FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
The Knesset increased compensation for war invalids, war widows and orphans and for casualties in labor accidents. In addition to raising basic monthly allowances for these groups, the bill’s provisions were designed to encourage the bereaved to rebuild their lives by continuing grants in cases of remarriage or if widows went into business. Another bill amended the Hours of Work and Rest Law by permitting laborers to work 94 hours in two weeks instead of 47 hours a week in cases where factory work was staggered to divide the electricity load due to fuel rationing.
“A whole range of experiences” were contained in the letters sent to Bank Leumi requesting the exchange of old banknotes for new ones after the exchange period had expired. The letters told of cases where a bereaved family refrained from touching the money contained in the clothes of the deceased. There were sad or happy events which made people forget banknotes had been tucked away somewhere. There were cases of people who were abroad at the time of exchange and others who only recently found money when shirts, pants and jackets were prepared for washing. In bona fide cases, the old notes would be exchanged.
50 YEARS AGO
The cabinet agreed not to alter its earlier decision to permit the return of West Bank residents from Transjordan, after there were a number of examples of Jordanian authorities pressuring refugees to return to the West Bank for the express purpose of subverting the State of Israel from within. There were reports of the Jordanian speaker of the parliament touring the refugee centers, warning the former West Bank inhabitants that their allowances would be cut off unless they applied to return. The cabinet did decide that applications for return would be carefully screened in order to weed out all individuals who might constitute security risks. West Bank residents allowed to return would probably be divided into groups in accordance with their areas of residence, and invited to come with their groups.
25 YEARS AGO
Israeli Arab leaders launched a nationwide campaign to collect funds and essential supplies for delivery to victims of the fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The money, clothing and other urgently needed supplies would be collected and transferred to the Foreign Ministry for delivery to the appropriate agencies. The leaders were also pressing the ministry to make arrangements to bring orphaned and wounded Muslim youngsters to Israel, saying that hundreds had expressed a willingness to give them a home. The ministry itself had expressed its willingness to assist Israeli Arabs wanting to take in children from the fighting as part of the general humanitarian aid Israel intended to give to victims of the conflict, regardless of race, creed or religion.
Likud Knesset faction chairman Moshe Katsav announced that he would contend for his party’s leadership in the following year’s primaries. Speaking at a press conference, Katsav called himself a “perfect product of Israeli society, since, living here since age five, my entire personality and outlook has been molded in the State of Israel.”