FROM OUR ARCHIVES

65 YEARS AGO

On July 31, 1950, The Jerusalem Post reported that the just inaugurated system of clothing and footwear rationing was to use the same coupon book as was currently used for food rationing. Coupons could be detached only at the time of purchase, and could not be transferred. Woolen goods were expensive in points, while cotton goods were considerably cheaper. Dresses ranged from eight to 100 points, according to the material, or whether they were with or without sleeves.

Answers to the Manpower Census questionnaires continued to arrive at the Central Bureau of Statistics at the Kirya in Tel Aviv, at a rate of almost 3,000 a day, which was “quite good” according to the bureau’s statisticians. Up to July 30, 1950, 12,000 completed forms had been returned to the census office.

25 YEARS AGO

On July 31, 1990, The Jerusalem Post reported that IDF tanks shelled Hezbollah positions in Kafr Jarjouh in the battle-scared Iklim al Toufah region of South Lebanon, killing 10 gunmen and wounding 15.

IDF troops had uncovered an underground hideout and weapons cache in the Nablus casbah which was used by “The Revolutionary Security Apparatus,” a group responsible for the killing of informers.

A 15-year-old Palestinian boy shot in the head during a stone-throwing clash in Nablus died of his wounds in Sheba Hospital at Tel Hashomer.

Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court judge Sara Gadot granted a five-day extension of the remand of six Arabs from the territories suspected of planting a pipe bomb on Tel Aviv’s Jerusalem Beach that killed 17-year-old Canadian tourist Marnie Kimmelman and wounded 17, on June 28, 1990.

Recipients of National Insurance were to receive an additional NIS 27 a month from August 1990, to compensate them for the elimination of bread subsidies, finance minister Yitzhak Moda’i told the Knesset Finance Committee. This allowance was expected to cover only half of the erosion, but Moda’i promised that he would not eliminate milk subsidies, at least for the time being.