Today in Israeli History: December 1 – December 7

Dec. 1, 1932 — Palestine Post Prints First Edition

The first edition of The Palestine Post features a front-page announcement about the newspaper. The Jerusalem Post.

The Palestine Post, the precursor of The Jerusalem Post, prints and distributes 1,200 copies of its first, eight-page edition. Founded by Gershon Agron, a Ukrainian-born U.S. immigrant, the Post launches in Jerusalem to meet the demand for an English-language newspaper in Mandatory Palestine. The Post nearly quadruples its circulation within a year. Arab terrorists bomb the newspaper Feb. 1, 1948, but it continues to publish.

Dec. 2, 2001 — Bus bombing in Haifa Kills 16

Security and rescue forces work on the remains of the bus destroyed by a suicide bomber in Haifa on Dec. 2, 2001. By Moshe Milner, Israeli Government Press Office.

Maher Habashi, a Palestinian plumber from Nablus, boards a No. 16 Egged bus in Haifa and activates an explosive device under his clothes. The blast turns the bus into a fireball that smashes into another bus. The bombing kills Habashi and 15 innocent passengers and injures an additional 35 people, 17 of them critically. Just 12 hours earlier, three terrorist attacks killed 12 people in Jerusalem and wounded more than 180 others.

Dec. 3, 1995 — Begin Adviser Shmulevitz Dies

Matityahu Shmulevitz (left, with beard) and fellow Lehi leader David Yellin stand outside the Acre prison after their pardon in February 1949. 

Matityahu Shmulevitz, a member of the underground Lehi in the 1940s and the director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office under Menachem Begin in the late 1970s, dies at 75 one day after collapsing during a chess game in Tel Aviv. Born in Lodz, Poland, he made aliyah with the Beitar youth group at age 17 in 1938. He was arrested multiple times while fighting the British Mandate and once was sentenced to death.

Dec. 4, 2000 — Law Bars Discrimination in Schools

Prime Minister Ehud Barak enjoys a meal at an Arab restaurant on Dec. 2, 2000, two days before winning passage of legislation barring discrimination in schools. Israeli Government Press Office.

The Knesset passes legislation proposed by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who is also the education minister, to prevent discrimination in schools and educational centers. The 21-point Pupils’ Rights Law declares that every child has a right to an education, may participate in matriculation examinations and has the right to confidentiality. The law forbids discrimination against students based on ethnicity, socioeconomic status or political alignment.

Dec. 5, 1949 — Ben-Gurion Rejects International Status for Jerusalem

David Ben-Gurion signs the Declaration of Independence beside Rabbi Yehuda Leib HaCohen in Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948. Within 19 months, Ben-Gurion reiterated that Israel would never accept an international status for all of Jerusalem. By Hans Pinn, National Photo Collection of Israel.

Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion declares in a Knesset speech that “Jewish Jerusalem is an organic, inseparable part of the State of Israel” and that Israel rejects any attempt by the United Nations to declare Jerusalem an international city outside Israeli sovereignty. Ben-Gurion speaks amid U.N. debates about how to implement the part of Resolution 181 that calls for establishing an international jurisdiction around Jerusalem.

Dec. 6, 1867 — Zionist Leader Motzkin Is Born

Leo Motzkin received this card as a participant in the First Zionist Congress in 1897.

Leo Motzkin, the chairman of the Zionist Executive from 1925 to 1933, is born into a traditional Jewish family in what is now Brovary, Ukraine. Motzkin becomes interested in Zionism after witnessing the 1881 pogrom in Kyiv. He attends the First Zionist Congress in 1897 and advocates the Basel Program for a Jewish state. While devoting his life to Zionism, he also emphasizes the rights and protection of Diaspora Jews.

Dec. 7, 1921 — First Nurses Graduate in Jerusalem

Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold poses with the first graduating class of the Nurses’ Training Institute on Dec. 7, 1921.

Twenty-two women graduate from the Nurses’ Training Institute at Rothschild Hospital in Jerusalem, making them the first nurses to receive degrees in the Land of Israel. Hadassah opened the institute in 1918, and Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold speaks at the ceremony. The graduates, representing the diversity of the Yishuv (Jewish community), go to work at Hadassah-run hospitals in Jaffa, Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Haifa.

Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education (israeled.org), where you can find more details.