Dec. 30, 1990 — Weizman Is Fired Over PLO Contacts

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir drops Science Minister Ezer Weizman from the Cabinet after accusing him of meeting with a senior PLO official in 1989 and corresponding with PLO head Yasser Arafat through an intermediary. The move threatens the unity government because Shamir is from Likud and Weizman is from Labor. Within three years, Weizman is elected president, and Arafat signs the Oslo Accords with Israel.

Dec. 31, 1898 — Israel Museum Founder Is Born

Eliyahu Dobkin, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who founds the Israel Museum, is born in Belarus. He immigrates to Palestine in 1932. He works with the Jewish Agency’s immigration department from the 1930s to the 1950s, increases the organization’s fundraising and helps organize illegal immigration after World War II. After founding the Israel Museum in 1965, he serves on the advisory board until his death in 1976.

Jan. 1, 1837 — Earthquake Devastates Safed

An earthquake estimated at 6.8 on the Richter scale starts a landslide that kills thousands and causes extensive damage in the Jewish and Arab sections of the Upper Galilee mountain city of Safed (Tzfat). Most of the Jewish quarter and the synagogues are destroyed, and most of the Jewish survivors flee one of Judaism’s four holy cities, leaving only a dedicated few to rebuild the center of the practice of Kabbalah.

Jan. 2, 1927 — Ahad Ha’am Dies

Ahad Ha’am, the leader of the movement for cultural Zionism, dies in Palestine at 70. Born Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg in Ukraine, he adopted the pen name Ahad Ha’am (One of the People) amid his advocacy for a Zionism focused on cultural efforts, including the revival of Hebrew. He supported the political goals of Zionism but thought the purpose of a Jewish state was to revitalize Jewish society and culture worldwide, not merely to be a refuge.

Jan. 3, 1919 — Faisal, Weizmann Sign Agreement

Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann and Emir Faisal, son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca, pledge mutual respect and cooperation between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. At the suggestion of the British, the two first met in Aqaba in the spring of 1918, then crafted their accord after a meeting in London in December 1918. The League of Nations’ creation of British and French mandates in the Middle East blocks the execution of the agreement.

Jan. 4, 1935 — Mosul-Haifa Pipeline Opens

A 590-mile pipeline from Kirkuk, Iraq, to Haifa begins carrying oil from the Mosul fields to the Mediterranean Sea. Crude oil takes about 10 days to travel the full route through the 12-inch-diameter pipe, then is refined and stored in Haifa until it can be shipped to Europe. The pipeline is important as a Suez Canal alternative for the oil-fueled British navy and remains in operation until Israeli independence in 1948.

ADVERTISEMENT

Jan. 5, 1930 — Mapai Party Is Founded

Two socialist-leaning political movements in the Land of Israel, David Ben-Gurion’s Ahdut Ha’avodah (Labor Unity) and Joseph Sprinzak’s Hapoel Hatzair (Young Worker Party), merge into Mapai, which quickly becomes the dominant political party in the Yishuv (area of Jewish settlement). The party provides Israel’s first four prime ministers and is the Knesset’s largest until 1968, when it merges into the Labor Party.

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