יומנים > יומן - מלא 07/02/1949

Monday, February 7, 1949

[Meir David] Loewenstein of the Aguda [Agudas Israel] came to see me. Before deciding on whether to join the government, he wants to know what I meant by what I said about women’s equality and whether the promises we (Fishman [Rabbi Maimon], [Yitzhak] Gruenbaum, and I) made at the time regarding the Sabbath, kashrut, and matrimonial law still hold. I told him: Women’s equality means all the rights that men have in secular matters – inheritance, property, the right to bear witness, and the like. We will not undermine matrimonial precepts (Gittin). He asked whether on matters of principle the CA [the Constituent Assembly, i.e. the Knesset] would forgo deciding and instead ask for the opinion of Torah scholars. I told him absolutely not. There will be elected rabbis who will take part and will express their opinion – and the majority will decide.

         – Shaul, Yizraeli, and Gurion: He’s concerned about the Defense Committee decision to grant every discharged soldier 45 days of vacation, insists on a soldiers’ committee in the Knesset, notes the housing difficulties for discharged soldiers; there are also some unemployed among those discharged (on February 1 there were in total 3,800 unemployed across the country, mainly in cities). There are about 500 war-afflicted in institutions. Hundreds were released for health reasons, and some of them are unemployed – they amount to about 250 per month.

         On housing there’s progress – they’re taking some of the fenced-in / delineated [?] area in Jaffa (I authorized this on the basis of an agreement with the Arabs) – they estimate that there will be about 200 rooms, for now 20 rooms have been received [and] turned over to the most difficult cases, disabled and families of fallen soldiers. Kaplan approved P£ 100,000 to build apartments for discharged soldiers. The War-Discharged Housing Company is contributing P£ 60,000 to this project (they have P£ 600,000 capital from the [Jewish] Agency and the UJA).

         Shaul – it’s possible to get another 4,000-5,000 rooms in Jaffa if the residents are housed densely. Hillel Dan promises, with his equipment and experts, to provide 2,000 housing units per month, two months after the contract. The material exists in the country. They might need to release a few professional workers from the army. A unit will cost P£ 550 (one room with a restroom).

         The matter of clothing for discharged soldiers was resolved this morning: Anyone who doesn’t have clothing is provided with “battle dress.”

         I instructed Nehemiah to find out how many rooms the army offices are occupying in Jaffa and Haifa, and how many rooms are available or need to be cleared out in Ramle in order to transfer everything that can be transferred to Ramle, so as to make places available for soldiers’ housing.

         Young women need to receive occupational training before being discharged from the army.

         – The final election results have been announced. There were 506,567 eligible voters, 440,095 (86.8%) voted. 5,411 were invalid, there remained 434,684 valid [votes].

In a coalition of A, B, M, P, [we’d] have 88 delegates. We have 48 = 54.5%; Mapam has 19 = 21.6%; the Religious [Front] has 16 = 19.1%; P has 5 = 5.7%. And if only H an K are removed from the total, then there are 101, of which we have 48 = 47.8 percent, M has 19 = 18.8%; the Front has 16 = 15.8%; Tz has 7 = 6.3%, P has 5 = 4.9%, S has 4 = 3.9%.

         Shapira came to see me yesterday. They want to participate in the government. He knows they’re entitled to two but they can’t manage without Rabbi Fishman, and he requests that I find a ruse for them to have three. There’s also a justification: The Haredi votes that were lost (5,870 without HaOved HaDati [the Religious Worker]) – 9 parties lost 19,394 votes overall, of which 4,464 were ours (3,214 BPEI, 1,250 Oved Dati). I told him: This is government bloating, because Mapam has more votes and more delegates than they do, and the government should be kept to 12-13 people. I also told him that in my view the ministries of Religious Affairs, Minorities, and Police should be abolished.

         – There will be difficulties forming a government, because everyone (aside from us) will want to see this provisional government [remain] – religion [the religious parties?] has more than it deserves, two of them might have no hope of remaining, Rosenblüth doesn’t mind and the same holds true for Sheetrit. And if Mapam doesn’t receive more than two – then they won’t mind if the status quo remains either. Yesterday Bentov proposed the following government to me: Mapai 7, Mapam 3, religion 2, Sephardi[m] 1, Progressive[s] 1.

         – Brodny [sp.] and Barth: The loan from the banks (3 million) is almost completed. The payment will be in 5 years. The popular loan (3 million) – hasn’t started, to avoid repaying the second lender – 7½ million (from the wealthy), and they’re asking that I provide a few phrases for an announcement. They’re requesting that a few officials who specialize in fundraising be released: Kurzweil [sp.] (in the Ministry of Transport), S. Gafni (Transport), Brezer [sp.] (Office of the War Afflicted), Parnett [sp.] (Haifa, Import and Export Department), Bernstein, for half-days during February and March. They’re also requesting that government employment be guaranteed for 4 UJA employees (Federer, Mordechai Schiff, S. Klare [sp.], Y. Cohen). They’re requesting the dicharge of 4 soldiers (Avraham Wiseman [sp.], [blank space]

         – [Major-General Elimelech (Zelig)] Avner: Separated families have been transferred from Nazareth to Haifa, from Ramle to Jaffa, and the like (548 individuals were relocated, mostly from Nazareth to Haifa). The infiltrators into Safuriyya were transferred to Reineh and Tur'an. The residents of Farradiyya and Kafr ‘Inan were transferred to Majdal Krum.

         By January 17 all the Arabs were registered. There are 102,000 within our jurisdiction, aside from the residents of Majdal [Ashkelon] and the Bedouins in the Negev. 14,000 are Druze. The Sbeihis [Bedouins of ‘Arab al-Sbeih] in the North are being concentrated in ‘Ein Mahil and ‘Ailut. They’re starting to populate Tarshiha, Bassa, and Dir al-Qasr – and Majdal in the south. Crackdowns [should be: Patrols?] were conducted recently and about 100,000 infiltrators were expelled and people who were being sought were also found. Beersheva is being prepared to receive inhabitants. There are already 60 laborers from Afikim BaNegev working in Beersheva. 50 Arab schools have been opened; more than 6,000 Arab children are attending our education system. It’s impossible to find Hebrew [Jewish] teachers for Arab children. The Arab schools will cost us P£ 110,000 this year (through October 1, 1949). [Yehuda] Blum will supervise these schools. In Ramle there are 2,000 Arabs and 6,000 Jews. In Nazareth there are 5,200 Arab refugees – 2,600 from various cities (Tiberias, Bet She’an, and others), 2,600 from villages (Mujaydil and others). In the POW camps there are about 5,000 local Arabs. Those who come from places settled by Arabs who have committed no sin should be released.

         On Thursday at 10 a.m. all the military governors will convene in Nazareth.

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A comparison of the last elections

In the major cities (to the Congress and the Constituent Assembly)

         In the labor [movement] settlements 35,830 voted for the Constituent Assembly, of whom 15,906 – 44.3% [voted] A, 14,287 – 39.8% M, 2,260 B, 950 P, 207 – 0.5% K.

         In the moshavot [rural communities of private farms] 45,894 voted, of whom 18,639 – 40.6% [voted] A, 7,089 – 15.4% M, 6,510 B, 3,102 P, 944 – 2%.

         In the cities 264,697 voted, of whom 87,770 – 33.15% [voted] A, 24,724 – 14.1% M, 37,499 B, 11,869 P., 5,787 – 2.1% K.

         The Arab vote count

In the cities 12,439: A – 440, B – 109, YA – 1,472, YD – 3,305, M – 24, K – 4,298, Th – 924; villages – 14,151 A, 35 B, 1,661 YA, YD 4,095, 102 M, 1,453 K. 1,365 Th.

         In total 26,590, of whom A – 2,574, B – 144, YA 3,133, YD 7,400, M – 126, K – 5,751, Th – 2,289.

Among A – M – K the percentages are distributed by the following categories: