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This Week 70 Years Ago: Fuel Crisis in Israel Israel today

2022-05-21T11:34:14.827Z


"With 4 box offices" opens, Golda Meir is not frightened by the shortage of fuel, and Israel receives another 50 buses • This is what happened in Israel this week seven decades ago


A general strike announced by the U.S. Oil Industry Workers' Union in early May 1952 created economic pressures in most Western countries.

Airlines in the US and Europe were quick to announce a reduction in their flights by half.

The leadership in Israel believed that "the crisis only affects us on the margins," according to Transportation Minister David Zvi Pinkas.

However, when Britain announced on May 18 that it was "stopping selling oil to Israel on credit," the government convened for an emergency hearing.

Many of the ministers demanded "immediate and drastic measures to reduce fuel and oil consumption in Israel to the minimum possible," and the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dov Yosef, even announced that "if we do not act firmly and immediately - housewives will be left without oil to feed the wicks."

Proposals for fuel and oil savings included a complete halt to truck traffic in favor of rail transportation, a reduction in private car travel by restricting the purchase of gasoline at gas stations, and setting a day of the week when private vehicles would be barred from traveling.

On the other hand, there were ministers who argued that austerity measures should only be taken if the oil crisis is not resolved within the next month.

"For what and why was she frightened?"

The Minister of Labor, Golda Meir, asked, "We have a supply of fuel for a few months, and a number of raw fuel ships are now making their way to the country from Venezuela. The panic must be stopped immediately."

Indeed, a few days later the American Oil Workers' Union announced that it was ready for a compromise that would raise wages by 25 cents an hour.

The oil companies, for their part, offered an increase of 15 cents - and finally an increase of 20 cents was agreed.

Following the end of the strike in the United States, the world breathed a sigh of relief, and so did Israel.

The fourth "Sea Day" is celebrated: "Another seaport is needed"

"Day of the Sea" poster, 1952, Photo: Design: Y.

Finkelstein, courtesy of the National Library

On May 13, 1952, "Sea Day" was celebrated, for the fourth time since the establishment of the state, with a wealth of events that included exhibitions, parades, parties, art programs and more.

Maritime associations' sailing demonstrations were held along the country's shores, along with educational outreach activities given to students in schools.

The main event was held at the port of Haifa, where the Minister of Transportation, David Zvi Pinkas, reported that "Israel's commercial fleet has grown over the past year, and now includes 34 ships with a total volume of 130,000 tons."

Four years earlier, in 1948, Hebrew ships accounted for only about four percent of all ships calling at the port of Haifa, while in 1952 the volume of Jewish merchant fleet and passenger ships in the port of Haifa jumped to 11 percent.

The great problem facing the Hebrew Navy in 1952 was the fact that dozens of sailors abandoned their jobs in the Israeli merchant navy, preferring to work on the sailing ships under a foreign flag.

In all, about 1,200 sailors worked that year, about 100 of them foreign nationals who served as officers, mechanics, engineers and captains of most Israeli ships.

In 1952, goods and cargo with a volume of 1.5 million tons passed through the port of Haifa, and the port approached the limit of its output.

In contrast, output in the Tel Aviv port decreased, as shipping companies preferred a closed and protected port, such as Haifa.

"This year it became even clearer to us that the need to establish a new port," announced the Minister of Transportation, David Zvi Pinkas, but only 11 years later, in 1963, a new port was inaugurated - in Ashdod.

The Chen Cinema was launched in Tel Aviv

Chen Cinema, 1952, Photo: Rani Graf Flicker website, unknown photographer

"The magnificent building in Dizengoff Square, which shines every evening with a variety of colorful lights, was visited last night by 1,600 guests. New in Tel Aviv.

Several Israeli capitalists joined together to establish the cinema, at a time of huge prosperity in the industry all over the country.

The investment in the construction of "Chen" was about half a million pounds, an imaginary sum in those years, in which it was possible to purchase, for the sake of illustration, about 100 three-room apartments in Tel Aviv.

Chen Cinema was the second largest in the country in terms of the number of seats in it - 1,600.

In first place was the "Armon" cinema in Haifa, with 1,800 seats.

The seats of the cinema were ordered from the Theresa factory in Rishon Lezion (founded in 1934), which was considered at the time the largest and finest furniture manufacturer in Israel.

The projectors for the new cinema were purchased in the United States, "and are the best, most sophisticated and state-of-the-art," according to a report in Maariv.

"The cinema management undertakes that ticket buyers will not waste their time standing in line, because they will have no less than four box offices at their disposal, with a special roof in front of them that will protect them from burning in the summer and rain in the winter."

At the glorious launch event, during which Tel Aviv Mayor Israel Rokach spoke, the management announced that "in our cinema, viewers will not sweat, since the new ventilation system installed in the building has gone through the running period flawlessly."

Ease of public transportation

More than 50 Chason buses, arriving from France, waited four months at the port of Haifa, while the Eshed and Dan transport cooperatives refused to release them.

The reason: the price paid for them before the publication of the economic plan in February was 9,000 pounds, but after its publication the government demanded that the cooperatives pay customs at a value of 26,000 pounds per bus.

In mid-May 1952, an arrangement was reached between the Ministry of Finance and the cooperatives, under which customs duties were paid at a value of 21,000 pounds per bus, and the Ministry of Finance, for its part, granted credit for three years.

Eshed and Dan reported that "the new buses will become operational in early June 1952," and Transportation Minister David Zvi Pinkas announced that "the introduction of 50 new buses will bring relief to the urban and intercity lines."

Bus Shasun, 1952, Photo: Courtesy of the Egged Archive

German entry was banned

On May 16, 1952, the Minister of the Interior, Haim Moshe Shapira, issued a regulation prohibiting the entry of German nationals into the territories of the State of Israel.

Until then, the state was not required to give an opinion on the matter, as no German citizen had tried to visit the country since its establishment, but in mid-May 1952 a Danish cargo ship called "India" arrived at the port of Haifa, sailing from the Far East to the port of Hamburg in Germany. .

Most of the ship's sailors wanted to go ashore and their request was granted, but five of them who were German citizens were barred from entering - and they were forced to stay on board the ship.

The wicks are back!

The many restrictions on the use of electricity in the country in 1952, especially those intended for heating and cooking in the kitchen, caused households to use oil wicks again.

The broken wick facilities were crowded with work, and many homes looking to purchase a new wick had a hard time finding one in stores.

In May 1952, there was a severe shortage of wicks, and stores that had wicks in stock jumped their price by as much as 700 pennies each.

There were even sellers who conditioned the sale of a new wick on the purchase of another product from the store inventory.

The Disappeared / Bible textbooks

Cassuto means

Photo: Nostalgia Online Archive,

Nowadays, when the Minister of Education states that "it is possible to study less Bible", it is pleasant to remember that in almost every secular home there was a series of biblical commentaries, which were frequently used.

One series was written by Bible commentator Shmuel Leib Gordon, and the other (pictured) by his colleague, Moshe David Cassuto, who was a professor of biblical studies at the Hebrew University.

The grocery store / items since

Mailbox

Photo: Nostalgia Online Archive,

At the time, each family purchased a mailbox, first a standard box (see photo) and then a box according to each family's needs.

And so we were greeted at the entrance to the house by a mixture of boxes of different types and sizes, some were loaded to bursting and others empty and orphaned.

In homes built in recent decades it has been the duty of the contractor to install uniform mailboxes for tenants, but over the years their use has been declining, in favor of the virtual mailboxes on the computer.   

Looking for solutions to sugar deficiency

Photo: Yaakov Rosner, courtesy of the JNF Photo Archive,

The continuing global shortage of sugar, from which Israel also suffered, has prompted many in the country to join hands in an action plan to find solutions to the situation.

As part of this plan, thousands of dunams of beets were planted for sugar under government directives;

The Central Hamashbir planned to set up a sugar processing plant;

While the "Assis" factory in Ramat Gan (pictured) planned the production of alcohol from the beets - for the needs of the food and pharmaceutical industry.

Sugar and alcohol production was in deficit for many years, and their price was subsidized by the government.

In the late 1970s, when subsidies were stopped, the beet industry in the country collapsed - and disappeared.

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Do you have pictures or souvenirs from the first days of the country?

Write to us: Yor@ShimurIsrael.Org

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Source: israelhayom

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