FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
February 11, 1953
All senior police officers in Tel Aviv had been on their toes for over 24 hours, searching for the perpetrators of the bombing of the Soviet Legation in Tel Aviv which injured three of the legation staff. All Soviet bloc legations in Tel Aviv were being closely guarded with plainclothes officers and police dogs touring the vicinity. Police were permitted into the courtyard of the Soviet Legation to examine the area for clues. As professional investigators they made no secret of the handicap of having to examine the scene 17 hours after the crime.
Nearly 10.5 percent of Israeli seamen deserted their ships abroad in 1952, communications minister Yosef Saphir told the Knesset. He was introducing a bill which would impose stiff punishment, including from one month to a year in prison and the forfeiture of the deserter’s belongings and pay. According to a dispatch from the Israeli Consulate in New York, the increase was “disquieting,” and had attracted the attention of American authorities. There was information, Saphir said, that an underground organization in New York provided jobs for the deserters. A number of Mapam and Communist MKs claimed the bill was anti-social and intended to tie workers to their jobs. Desertions, they said, were caused mainly by the bad conditions aboard Israeli ships.
25 YEARS AGO
February 11, 1993
MK Yael Dayan (Labor), who infuriated religious MKs a week earlier by holding a gathering of homosexuals and lesbians in the Knesset, brought down the house when she classified such Jewish historical figures as King David, Shmuel Hanagid, Shlomo Ibn Gvirol and Yehuda Halevi as homosexuals. Dayan appeared to enjoy the ruckus she created. As the angry shouting increased, she quoted from the biblical passage describing the relationship between David and Jonathan. MK Hanan Porat pleaded with Dayan to stop, saying “It’s a shame and a scandal to talk that way about David and Jonathan. Who gave you the right?” “I’m quoting the Bible word-for-word,” Dayan said. “Your interpretation is as good as mine. And I’m not interpreting. I’m just quoting the text.” As the catcalls continued, Dayan retorted: Maybe we should censor the Bible? Maybe we should delete the sentence ‘Wonderful was thy love to me, passing the love of women.’” She concluded her speech by “calling on Israeli society and this legislature to come out of the closet.” MK Yosef Ba-Gad (Moledet), in response to Dayan’s statement that everyone should be free to declare his or her sexual preference, shouted: “Let them do so at home, not in the Knesset. We don’t have to give it legitimacy [here].”
10 YEARS AGO
February 11, 2008
In a landmark decision, attorney-general Menahem Mazuz handed down a legal opinion that homosexual couples could adopt children in Israel “in the proper circumstances and when it is in the best interest of the child.” Until then, the government had not allowed homosexual couples in Israel to adopt children through the Welfare and Social Services Ministry’s Child Welfare Service.
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved a long-awaited bill to establish a witness-protection program to protect those who testify in the most serious criminal trials from revenge attacks. – Daniel Kra