יומנים > יומן - מלא 10/09/1948

Friday, September 10, 1948

Despite all my efforts yesterday and this morning - I didn't finish all the correspondence, and I still have a heap of unanswered letters before me.

       - [Major-General Elimelech] Avner consulted with me before the ministerial committee meeting on demands by Arabs to return to their olive groves. We agreed that the harvesting would be done by us in any event, and anyone who proves that he has an olive grove will receive the price of his harvest.

       - At the Kirya I met with the chairman of the Defense Committee [David Zvi Pinkas]. He requests a secretarial officer, to assist the committee. The committee addressed shortcomings in the soldiers' cleanliness, and he proposes that the Staff appoint a hygiene committee to establish guidelines for the cleanliness of the soldier's housing, clothing, and body. The treatment of Arab prisoners is a cause for concern. The Red Cross claims that the food and care are inadequate. There were also cases of prisoners being killed. The committee members want to visit the camps.

       The committee members are asking for weapons. - For what?

       Pinkas notes that the announcement by the recruitment center regarding those born in 1931 differs from the announcement by the government (I need to look into this). They're complaining that a religious [military] company in Pardes Hannah was disbanded [in the training camp for those born in 1931]. They didn't want to accept them into the artillery corps. The parents of those born in 1931 are concerned about their children coming into contact with old soldiers. They demand that they have health exams from time to time (rightly so!) and that it be noted in their credentials that they were born in 1931.

       - Defense Committee meeting.

       - I parted from [Yitzhak] Lufban - for the last time. I didn't know about his severe illness, and only this morning I found out that he'd died during the night - from a heart disease at Arlosoroff [should be: Beilinson] Hospital.

       - In the afternoon I left for Haifa for a conference of HaKibbutz HaMeuchad members.