FROM OUR ARCHIVES

65 YEARS AGO

The Israeli government renewed its offer to release part of the frozen bank accounts of Arab former residents of Palestine to the amount of IL 100 each, a total of about IL 500,000. While the offer was not linked with a request that the Palestine Conciliation Commission should arrange for the release of Jewish accounts in Iraq, it was hoped that action to that end would be taken. The total amount of frozen Arab bank balances in Israeli banks was thought to be about IL 5 million.

The Tel Aviv Municipality was in a dispute with the Health Ministry over requests to string barbed wire along the seashore to keep bathers from entering the polluted waters. The municipality suggested they might instead post notices stating that bathing was forbidden. Municipal health authorities claimed that chlorination of the two sewage outlets into the sea would have solved the problem of pollution, whereas the ministry claimed that nothing short of a radical reconstruction of the Tel Aviv sewage system would make bathing safe.

50 YEARS AGO

UN representative Gen. Odd Bull announced that his cease-fire group had delayed the start of its observation along the Suez Canal, the scene of heavy fighting over the weekend. He stated that the operation could not commence until “clarification” of the Egyptian position on the stationing of observers. In a cabinet meeting, defense minister Moshe Dayan aired his concerns pertaining to the presence of a squadron of Soviet warships at Port Said and Alexandria.

The first group of so-called hardship cases of West Bank Arabs was set to return from the East Bank the following day. Unlike the larger return scheme which had yet to begin, these returnees had no need to fill in application forms. The hardship cases were selected by the Red Cross.

Jerusalem’s Jewish burial societies began restoration work in the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. Working with their pre-1948 maps and lists, they began replacing gravestones on their proper graves, and placing markers on graves where stones had not been found. Numerous gravestones had been found scattered or smashed, and many others were found to have been used as building or paving stones in Jordanian villages, army camps, and also inside the Old City.

25 YEARS AGO

The new government placed a de-facto freeze on all new public housing starts throughout the country, in its first step towards reallocating resources away from Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district. The move provoked fierce criticism from settler groups over the fate of more than 14,000 units already under construction in Judea and Samaria.

Attempts were being made to reach a negotiated settlement of the showdown at An-Najah University in Nablus that would permit wanted fugitives inside the campus to leave for Jordan. The Nablus area remained under curfew. The IDF refused to allow food into the university, pointing out that students were free to leave. The pro-Hamas fugitives entered the university three days earlier to influence the student elections, won easily by a pro-PLO list.

The Second Channel could start broadcasting commercials and new privately owned radio stations would possibly be on the air by 1993, according to the Communications Ministry. – Daniel Kra