FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
On January 10, 1947, The Palestine Post reported that British troops and police had begun early morning searches of hotels in Levinsky and Aliya streets in Tel Aviv. Sections of the streets were cordoned off by the army, and strong detachments were also concentrated at entrances to the city. More than 200 Jews had been detained following various searches during the previous 10 days.
In London, Scotland Yard’s Special Branch detectives were investigating a series of threats received by members of the Jewish community there. Most of the letters threatened reprisals if terrorism continued in Palestine. One of the four synagogues which had recently been burnt had received such a letter. The threat was believed to have come from the King’s Cross Gang.
The American Jewish Congress had demanded that the US State Department order an inquiry in Palestine with regard to the recent incident of the beating and gauntlet-running of Jewish residents of the Montefiore Quarter of Tel Aviv.
50 YEARS AGO
On January 10, 1962, The
Jerusalem Post reported that the Haifa District Court passed a fiveyear prison sentence on Aharon Cohen, 53, a founding member of Kibbutz Sha’ar Ha’amakim and Mapam political party’s expert on Middle Eastern affairs. Cohen was found guilty on three violations of the security law: obtaining information likely to be of use to the enemy, intent to harm the country’s security and interest of the state, and passing information to a foreign agent without being authorized to do so.
Education minister Abba Eban stated in the Knesset that with regard to cultural relations with Germany, government policy was that not everything was permissible, but neither was everything forbidden. The House, by a majority rule, accepted this decision and a number of rules was approved as a guide to cultural ties. The first rule was concerned with Israel’s participation in international events in Germany, and in German events in Israel. It was agreed that suitable visits, particularly of young people, would be permitted and so would general information activities. But it was decided that, as far as it depended on the government, no Germans would be permitted to perform in Israel. Israelis below army age were not encouraged to study in Germany or attend institutions established with German aid.
10 YEARS AGO
On January 10, 2002, The
Jerusalem Post reported that an IDF officer and three soldiers were killed and two were wounded in a pre-dawn attack by gunmen on the “Africa” IDF outpost, near the southern Gaza Strip border fence. The IDF closed three Palestinian naval positions and two other fortified positions of the Palestinian security forces near the site of the attack. All the Israeli casualties were members of the Beduin Desert Patrol Battalion.
Prime minister Ariel Sharon told US secretary of state Colin Powell that this attack on Israel was a result of the Palestinian Authority’s failure to dismantle Hamas. It demonstrated conclusively that the Palestinian Authority was on the warpath.
The cabinet halted the construction of a mosque in Nazareth that many Christians regarded as a deliberate provocation, since it was near the Basilica of the Annunciation.
- Alexander Zvielli