FROM OUR ARCHIVES

65 YEARS AGO

On April 9, 1952, The Jerusalem Post reported that The Hague talks on German reparations had been suspended only temporarily. The Israeli delegation to the talks was understood to have exhausted its instructions and now had to wait for further instructions from the Israeli government.

Some surprise was reported to have been caused by the German statement that consultations with Israel must take place with the German delegation to the External Debts Conference in London, before a declaration concerning any payments could be made. The Germans had originally agreed with Israel’s contention that the Israeli claim was morally justified and should not be a matter of commercial bargaining or legal arguments, therefore this German statement caused consternation.

Fisticuffs and near-riots marked the distribution of ice at the Tel Arza ice factory in Jerusalem, as thousands of customers, many of them waiting since daybreak, refused to believe that there was no ice left for customers eager to observe an otherwise rather austere Passover.

50 YEARS AGO

On April 9, 1967, The Jerusalem Post reported that six Syrian MiG-21 planes were shot down over the eastern shore of Lake Kinneret in one of the most serious clashes on the northern border since the War of Independence. Jet fighters, tanks, guns, mortars and machine guns were used by both sides in a seven-hour battle. As a result of the mortar fire, a second lieutenant was fatally wounded. It was believed that Syrians suffered 30 to 40 casualties. Three of the Syrian planes fell inside their own territory, and the other three in Jordan.

Kibbutz Gadot suffered heavy damage when it was hit by 200 shells. Israel submitted a complaint to the UN Security Council. Israel denied Syrian claims that it lost five Mirages in air battles and said “all our planes returned safely to their bases.”

“Peace and the protection of our border settlements” were our main aim, prime minister Levi Eshkol told Kol Yisrael radio. “Our planes halted destruction of our border settlements and had direct instructions to enter Syrian territory, as deeply as Damascus, in order to prevent Syrian planes from reaching Israel. The fact that our planes reached as far as Damascus surprised the Syrian authorities.”

25 YEARS AGO

On April 9, 1992, The Jerusalem Post reported that the number of unemployment claims filed with the National Insurance Institute set a record the previous month at 83,000. Particularly worrying was the number of new claims filed – 15,300, an increase of 10% over the previous month.

In Buenos Aires, investigators probing the March 17, 1992, bombing of the Israeli Embassy were not sure, beyond all doubt, that it was destroyed by a car bomb. A spokesman for the Supreme Court, which was coordinating the investigation, said that it might have been a bomb in the basement.

The first evidence that PLO chairman Yasser Arafat had survived a plane crash in the Libyan desert was shown on Israeli TV, which ran footage of the bandaged Palestinian leader lying in a hospital bed in Libya. His right eye was bandaged, but he was smiling. Palestinians celebrated his survival.

The Justice Ministry confirmed that Josef Mengele, the “Angel of Death” of Auschwitz, was certainly dead and that he had died in Brazil in 1979.