FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On May 16, 1952, The Jerusalem Post reported that “there will be no renewal of [reparations] negotiations with the Germans as long as reasonable proposals to the Israeli delegation comes from them,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman announced officially.
Prof. Franz Boehm, leader of the German delegation to the reparations talks with Israel in The Hague, and Herman Abe, leader of the German delegation to the London Debts Conference, discussed the offer of reparations to be presented to Israel.
Israel and Japan had agreed to establish diplomatic relations. A Foreign Ministry spokesman refused to divulge where or by whom the agreement had been reached.
The week-long conference of the Zionist General Council ended at about in the Jewish Agency’s Hall in Jerusalem, hammering out a series of compromises on the knotty problems concerning the status of the Zionist Movement, Bonds Drive-United Jewish Appeal relations in the US, and after appointing Mr. S. Rapoport as comptroller. The Post published all 12 articles of the proposed Israeli bill on the status of the World Zionist Organization.
The Agriculture Ministry announced that according to the latest information on locusts the swarms did not endanger Israeli crops.
A popular housing scheme started at the Beit Mazmil neighborhood [later known as Kiryat Hayovel] of Jerusalem.
50 YEARS AGO
On May 16, 1967, The Jerusalem Post reported that in Geneva Israel concluded customs reductions with the US, Britain and the Scandinavian countries, in the framework of the Kennedy Round.
Over 200,000 people viewed the IDF’s Independence Day parade in Jerusalem. High spirits marked a colorful display. The UN Mixed Armistice Commission declined to act on Jordan’s complaint against the parade. However, many diplomats stayed away. President Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya sent messages of best wishes to president Zalman Shazar on the occasion of Israel’s 19th birthday.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman in Jerusalem dismissed Arab contentions about Israeli troop concentrations. He said the only concentrations in Israel were “concentrations of tourists.”
10 YEARS AGO
On May 16, 2007, The Jerusalem Post reported that with the security cabinet in the midst of reassessing policy towards the Gaza Strip, 18 people were wounded as 20 rockets fell on Sderot.
Hamas was trying to divert attention from the internecine fighting in the Gaza Strip by firing dozens of Kassam rockets at Israel. At least 15 Palestinians were killed and 70 were wounded in bloody clashes between Fatah and Hamas militiamen in Gaza.
The situation in the Gaza Strip cannot continue, prime minister Ehud Olmert told Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Aqaba, hours before a barrage of Kassam rockets hit Sderot. Olmert told the king “that Israel says no to the Gaza attacks, but says yes to talks on the Arab peace plan.”
Forty years later, Israeli authors published a book claiming that the Soviets engineered the Six Day War “to destroy Israel’s nuclear program.”