FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On August 9, 1951, The Jerusalem Post reported that the 120 seats of the Second Knesset had been distributed as follows: Mapai 45, General Zionists 20, Mapam 15, Hapoel Hamizrahi 8, Herut 8, Communists 5, Progressives 4, Agudat Yisrael 3, Arab Democrats 3, Sephardi General Zionists 2, Mizrahi 2, Poalei Agudat Israel 2, Yemenites 1, Nazareth Arab List 1, Druse List 1.
Prime minister David Ben-Gurion said that all parties elected to the Second Knesset, except for Herut and the Communists, would be welcome to join his next government. He added, however, that he would make no concessions on economic policy to the General Zionists.
In Paris, Ely Palmer, US representative and chairman of the Palestine Conciliation Commission, denied a statement issued by the commission’s office in Jerusalem disclosing that it was preparing “new and far-reaching proposals to settle the Palestine problem.” He also declined to discuss the nature of the commission’s report to the UN General Assembly now being completed.
The Court of the World Zionist Congress, the body authorized to study the legality of the various elections and to confirm the mandates of Congress delegates, held its first session in Jerusalem and confirmed the election results in 18 countries. The next meeting was to be held shortly.
Because of a shortage of chlorine, the Tel Aviv beach was to be open for bathing only three days a week: Sundays, Thursdays and Saturdays, the municipality had announced. On the remaining days black flags would be flown from the lifeguard stations. The chlorine, when available, had been placed at two of Tel Aviv’s main sewage outlets to the sea. The previous week the IDF declared the Tel Aviv beach off limits to military personnel following analyses made by the IDF’s Medical Services.
50 YEARS AGO
On August 9, 1966, The Jerusalem Post reported that four Israeli citizens who were held in Syrian prisons were exchanged for six Syrians at the Bnot Ya’acov Bridge checkpost. Yosef Shemesh, 43, who crossed the border in 1954, Shlomo Yiofrach, 32, who crossed the border in 1955 on charge of disorderly conduct, Yitzhak Reznik, who disappeared from a mental hospital in Acre in 1957, and Yehuda Vaknin, 26, who crossed the border in 1963. The repatriates were in a fairly well shape. In addition a 41-year-old resident of Lod, Angelo Priarnia, who crossed the border to Jordan for unknown reasons two weeks ago, was returned to Israel through the Mandelbaum Gate in Jerusalem. The man said he was questioned, but not maltreated.
In Cambridge, British judge Sir Seymour Karminsky told an international conference on Christian-Jewish cooperation there that neo-Nazism was still a threat. Speaking as chairman at the opening of a weeklong conference, Karminsky told about 100 rabbis, churchmen and laymen from Europe, North America and Israel: “Anti-Semitism manifests itself in the minds of non-thinkers, the dull, the unhappy and the psychopaths, and it is still a threat.”
25 YEARS AGO
On August 9, 1991, The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel welcomed the release by the pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad to the Syrian army in Lebanon of British hostage John McCarthy and expressed its willingness to participate in a prisoner exchange provided Israelis believed to be held in Lebanon were included. Alert and smiling despite five years of confinement, McCarthy said he had a letter from his captors to the UN chief that held out hope for other Western captives in Lebanon.
In Istanbul, Syrian foreign minister Farouk Shara said that the release of a British hostage in Lebanon was a test to see whether the West would now bring pressure on Israel to free Lebanese and Palestinians held there.
– Alexander Zvielli