Nostalgia Sunday – End of an Era

February 13, 2011 - 9:24 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, education, General, History and Culture, Life, News, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, Profiles, War 

The events in Egypt over the past two weeks, which culminated in the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, are being watched with no little trepidation in Israel. The media, both international and local, have focused on Mubarak to the exclusion of anything that came before, as if there was no Sadat, no Nasser, no King Farouk, no British Mandate, no Ottoman Empire… in short, reportage without historical context.

Before history is forgotten completely, this would be a good time to dig into the Israel National Photo Archive for a glimpse at relations between Israel and Egypt over the years.

In 1956, for example, this float at the annual Purim Adloyada parade featured paper mache figures of Israel’s David Ben Gurion shaking hands with Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser above a banner emblazoned with the ironic, “Prophecy of the End of Days”.

Photo by Moshe Pridan

And yet, peace with Egypt did come. In 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made his historic visit to Israel and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin then visited Egypt.

Photo by Yaacov Saar

In 1979, peace talks were held at Beer Sheva, led by Begin and Sadat, who was accompanied by his then-Vice President Hosni Mubarak.

Photo courtesy of Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Begin and Mubarak met again at the funeral of Sadat who was assassinated in 1981.

Photo by Chanania Herman

Mubarak became president and continued to maintain Egypt’s commitment to peace with Israel. Together with Jordan’s King Hussein and US President Bill Clinton, he oversaw the signing of the Oslo Accords by Israel’s Yitzhak Rabin and the PLO’s Yasser Arafat.

Photo by Avi Ohayon

Mubarak’s only other visit to Israel was in 1995, to attend the funeral of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. (He is shown here with interim Prime Minister Shimon Peres).

Photo by Tsvika Israeli

It is too early to tell whether the current days mark a watershed in our relations with Egypt. But as the age of Mubarak comes to a close, we can look back fondly to the time when the impossible suddenly became possible; the day in 1979, for example, when the Israeli-Egyptian air corridor was inaugurated, Sadat, Mubarak and Begin took to the skies and the smiles — at least for that moment — were real.

Photo by Yaacov Saar

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Miraculous space pulp

October 8, 2008 - 1:24 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Art, General, History and Culture, Technology 

A page written by Ilan Ramon in spaceCurators at the Israel Museum have worked in conjunction with Israel’s State Archives to sort through millions of archived documents and are now presenting a special exhibition entitled “Blue and White Pages: Documenting the History of Israel,” opening two days from now and closing February 7, 2009.

In celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary, most of the documents on display at the exhibit are available for viewing by the general public for the first time ever. Some of the highlights include the blood-stained copy of “A Song to Peace” lyrics found in Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s pocket on the night of his assassination, Israel’s original Declaration of Independence and peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan.

But perhaps the piece de resistance is two pages restored from the remains of a journal kept by Ilan Ramon while in space. Israel’s first-ever astronaut, Ramon and his co-crew members died when the Columbia fell apart while attempting to land on earth on February 1, 2003. Remains of his diary, which fell several miles to the ground, were found two months later in a field in Palestine, Texas. Years of restoration by the Museum’s Paper Conservation Laboratory yielded 37 rescued pages, most of which are being kept private as per the requests of Ramon’s family.

The Jerusalem Post has this to add:

A little over two months after the shuttle explosion, NASA searchers found 37 pages from Ramon’s diary, wet and crumpled, in a field just outside the US town of Palestine, Texas. The diary survived extreme heat in the explosion, extreme atmospheric cold, and then “was attacked by microorganisms and insects” in the field where it fell, said museum curator Yigal Zalmona.

“It’s almost a miracle that it survived it’s incredible,” Zalmona said. There is “no rational explanation” for how it was recovered when most of the shuttle was not, he said.

According to a statement released by the Museum’s spokespeople, the two pages on display “include Ramon’s description of the experience of life in space and a handwritten copy of the Kiddush, the Jewish blessing over wine, intended for use in live transmission while on board the Columbia spacecraft.” Read more

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

© 2012 ISRAELITY | Site by illuminea | Sitemap