FROM OUR ARCHIVES

50 YEARS AGO

December 20, 1967 Five Muslim nations abandoned attempts to appoint a United Nations custodian for property left by Palestinian Arab refugees in Israel. The sponsors decided not to press the resolution in the General Assembly, where it was apparent it would not gain the necessary two-thirds majority. The resolution aimed at having lands, houses and other properties abandoned by Arabs who left Palestine in the 1948 war, and those who fled during and after the June war, placed in the care of a UN official, who would collect the income and distribute it among the original owners. Israel, backed by the US and most Western countries, had condemned the proposal as legally invalid and completely impracticable.

In 1967 there were 5,200 television sets in the territories and 22,000 in Israel, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. The figure did not include public places such as cafes and hotels. The highest concentration was in east Jerusalem, where 6.4% of households had television sets, as against the national Israeli average of 3.5%. Over half the Arab population had radio sets. The proportion of radios in Israel was 92% for Jewish households and 82% for non-Jewish households.

25 YEARS AGO

December 20, 1992 Two lawyers filed a petition with the High Court of Justice asking that the 415 Hamas and Islamic Jihad members deported three days earlier be returned to Israel, until a country that would accept them could be found. The petition stated that the deportees’ health and well-being were in danger, and accuses the government of shirking its legal responsibility. At the time, the deportees were stuck in “no man’s land” between the security zone and the rest of Lebanon, because the Lebanese would not allow them to enter. The Red Cross provided tents and food. In the petition, the lawyers held Israel responsible for the fate of the deportees, saying that, according to international law, the state was obliged to look after their safety and welfare. “The government has only effected half a deportation,” attorney Avigdor Feldman said. “We may as well have thrown them into the sea. You cannot just deport these people, abandon them in no man’s land in freezing weather and without suitable conditions, and say they are no longer our responsibility.”

10 YEARS AGO

December 20, 2007 Aliya groups were in an uproar over an unprecedented IDF decision to call up new immigrants who had already served in the army under the Mahal volunteer program. According to the IDF, Mahal volunteers who made aliya were required to reenlist and complete 30 months of military service, even though aliya groups noted that there were no documented cases of a Mahalnik who was called back into service after immigrating to Israel.

A government proposal to levy taxes on housewives was harshly criticized and potentially stopped with politicians calling for that element of the budget to be immediately removed. At the time, a nonworking woman’s spouse covered the cost of her health insurance, whereas under the proposed arrangement, the woman would have to pay this fee separately. Valeria Seigel Shaifer, a social justice advocate, told The Jerusalem Post that she did not know of any other country that had a tax on housewives.