FROM OUR ARCHIVES
65 YEARS AGO
November 2, 1952
Police headquarters reported a “very unusually quiet weekend” all over the country. No serious crimes, accidents or traffic deaths were reported.
50 YEARS AGO
November 2, 1967
Most of the more than 50,000 graves in the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives had been desecrated by the Jordanians, and all but two of the Old City’s Jewish Quarter synagogues were destroyed, according to a Religious Affairs Ministry investigative committee. The desecration and destruction were systematic, carried out by or with the approval of the authorities. Tombstones were used as building stones by the Jordanian Army or sold to contractors. According to testimony collected by the committee, the Jordanians even posted a guard at the Mount of Olives cemetery to prevent individuals from removing tombstones without the proper permits.
The Gaza municipality agreed that the city would be connected to the national electricity grid, thus ending a prolonged dispute with the military government. The mayor of Gaza had opposed the plan because he feared it would herald the incorporation of Gaza into Israel. The mayor was eventually persuaded that the connection would be of great economic advantage to Gaza and that this was the purpose of the move. Electricity supplied by the Israeli company would cost 10 agorot per kilowatt-hour as opposed to 27 agorot they were paying up to that point.
25 YEARS AGO
November 2, 1992
The IDF started a new operation, code-named “Mills of Justice,” in order to shorten the legal procedures facing some 1,500 Palestinian detainees who had been held in IDF detention centers for more than a year without trial. Following complaints to the Defense Ministry from humanitarian and voluntary organizations that Israel was holding detainees without trial, the IDF started a study which led to prime minister Yitzhak Rabin authorizing the beginning of the operation. The IDF hastily built new courtrooms in the territories. The IDF also called up judges into reserve service, and reinforced the military police and brought reinforcements of soldiers to escort the detainees to and from court. Sources in the judge advocate-general’s office said that there were about 14,000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners in the territories at the time.
15 YEARS AGO
November 2, 2002
The Tel Aviv District Court rejected a request by Yigal Amir, assassin of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, to leave jail to attend the circumcision of his son – but said the ceremony could take place in the Negev prison where he was being held. The boy was to be circumcised on the 12th anniversary of Rabin’s slaying. Although he was held in isolation at Rimonim Prison, Amir had been permitted conjugal visits with his wife, whom he married while in prison. The baby was born at a time of growing sympathy for commuting Amir’s sentence. In recent weeks, extremists and Amir’s family had launched a campaign to have him released from prison. Stickers, posters and 150,000 copies of a video featuring his mother, wife and supporters vowing to free him by the next spring were being circulated. A newspaper poll indicated that a quarter of Israelis, including half of religiously observant Jews, thought Amir should be pardoned in 2015 after serving 20 years.
– Daniel Kra