FROM OUR ARCHIVES

65 YEARS AGO

November 16, 1952

Stringent regulations on the use of power in Jerusalem were proposed by the municipality in order to lighten the demand on the system until the electricity supply could be increased. Proposed restrictions included night work for bakers and other industrial workers; only one light burning at any time in each apartment; a ban on all electrical appliances, except for irons, and then only between 1 and 4 p.m.; dividing the city into zones, with each zone receiving electricity at two-and-a-half-hour intervals. The Jerusalem Electric Corporation promised that efforts would be made to supply current to the evening shows at cinemas, but not for matinees.

Israel presented a 10-point plan aimed at breaking the deadlock over the prisoner-of-war issue in Korea, leading to a potential armistice. The plan was put forward in the UN General Assembly’s Political Committee by Abba Eban, Israel’s representative to the UN. The plan sought to meet the Allied stand that prisoners should not be forced at the point of a bayonet to return to their own country against their will, and at the same time tried to meet objections by the Communists that prisoners should not be forcibly retained.

50 YEARS AGO

November 16, 1967

A cloudburst struck Jerusalem, obscuring the city with a heavy downpour of rain and hailstones. Over 160 cases of flooded dwellings and businesses were reported, most of them in Baka, Katamon and the German Colony. The storm also caused several electricity breakdowns, and at times brought the busy afternoon traffic to a standstill as ankle-deep water covered the streets. The sunken section in front of the Western Wall became a small lake during the night. There were several cases in which firemen were attacked by irate residents, who claimed the fire brigade was late in answering calls. One fireman lost consciousness after being seized by the throat by a resident of the Baka neighborhood. The fire brigade said that it was so swamped with calls that it could not supply sufficient engines.

Tel Aviv District Court Judge Shlomo Lowenberg ruled that “he did not believe that in a modern city there is a need for synagogues and residential premises to be next to each other.” He rejected the appeal of residents who had applied to convert an apartment into a synagogue. The judge reproved the municipality of “a modern city” for approving the conversion. The day of the shtibl has passed, he said.

Justice minister Y.S. Shapira said that the law on pornography was strict enough, but the problem was how to define pornography. His comment was in response to a proposed amendment to the penal law by MK Haim Landau (Gahal) which provided a special punishment for people who printed or displayed pornographic pictures on the front and back covers of magazines. Landau quoted a list of lewd titles such as Naked Truth and Underground Striptease and claimed that sexual offenses between minors were increasing and that youth were being corrupted. MK Uri Avnery (Ha’olam Hazeh) moved to strike the bill from the agenda (provoking Landau to say: “Sex is his fatherland.”) Avnery said the campaign against nudity in magazines was a dinosaur-style morality adopted by present-day fascists, and quoted Mein

Kampf to prove it.