FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On August 2, 1950, The Jerusalem Post reported that the Knesset had decided that Nazi criminals or collaborators who would fall into the hands of the Israeli authorities might be sent to the gallows. This followed the passage of legislation providing death penalty for persons who committed crimes against the Jewish nation, or humanity, since the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, or persons who were responsible for war crimes during World War II.
The House also passed the Child Marriage Law in its final reading, raising the minimum marriage for girls to 17, and imposing stricter penalties for child marriage.
Knesset members were to be exempt from military service, but were expected to get special training, according to a draft bill which was prepared for a vote.
Prime minister David Ben-Gurion was expected to meet the representatives of the General Merchant s’Association to discuss textile and footwear rationing. The Knesset was also demanding a debate on the latest rationing orders.
Various plans for increasing the revenue of the United Jewish Appeal in the US and the launching of a large-scale popular loan in Israel and America were discussed by cabinet ministers with members of the Jewish Agency and the UJA director Henry Montor in Jerusalem.
50 YEARS AGO
On August 2, 1965, The Jerusalem Post reported that prime minister Levi Eshkol told the cabinet that Lebanon had resumed work on the joint Arab scheme to divert the waters of the Jordan River. In a survey of the recent developments in the region, Eshkol also dwelt on the serious situation arising from the sabotage raids from across the Jordanian armistice line, and the Israeli diplomatic efforts in the major Western capitals in connection with both issues. Western sources were known to have urged moderation and had cautioned Israel from pressing forward with public warnings against Beirut, lest it make it difficult for the Lebanese government to heed Western counsels of caution. Eshkol said that Jordan had sent an unofficial message that it would attempt to curb the anti- Israeli sabotage. Israel was proceeding with moderation in the hope that diplomacy would succeed, before embarking on a more drastic action.
The Foreign Ministry was investigating a report that the man appointed by the West German Foreign Affairs Ministry as counselor to the West German Embassy to be opened here shortly, and thus the deputy to ambassador-designate Dr. Rolf Pauls, had been closely associated with the Nazis during World War II. The appointment of Alexander Toerock was known to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem some days earlier, although only heads of diplomatic missions with the rank of ambassador or minister required prior approval of the host country. The Foreign Ministry was now investigating the past of Toerock, a Hungarian who had become a naturalized German, and had formerly served in the Hungarian foreign service of Admiral Horthy’s puppet government.
– Alexander Zvielli