FROM OUR ARCHIVES
50 YEARS AGO
On August 11, 1966, The Jerusalem Post reported that the Knesset bade farewell to Beit Froumine, its old home in the center of Jerusalem, in preparation of its move to the new Knesset building in Jerusalem’s Kirya at the end of that month. The Knesset had moved into the Froumine building on March 13, 1950, when it was transferred to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv to impress upon world opinion – the overwhelming majority of which favored an internationalized Jerusalem – that Jerusalem and not Tel Aviv was the capital of Israel. In his summing-up speech, Knesset Speaker Kadish Luz urged the Knesset to adopt several reforms in its own working procedure in order to take full advantage of the elegant quarters into which they were moving.
The president of the Bundestag, Eugen Gerstenmaier, said in an interview with the West German trade union newspaper that “he was sorry to say that he believed that it was still too early to seek Jewish reconciliation with Germany”. “The Germans,” he went on, “must wait until Jews want contact with them again.” [Dr. Gerstenmaier was due in Israel at the end of August, to take part in the dedication of the new Knesset building.]
25 YEARS AGO
On August 11, 1991, The Jerusalem Post reported that four Palestinians were killed over the weekend, including two shot by troops, and another two who died of their wounds sustained earlier in the week. In Bethlehem, an alleged informer was axed to death, and the body of another Palestinian, kidnapped by masked men, was discovered in the courtyard of a medical clinic in Gaza. In east Jerusalem, three Israelis were slightly wounded after being hit by stones and bottles. In Rishon Lezion, a new immigrant from the Soviet Union, dentist Vladimir Makarov, 49, was stabbed 12 times by terrorists.
Israel had been making an intensive US media effort to display its willingness to negotiate a large-scale prisoner exchange, provided its seven missing soldiers were included in the deal. UN and US officials were negotiating the release of US hostages held by the pro-Iranian Lebanese kidnappers.
Agriculture minister Rafael Eitan threatened to pull his Tzomet political party out the coalition unless the government agreed to fire water commissioner Zemach Ishai. Eitan had been trying to oust Ishai from his post since he was criticized in the state comptroller’s report for his role in the country’s water shortage.
10 YEARS AGO
On August 11, 2006, The Jerusalem Post reported that US State Department envoy David Welsh held meetings with prime minister Ehud Olmert and foreign minister Tzipi Livni to coordinate positions on a new cease-fire proposal to be brought to the UN Security Council as soon as possible. In the North the boom of Katyusha rockets continued and IDF forces were waiting for orders to start a movement against Hezbollah, but the orders did not come. News of the possible cease-fire was having a mixed effect on the IDF soldiers massed at the Metulla border.
A 24-year-old European tourist was stabbed to death near Jerusalem’s Old City by an Arab assailant who threw the knife to the ground and fled. This attack came a month after a Jerusalem yeshiva student was stabbed and moderately wounded at the same spot.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was under growing pressure to dismantle the PA because of the continued violence in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Dismantling the PA, which was established in 1994, would have effectively meant a return to the pre-Oslo era, when Israel was in charge of civilian and security affairs in the whole area.
– Alexander Zvielli