FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On July 4, 1951, The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel’s First Knesset had officially wound up its legislative activities, with the final approval of a number of amendments to the Military Service, Rent Control and Loans Law.
A shattering midday blast of more than half a ton of explosives killed eight workmen and injured six others at the northern quarry of Even v’Sid on Castel Hill, 17 km. west of Jerusalem. The 14 victims were gathered near two huts, containing explosives used for blasting. A small fire was seen emerging from the explosives hut before the blast which was heard throughout Jerusalem. Pieces of wood and tin were thrown over a 100-meter-wide area. Magen David Adom ambulances and rushed to the scene with a police escort.
Rail service to Jerusalem was resumed after a locomotive and two empty freight cars were derailed three days earlier.
The holiday-with-pay principle was now legally established in Israel following the final reading of the Annual Leave Bill in the Knesset.
Employees would now be entitled to a minimum of 14 days’ paid vacation as from October 1, 1951, when the bill came into force. Minimum requirements to be entitled to leave were: (1) the employee must have worked at least 200 days out of year’s contract; (2) must have worked 240 days for the same employer in any one of the 12-month period.
Although the majority of the Knesset Defense and Security Committee had rejected charges that Israeli diplomats had prevented the government from buying modern arms from Czechoslovakia, the Mapam and Herut opposition political parties persisted that the charges were valid and asked for investigation. Foreign minister Moshe Sharett told the Knesset that the opposition “distorted the content and intent” of the findings of the Defense Committee.
50 YEARS AGO
On July 4, 1966, The Jerusalem Post reported that president Zalman Shazar made his last official appearance in Chile, when he laid a wreath at the monument of Chilean naval heroes.
The Salomon Report found that a “special and severe order at governmental level,” banning all demonstrations in the presence of former German chancellor Dr. Konrad Adenauer during his visit to Israel in May 1966, and in particular by the fact that the contents of the order were not known either to the Hebrew University authorities or to the student body, was largely responsible for the clash between the police and students on the campus on May 5. The cabinet appointed a ministerial committee to decide what steps, if any, needed to be taken on the basis of the Solomon Report.
The Post’s editorial was dedicated to the inauguration of the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial and Peace Forest in the Judean Hills, fittingly on the 190th anniversary of American independence. The Jewish people and the distinguished American guests would be paying tribute there not only to this great man who was close to their hearts, but also to the ideas that he represented.
25 YEARS AGO
On July 4, 1991, The Jerusalem Post reported from Srinagar, India, that Muslim militants had freed Yair Yitzhaki, the Israeli tourist they had held hostage for six days in Kashmir, where they were fighting to secede from India. Yair’s parents, Shmuel and Shulamit Yitzhaki, could hardly contain their tears of joy and said that their prayers were answered.