Sunday, June 16, 2013
50 Years Since Ben Gurion's Resignation
David Ben Gurion resigned 50 years ago today, on June 16, 1963. While he had briefly retired to Sdeh Boker in 1954, passing the prime minster's baton to Moshe Sharett, this time he was serious about leaving, as everyone understood. He was 77 years old; he had been the leader of the Yishuv, the State-in-Waiting and the State itself, for more than 40 years. 50 years later, he is still the undisputed greatest leader the Zionist movement has ever called forth, to the extent that even a carefully non-political blog such as this has no hesitation in naming him.
On the anniversary of his departure, the ISA has published a collections of documents surrounding the event (in Hebrew). Here are three of them.
At the time, many people, politicians and ordinary folks alike, feared that his departure would be a blow to what was still a fledgling country. But not everyone. The delegation of the Herut, the largest opposition party, told President Shazar, whosummoned them for consultations before deciding whom to entrust with the task of setting up the next government, that they were glad Ben Gurion was leaving, and they hoped his departure would be good for the country. Two points stand out from their discussion. First, that they addressed the president in the third person, almost as to aristocracy. Hard to imagine that in Israel's political culture now, or anytime in the recent past - but in 1963 the country was still young, leaders still cast at least a semblance of awe, or at least minimal respect. The second point is that they felt Ben Gurion's departure had something to do with the crises surrounding the German rocket scientists employed by Egypt. Some stories never die, they merely fade and then return.
The other two documents are newsreels. The first is narrated in French (no idea why) and tells of Ben Gurion's trip to the United State in 1951; the second is narrated in Arabic (???) and tells of Levy Eshkol's trip to the US in 1964. Ben Gurion's trip was unofficial Eshkol's was official, but the different tone of the two films is probably more fundamental than a matter of protocol. Ben Gurion basked in public adulation; Eshkol came to do business. It's worth watching them even if your language skills aren't sufficient.
On the anniversary of his departure, the ISA has published a collections of documents surrounding the event (in Hebrew). Here are three of them.
At the time, many people, politicians and ordinary folks alike, feared that his departure would be a blow to what was still a fledgling country. But not everyone. The delegation of the Herut, the largest opposition party, told President Shazar, whosummoned them for consultations before deciding whom to entrust with the task of setting up the next government, that they were glad Ben Gurion was leaving, and they hoped his departure would be good for the country. Two points stand out from their discussion. First, that they addressed the president in the third person, almost as to aristocracy. Hard to imagine that in Israel's political culture now, or anytime in the recent past - but in 1963 the country was still young, leaders still cast at least a semblance of awe, or at least minimal respect. The second point is that they felt Ben Gurion's departure had something to do with the crises surrounding the German rocket scientists employed by Egypt. Some stories never die, they merely fade and then return.
The other two documents are newsreels. The first is narrated in French (no idea why) and tells of Ben Gurion's trip to the United State in 1951; the second is narrated in Arabic (???) and tells of Levy Eshkol's trip to the US in 1964. Ben Gurion's trip was unofficial Eshkol's was official, but the different tone of the two films is probably more fundamental than a matter of protocol. Ben Gurion basked in public adulation; Eshkol came to do business. It's worth watching them even if your language skills aren't sufficient.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Immigrants to Israel, 1948-1952
File ג-3101/12 contains hundreds of pages of letters, reports and statistics about immigration to Israel between May 15, 1948 and the end of December 1952, as filed by someone in David Ben Gurion's office. Our previous post, about the tragic chaos in the immigrant camps, comes from this file; since it has lots of interesting things in it, we'll return to it in a future post or three. Now, however, we'd like to present the last document in the file, a list which was apparently drawn up in July 1953, summing up the statistics of the immigration.
Bear in mind that in May 1948 when Israel became independent, there were some 600,000 Jews in the country. By the time the battles subsided, towards the end of that year, 110,000 immigrants had arrived, 6,000 Jews had been killed in the war, and the stabilizing borders contained 100,000 Arabs or perhaps a bit more. 800-850,000 people all in all.
By the end of 1952, 738,891 immigrants had arrived (this includes the 110,000 who arrived in the second half of 1948). Of course, the immigration didn't end in December 1952, but that's beyond the scope of our file.
Muslim countries:
Turkey 35,025
Syria and Lebanon 34,608
Iraq 124,226
Yemen and Aden 48,375
Other Asian countries 7,579
Tunesia, Marroco, Algeria 52,584
Lybia 32,129
Egypt 17,114
Total Muslim countries: 377,251 of 889,700
Communist satelite states:
Poland 106,751
Romania 121,537
Bulgaria 37,703
Czechoslovakia 18,815
Hungary 14,519
Yugoslavia 7,757
Total Comunist states: 307,082 of 729,000
Western states:
South Africa 538
Other Africa 576
Germany & Austria 11,013
Other Europe 19,605
Latin America 2,025
Total Western states: 33,706 of 1,746,230
USA & Canada 1,809 of 5,200,000
Unidentified 18,989
Grand total 738,891 of 8,564,930
The USSR is not on the list.
Bear in mind that in May 1948 when Israel became independent, there were some 600,000 Jews in the country. By the time the battles subsided, towards the end of that year, 110,000 immigrants had arrived, 6,000 Jews had been killed in the war, and the stabilizing borders contained 100,000 Arabs or perhaps a bit more. 800-850,000 people all in all.
By the end of 1952, 738,891 immigrants had arrived (this includes the 110,000 who arrived in the second half of 1948). Of course, the immigration didn't end in December 1952, but that's beyond the scope of our file.
Muslim countries:
Turkey 35,025
Syria and Lebanon 34,608
Iraq 124,226
Yemen and Aden 48,375
Other Asian countries 7,579
Tunesia, Marroco, Algeria 52,584
Lybia 32,129
Egypt 17,114
Total Muslim countries: 377,251 of 889,700
Communist satelite states:
Poland 106,751
Romania 121,537
Bulgaria 37,703
Czechoslovakia 18,815
Hungary 14,519
Yugoslavia 7,757
Total Comunist states: 307,082 of 729,000
Western states:
South Africa 538
Other Africa 576
Germany & Austria 11,013
Other Europe 19,605
Latin America 2,025
Total Western states: 33,706 of 1,746,230
USA & Canada 1,809 of 5,200,000
Unidentified 18,989
Grand total 738,891 of 8,564,930
The USSR is not on the list.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Golda Meir's "Popular Housing Scheme" Arouses Political Passions, July 1951
People in Israel today are again asking whether the government should be involved in building public housing. Many recall the government's herculean efforts to provide housing for all citizens in the early years of the state. In this post, we recount some of the story of the Popular Housing (Shikun Amami) plan of 1951, a linchpin of those early efforts. (For further primary source material, see the ISA website.)
In the early 1950's, immigrants arriving in Israel were housed in immigrant camps and ma'abarot (transit camps). They created enormous demand for housing, which was already in short supply. Despite serious budgetary problems, the government spent large sums on public housing, mostly built by the Ministry of Labor.
In apportioning this housing, Minister of Labor Golda Meir gave preference to those in need and to immigrants over "private houses or other magnificent buildings on Mt. Carmel." This policy left much of the veteran population without proper housing and many young couples could not find a home. They complained about discrimination and the government's failure to help them. "I am a sub-tenant living in one room with no facilities at all, I cannot make myself breakfast or supper in the kitchen or even take a bath," a nurse wrote to the Ministry of Labor.
Surveying this discontent, the ruling party Mapai (Labor) feared that it would lose seats in elections to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, which were coming up in July 1951. And so in May 1951, the government decided on a program of public housing for all--the Popular Housing Scheme--which was rushed out on the eve of the elections. The government promised to build 48,000 high quality apartments in four years in all parts of the country, to be allocated by lottery among those in the worst housing conditions. 10% of the apartments were set aside for people who married during the program. The government would give the purchasers a mortgage of 700 lirot for 10 years.
Much publicity was given to the plan and it was very popular. Mapai's opponents attacked it as a political ploy and the press, except for the Labor daily Davar, called it "an election bluff." Ma'ariv editor Azriel Carlebach called on the public not to be seduced by the "deceitful" plan (a pun on the word "amami") and not to register for it. Labor countered by arguing that the scheme had become the target of the Right, "which has never approved of government building schemes which remove housing from the sphere of the 'free market.'"
As its opponents had warned, after a few months, the plan ran into trouble due to problems in finding suitable land and a growing shortage of building materials. Moreover, the government's new economic plan in 1952 caused a rise in building costs. The price of the apartments and mortgages were raised and many individuals cancelled their registration. The plan ended in 1955, helping only 13,000 families. Nevertheless, it served as the basis for later plans, which enabled tens of thousands of families to buy homes with government assistance.
In the early 1950's, immigrants arriving in Israel were housed in immigrant camps and ma'abarot (transit camps). They created enormous demand for housing, which was already in short supply. Despite serious budgetary problems, the government spent large sums on public housing, mostly built by the Ministry of Labor.
In apportioning this housing, Minister of Labor Golda Meir gave preference to those in need and to immigrants over "private houses or other magnificent buildings on Mt. Carmel." This policy left much of the veteran population without proper housing and many young couples could not find a home. They complained about discrimination and the government's failure to help them. "I am a sub-tenant living in one room with no facilities at all, I cannot make myself breakfast or supper in the kitchen or even take a bath," a nurse wrote to the Ministry of Labor.
Surveying this discontent, the ruling party Mapai (Labor) feared that it would lose seats in elections to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, which were coming up in July 1951. And so in May 1951, the government decided on a program of public housing for all--the Popular Housing Scheme--which was rushed out on the eve of the elections. The government promised to build 48,000 high quality apartments in four years in all parts of the country, to be allocated by lottery among those in the worst housing conditions. 10% of the apartments were set aside for people who married during the program. The government would give the purchasers a mortgage of 700 lirot for 10 years.
Much publicity was given to the plan and it was very popular. Mapai's opponents attacked it as a political ploy and the press, except for the Labor daily Davar, called it "an election bluff." Ma'ariv editor Azriel Carlebach called on the public not to be seduced by the "deceitful" plan (a pun on the word "amami") and not to register for it. Labor countered by arguing that the scheme had become the target of the Right, "which has never approved of government building schemes which remove housing from the sphere of the 'free market.'"
As its opponents had warned, after a few months, the plan ran into trouble due to problems in finding suitable land and a growing shortage of building materials. Moreover, the government's new economic plan in 1952 caused a rise in building costs. The price of the apartments and mortgages were raised and many individuals cancelled their registration. The plan ended in 1955, helping only 13,000 families. Nevertheless, it served as the basis for later plans, which enabled tens of thousands of families to buy homes with government assistance.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
"Had they known me in Israel, they would not have offered me this important position" -Albert Einstein
"All of our science when measured against reality is primitive and childish and yet it is the most valuable thing we have." - Albert Einstein
In November 1952, Dr Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel, passed away. The nation promptly prepared itself: The Israel Embassy in Washington issued directives for the mourning period, and Israeli citizens and Jews abroad began submitting names of important people whom they felt would be suitable to inherit the honoured position.
The Foreign Ministry was asked to assist in finding candidates, and so Ambassador Abba Eban approached Albert Einstein to ask if he would accept the offer to serve as President of Israel.
In his letter to the professor, Eban wrote that he was acting at the instructions of Premier Ben Gurion, reflecting the true sentiments of the Jewish people. He added that acceptance would require relocation to Israel and acceptance of Israeli nationality, but in appreciation of the importance and scope of his work he would be offered all that was necessary with the freedom of action to ensure the continuation of his scientific activity. Israel, Eban said, was geographically a small country but was destined for greatness in continuing its spiritual and intellectual tradition both past and present.
Upon receiving the invitation, Einstein replied in handwriting in English and German.
"I feel deeply moved by the offer of our state Israel, though also sad and abashed that it is impossible for me to accept this offer. Since all my life I have been dealing with the world of physics, I have neither the natural ability nor the experience necessary to deal with human beings and to carry out official functions. For these reasons, I do not feel able to fulfill the requirements of this great task, even were my advanced age not limiting my strength to an increasing extent. This situation is indeedextremely sad for me because my relation to the Jewish people has become my strongest human attachment ever since I reached compleate awerness of our precarious position among the nations."
He concluded with expressions of sympathy upon the death of Dr. Weizmann who had made great efforts to reach independence, and hoped that a suitable person would be found who could bear the great responsibility demanded by the position.
Einstein gave his letters in person to Minister David Goitein of the Washington Embassy who then sent a special report to Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett. Describing his meeting with the professor he quoted Einstein: (In Hebrew)
"Honestly I am very moved that the government and people of Israel want to appoint me their President but throughout my life I never did anything for the Jewish people and so do not merit this honor."
Their interesting discussion ranged over many topics such as Russian – American relations, Judaism, and education in the USA. In this connection Einstein said that if he had a son he would want him educated in Israel rather than in America, and so would benefit from its freedom of thought, education and independence.
Three years after he turned down the Presidency, he was given another opportunity to represent Israel at its Seventh Independence Day celebrations, but died before he could deliver what was his last speech.
At a meeting in Jerusalem to mark the centenary of Einstein's birth, Isaiah Berlin said in reference to his support for Zionism and Israel: "The fact that Einstein who allowed no departure from human decency, believed in this movement and this state unconditionally until his last breath, this fact is one of the most compelling moral testimonies that any state in this century could proudly exhibit, this is deeply meaningful."
The Knesset decided that March 14--Einstein's birthday--would be National Science Day. The Ministry of Science and Technology last year introduced a new initiative, "Popular Science," designed to bring lectures in popular science to the general public. This year there will be extensive activities around this date, by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space.
In November 1952, Dr Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel, passed away. The nation promptly prepared itself: The Israel Embassy in Washington issued directives for the mourning period, and Israeli citizens and Jews abroad began submitting names of important people whom they felt would be suitable to inherit the honoured position.
The Foreign Ministry was asked to assist in finding candidates, and so Ambassador Abba Eban approached Albert Einstein to ask if he would accept the offer to serve as President of Israel.
In his letter to the professor, Eban wrote that he was acting at the instructions of Premier Ben Gurion, reflecting the true sentiments of the Jewish people. He added that acceptance would require relocation to Israel and acceptance of Israeli nationality, but in appreciation of the importance and scope of his work he would be offered all that was necessary with the freedom of action to ensure the continuation of his scientific activity. Israel, Eban said, was geographically a small country but was destined for greatness in continuing its spiritual and intellectual tradition both past and present.
 |
| David Ben Gurion and Albert Einstein (National Photo Collection) |
"I feel deeply moved by the offer of our state Israel, though also sad and abashed that it is impossible for me to accept this offer. Since all my life I have been dealing with the world of physics, I have neither the natural ability nor the experience necessary to deal with human beings and to carry out official functions. For these reasons, I do not feel able to fulfill the requirements of this great task, even were my advanced age not limiting my strength to an increasing extent. This situation is indeedextremely sad for me because my relation to the Jewish people has become my strongest human attachment ever since I reached compleate awerness of our precarious position among the nations."
He concluded with expressions of sympathy upon the death of Dr. Weizmann who had made great efforts to reach independence, and hoped that a suitable person would be found who could bear the great responsibility demanded by the position.
Einstein gave his letters in person to Minister David Goitein of the Washington Embassy who then sent a special report to Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett. Describing his meeting with the professor he quoted Einstein: (In Hebrew)
"Honestly I am very moved that the government and people of Israel want to appoint me their President but throughout my life I never did anything for the Jewish people and so do not merit this honor."
Their interesting discussion ranged over many topics such as Russian – American relations, Judaism, and education in the USA. In this connection Einstein said that if he had a son he would want him educated in Israel rather than in America, and so would benefit from its freedom of thought, education and independence.
Three years after he turned down the Presidency, he was given another opportunity to represent Israel at its Seventh Independence Day celebrations, but died before he could deliver what was his last speech.
At a meeting in Jerusalem to mark the centenary of Einstein's birth, Isaiah Berlin said in reference to his support for Zionism and Israel: "The fact that Einstein who allowed no departure from human decency, believed in this movement and this state unconditionally until his last breath, this fact is one of the most compelling moral testimonies that any state in this century could proudly exhibit, this is deeply meaningful."
The Knesset decided that March 14--Einstein's birthday--would be National Science Day. The Ministry of Science and Technology last year introduced a new initiative, "Popular Science," designed to bring lectures in popular science to the general public. This year there will be extensive activities around this date, by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space.
 |
| Einstein on his first visit to the USA, 1921 |
 |
| Albert Einstein and his wife as part of a Zionist mission to the USA. Chaim Weizmann is second on left. |
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Immigrants to Israel, 1948-1952
File ג-3101/12 contains hundreds of pages of letters, reports and statistics about immigration to Israel between May 15, 1948 and the end of December 1952, as filed by someone in David Ben Gurion's office. Our previous post, about the tragic chaos in the immigrant camps, comes from this file; since it has lots of interesting things in it, we'll return to it in a future post or three. Now, however, we'd like to present the last document in the file, a list which was apparently drawn up in July 1953, summing up the statistics of the immigration.
Bear in mind that in May 1948 when Israel became independent, there were some 600,000 Jews in the country. By the time the battles subsided, towards the end of that year, 110,000 immigrants had arrived, 6,000 Jews had been killed in the war, and the stabilizing borders contained 100,000 Arabs or perhaps a bit more. 800-850,000 people all in all.
By the end of 1952, 738,891 immigrants had arrived (this includes the 110,000 who arrived in the second half of 1948). Of course, the immigration didn't end in December 1952, but that's beyond the scope of our file.
Muslim countries:
Turkey 35,025
Syria and Lebanon 34,608
Iraq 124,226
Yemen and Aden 48,375
Other Asian countries 7,579
Tunesia, Marroco, Algeria 52,584
Lybia 32,129
Egypt 17,114
Total Muslim countries: 377,251 of 889,700
Communist satelite states:
Poland 106,751
Romania 121,537
Bulgaria 37,703
Czechoslovakia 18,815
Hungary 14,519
Yugoslavia 7,757
Total Comunist states: 307,082 of 729,000
Western states:
South Africa 538
Other Africa 576
Germany & Austria 11,013
Other Europe 19,605
Latin America 2,025
Total Western states: 33,706 of 1,746,230
USA & Canada 1,809 of 5,200,000
Unidentified 18,989
Grand total 738,891 of 8,564,930
The USSR is not on the list.
Bear in mind that in May 1948 when Israel became independent, there were some 600,000 Jews in the country. By the time the battles subsided, towards the end of that year, 110,000 immigrants had arrived, 6,000 Jews had been killed in the war, and the stabilizing borders contained 100,000 Arabs or perhaps a bit more. 800-850,000 people all in all.
By the end of 1952, 738,891 immigrants had arrived (this includes the 110,000 who arrived in the second half of 1948). Of course, the immigration didn't end in December 1952, but that's beyond the scope of our file.
Muslim countries:
Turkey 35,025
Syria and Lebanon 34,608
Iraq 124,226
Yemen and Aden 48,375
Other Asian countries 7,579
Tunesia, Marroco, Algeria 52,584
Lybia 32,129
Egypt 17,114
Total Muslim countries: 377,251 of 889,700
Communist satelite states:
Poland 106,751
Romania 121,537
Bulgaria 37,703
Czechoslovakia 18,815
Hungary 14,519
Yugoslavia 7,757
Total Comunist states: 307,082 of 729,000
Western states:
South Africa 538
Other Africa 576
Germany & Austria 11,013
Other Europe 19,605
Latin America 2,025
Total Western states: 33,706 of 1,746,230
USA & Canada 1,809 of 5,200,000
Unidentified 18,989
Grand total 738,891 of 8,564,930
The USSR is not on the list.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
1952: In the Face of Stalin's Antisemitism, Can We Block Israel's Communists?
A few short years after the Shoah, Stalin and his accomplices were on the road to anti-Semitic policies in the Soviet bloc. The Slansky Trial in Czechoslovakia was a show trial with strong anti-Jewish overtones; late in 1952, the Soviet regime began preparing what seemed to be an anti-Jewish show trial, allegedly revealing a plot against the regime: the Doctors' Plot. We'll never know how far things would have gone since Stalin's death in March 1953 halted the proceedings and the underlying policy.
A classified letter from the acting Israeli ambassador in Moscow, Shmuel Eliashiv, reveals his uncertainty about the developing story and the proper response to it. The same week in January 1953 the Knesset was to debate the matter, so the cabinet ministers held a preliminary discussion to determine the government line (January 18, 1953).
Truth be told, there wasn't much Israel could do. Faced with a potentially lethal wave of Jew hatred which might affect large numbers of Soviet Jews, Israel's cabinet members were reduced to debating the pros and cons of making a stink at the UN or keeping a low profile in the hope things would blow over.
So what could be done? Well, perhaps the local, Israeli Communists, could be blocked. As Pinchas Lavon, Benzion Dinur, and Golda Meir all said, it was a scandal that Israelis who support an anti-Semitic regime should be allowed to express their opinions in public, to publish their support of Stalin in their newspapers, and the members of Knesset among them allowed to travel the world freely on Israeli diplomatic passports and badmouth their own country. These aren't patriots with radical opinions, they're foreign agents, or close to it, and someone's got to do something about it! Here, listen to Golda Meir:
So they didn't. And then Stalin died and that particular danger passed anyway.
A classified letter from the acting Israeli ambassador in Moscow, Shmuel Eliashiv, reveals his uncertainty about the developing story and the proper response to it. The same week in January 1953 the Knesset was to debate the matter, so the cabinet ministers held a preliminary discussion to determine the government line (January 18, 1953).
Truth be told, there wasn't much Israel could do. Faced with a potentially lethal wave of Jew hatred which might affect large numbers of Soviet Jews, Israel's cabinet members were reduced to debating the pros and cons of making a stink at the UN or keeping a low profile in the hope things would blow over.
So what could be done? Well, perhaps the local, Israeli Communists, could be blocked. As Pinchas Lavon, Benzion Dinur, and Golda Meir all said, it was a scandal that Israelis who support an anti-Semitic regime should be allowed to express their opinions in public, to publish their support of Stalin in their newspapers, and the members of Knesset among them allowed to travel the world freely on Israeli diplomatic passports and badmouth their own country. These aren't patriots with radical opinions, they're foreign agents, or close to it, and someone's got to do something about it! Here, listen to Golda Meir:
Now about the Communists. What we really need to do is declare their organization is an enemy of Israel and they've got no right to exist in Israel. I don't know if perhaps we won't reach that point, but not yet, because if you say that seriously you must then do something, and I don't know if we can do that, but we can say it in the Knesset so that every Jew in the country, every teenager should know that they're against the country and they're beyond the pale.Were they serious, or were they merely letting off steam? Probably the latter. Moshe Shapira tried to cool things down by alluding to McCarthyism, which was rampant in the United States in those days: "They've got quite a witch-hunt going in America, but they haven't disbanded their communists, and they haven't shut down their newspapers, and I don't see how we can do so." Near the end of the meeting, Pinchas Rosenne, the Minister of Justice, cooled everyone off. Look folks, he essentially said, none of the things you've been suggesting are legal, and we're not going to do any of them.
I don't know if we can pass a law that will forbid them from renting public halls [for their assemblies], but we should create such a public opinion that owners of such venues will refuse to rent halls to them...
As for the law which grants immunity to Knesset members--Tufik Toubi, Mikounis and Willner, they can travel throughout the world on their diplomatic passports and besmirch us: it's shocking! It's as if the country has decided to commit suicide!
So they didn't. And then Stalin died and that particular danger passed anyway.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
"The murderers of our people should not become their heirs!": The 60th anniversary of the Reparations Agreement with West Germany
Our publication on the Munich massacre presented a dramatic and painful chapter in Israel's relations with West Germany. Another chapter in this story is marked this week: the 60th anniversary of the Reparations Agreement, signed on September 10, 1952.
In the early 1950s, the new state of Israel struggled to house and feed the mass immigration, which included many Holocaust survivors. Unemployment and shortage of foreign currency meant there was little money for imported food or fuel. One possible solution was reparations from Germany. There was an official policy of boycott of Germany, so the Israeli government wanted the wartime Allies to approach it to demand compensation for the property of Jewish Holocaust victims who had left no heirs. But the Allies refused, and it seemed that owing to Cold War considerations, Germany would soon be rehabilitated without paying a penny.
After secret negotiations with Israel, in September 1951 West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer made a declaration in the Bundestag, stating that Germany took upon itself responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi regime. In January 1952, a proposal to open negotiations with Germany was brought to the Knesset, resulting in bitter controversy and opposition from both left and right. The left-wing Mapam party mobilized ex-partisans and ghetto fighters who compared the government to those who collaborated with the Nazis, while Menachem Begin of Herut claimed that they had no right to act in the name of the Holocaust victims. He led a violent protest and march on the Knesset building during the debate.
The main spokesmen for the government were Prime Minister Ben-Gurion and Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett. Sharett exposed the hypocrisy of many opponents, who allowed individuals and organizations, including many kibbutzim, to reclaim their property in Germany, but not the government. He argued that a sovereign state could not rely on emotional arguments and boycotts but must act according to its essential interests. Ben-Gurion is best remembered for his appeal: "Do not allow the murderers of our people to become their heirs!" (an allusion to the Biblical quotation: "Hast thou murdered and also inherited?" (1 Kings: 21:19))
In the end, the Knesset empowered the government to open negotiations, and after six months of discussions, an agreement was reached. Chancellor Adenauer wanted to sign it himself; he agreed to hold the ceremony in Luxemburg, outside Germany, but demanded that a government minister should sign for Israel. Sharett was chosen, but on September 1, 1952 the legal adviser of the Foreign Ministry, Shabtai Rosenne wrote to him asking him to reconsider and to allow the heads of the negotiating teams to sign: "I view this as an act beneath the dignity of an Israeli Foreign Minister which may one day cast a stain on your personal reputation".
Sharett said in his reply that either the negotiations and the agreement were morally justified, in which case there was no reason not to sign, or they were not. If history judged him wrong, he was already deeply implicated in the affair and a signature would make little difference. Sharett emphasized the importance of signature by the Chancellor for Germany's commitment to the agreement. Adenauer's step in taking responsibility for Nazi crimes, he said, should be recognized and respected. "You may be surprised to hear me raise such considerations of respect and mutual relations – even chivalry – towards a German Prime Minister. Well, in my opinion this should be the approach of the independent state of Israel…fear of adopting this criterion in our relations with Germany returns us to the status we had in the past – of a people with no national status or considerations, isolated within its own four walls, mourning for its past, praying for the future and solving problems in its relations with other nations simply by cursing them in its heart. An independent people must face the future…"
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| Photograph: Moshe Sharett Heritage Society |
Sharett and Adenauer signed the agreement, ratified by the Bundestag in March 1953. The reparations led to a great improvement in Israel's economic situation and contributed to the development of its industry and transport infrastructure. Most of the public realized that it had been a necessary step.
Sharett's letter was first published in Volume 7 of the "Documents on the Foreign Policy of Israel" series and in the commemorative volume for Moshe Sharett, the second prime minister, issued by the Archives (in Hebrew).
You can read more about the reparations controversy, including translations of many documents from the Israel State Archives, in the English version of the book on the agreement edited by Yaakov Sharett, Moshe Sharett's son.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
The Death of Eva Peron: Israel's ambassador shakes his head
Eva (Evita) Peron died 60 years ago today. The story of her precipitous rise from abject poverty to the pinnacle of power, from anonymity to immortality, and her death at the age of 33, give her story mythical proportions - and of course, we've all encountered the musical with her name.
During her short life and for decades thereafter, however, she was an intensely polarizing figure, loved or hated with fierce intensity. This polarization was so extreme that it caused Yaacov Zur, the acting Israeli ambassador to Argentina, to send back to his superiors two almost contradictory reports about the events after her death.
On August 4th 1952, Zur criticised his superiors in the Foreign Ministry: we (Israel) should have done more than we did, as the Argentinian government, media and public are keeping track of the international responses. Intially the Israeli embassy responded to Evita's death on its own, but in spite of our repeated entreaties, there was no adequate response from home; eventually we had to act as if we were receiving condolence cables even though we weren't. Political considerations aside, it should have been possible to respond with greater human empathy to such a tragic death of a young woman.
The very next day Zur sent his description of the mourning and mass psychosis - or was it, as he seemed to imply, cynical manipulated political spectacle? He described the anguish of masses of the poor, who regarded Evita as their guardian mother and saint, and her death as a cataclysmic event, with the hospitals full of hysterical women.
During her short life and for decades thereafter, however, she was an intensely polarizing figure, loved or hated with fierce intensity. This polarization was so extreme that it caused Yaacov Zur, the acting Israeli ambassador to Argentina, to send back to his superiors two almost contradictory reports about the events after her death.
On August 4th 1952, Zur criticised his superiors in the Foreign Ministry: we (Israel) should have done more than we did, as the Argentinian government, media and public are keeping track of the international responses. Intially the Israeli embassy responded to Evita's death on its own, but in spite of our repeated entreaties, there was no adequate response from home; eventually we had to act as if we were receiving condolence cables even though we weren't. Political considerations aside, it should have been possible to respond with greater human empathy to such a tragic death of a young woman.
The very next day Zur sent his description of the mourning and mass psychosis - or was it, as he seemed to imply, cynical manipulated political spectacle? He described the anguish of masses of the poor, who regarded Evita as their guardian mother and saint, and her death as a cataclysmic event, with the hospitals full of hysterical women.
And yet, as it happens in this country with its incessant propaganda, the genuine mourning has been transformed into a demonstration of vulgarity and idolatry. Every day the media spreads additional harebrained commemoration schemes and no-one dares point out their ludicrousness. Altars are set up to her on street corners, schools and hospitals. Factory workers and restaurant waiters put down their tools and stand in her memory a quarter hour every hour. The minister of education has decreed that government announcements about her be read in every school every day. The minister of health has ordered a gigantic 100-kg candle that will burn for a hundred years, and he will put it out and re-light it every day at the hour of her death. [This seems not to be happening today]. The under-minister of propaganda has decreed that the daily news will be at 8:25, not 8:30, because that was the hour of her death. The Tango has been outlawed until further notice. And of course, one of the unions sent a telegram to the Vatican demanding her Cannonisation...
Monday, July 23, 2012
60 Years Since Israel's First Olympic Appearance -- and a Government Inquiry into its Performance
Remember that part in the movie Airplane where the old woman asks the stewardess for something light to read and gets a pamphlet entitled "Jewish Sports Legends"? Well, the coming London Olympics marks the 60th anniversary of Israel's first appearance in the Games, an event that added some substance to the annals of Jewish athleticism. A good description of the debut Israeli team in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics appeared in Israel Hayom last week (in Hebrew).
That first appearance was followed by another kind of Israeli sport, so to speak - a Committee of Inquiry. Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, influenced by an uproar in the Israeli media over the (under)performance of the Israeli delegation (consider this article entitled in Hebrew "These are the transgressions of Helsinki" - a deliberate evocation of the condemnations of the biblical Prophet Amos), launched the committee to evaluate the performance of the Israeli team and its relations with the Jewish community in Helsinki.
The committee concluded that the overall performance of the delegation had been satisfactory, considering the fact that it was Israel's first Olympic Games and that out of the 70 delegations that competed, only 30 countries won medals. Israel's failure to do so, then, was not exceptional. The committee recommended more government investment in sports education in Israel, including the training of more athletic instructors at the newly-founded Wingate Institute, Israel's sports college. The Israel Olympic committee later published a communique regarding the findings of the Committee of Inquiry (which you can read in Hebrew).
This post has an interesting real-world backstory: the original idea for it came after we provided the Prime Minister's office with the two documents mentioned above (the Committee of Inquiry's report and the Israel Olympic committee's communique) for reference during Prime Minister Netanyahu's meeting with this year's Israeli Olympic team. We convinced the Prime Minister's press office that the story of Israel establishing a Committee of Inquiry after an Olympics would make for a fun anecdote. The Prime Minister evidently agreed, as those of you who can follow the Hebrew can see here a minute into his remarks to the team.
By the way, you may be wondering why Israel only first competed in the Olympics in 1952, and not 1948. In 1948, as in 2012, the Games were held in London. Israel, however, was barred from participating due to the assertion of the British Foreign Office that "as the state of Palestine does not exist any more, you have no right to participate." The Israeli Olympic Commission tried to convince the Israeli Foreign Ministry to intervene, but Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett believed that the time was not right for a diplomatic effort on this matter. With the recent row between Israel and the BBC over the broadcaster failing to acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel's capital, it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
That first appearance was followed by another kind of Israeli sport, so to speak - a Committee of Inquiry. Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, influenced by an uproar in the Israeli media over the (under)performance of the Israeli delegation (consider this article entitled in Hebrew "These are the transgressions of Helsinki" - a deliberate evocation of the condemnations of the biblical Prophet Amos), launched the committee to evaluate the performance of the Israeli team and its relations with the Jewish community in Helsinki.
The committee concluded that the overall performance of the delegation had been satisfactory, considering the fact that it was Israel's first Olympic Games and that out of the 70 delegations that competed, only 30 countries won medals. Israel's failure to do so, then, was not exceptional. The committee recommended more government investment in sports education in Israel, including the training of more athletic instructors at the newly-founded Wingate Institute, Israel's sports college. The Israel Olympic committee later published a communique regarding the findings of the Committee of Inquiry (which you can read in Hebrew).
This post has an interesting real-world backstory: the original idea for it came after we provided the Prime Minister's office with the two documents mentioned above (the Committee of Inquiry's report and the Israel Olympic committee's communique) for reference during Prime Minister Netanyahu's meeting with this year's Israeli Olympic team. We convinced the Prime Minister's press office that the story of Israel establishing a Committee of Inquiry after an Olympics would make for a fun anecdote. The Prime Minister evidently agreed, as those of you who can follow the Hebrew can see here a minute into his remarks to the team.
By the way, you may be wondering why Israel only first competed in the Olympics in 1952, and not 1948. In 1948, as in 2012, the Games were held in London. Israel, however, was barred from participating due to the assertion of the British Foreign Office that "as the state of Palestine does not exist any more, you have no right to participate." The Israeli Olympic Commission tried to convince the Israeli Foreign Ministry to intervene, but Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett believed that the time was not right for a diplomatic effort on this matter. With the recent row between Israel and the BBC over the broadcaster failing to acknowledge Jerusalem as Israel's capital, it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
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