he traveled in June 2001 to Jerusalem’s Al Aksa Mosque and was angered to see “Jews with guns” inside. Asked why he didn’t choose to attack Israel, Reid told investigators, “America is the problem; without America there would be no Israel. He also said he was worried Palestinian groups would be too paranoid to trust him. – Daniel Kra