On March 22nd, 1988, The Knesset repealed a holdover law from the British Mandate-era that banned all sex between people of the same gender, the legislation officially made homosexuality 'legal' in Israel making it the first LGBT-tolerant country in the broader region. It should be noted that despite homosexuality being de-facto illegal, the law was not enforced as the general Israeli public was very tolerant, even among those who wholeheartedly disagreed with homosexuality on religious grounds.

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On March 14th, 1965, 20 years after the end of WW2 and the Holocaust, Israel establishes diplomatic relations with West Germany. Israel’s significant population growth during its first five years of statehood caused a large strain on the economy which resulted in the rationing of basic necessities. As a result, reparations from West Germany, which began in 1952, helped ease these measures, which remained throughout the 1950s. 

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On March 13th, 1881, Czar Alexander II of the Russian Empire, was assassinated in St. Petersburg when a bomb was thrown into his horse carriage. Alexander’s death would mark the end of a period of relative calm relations between Jewish residents of the empire and their gentile neighbors, due to many of his liberal policies, and instead marked the beginning of decades of pogroms promoted by the empire which would enhance the Zionist movement’s cause. A year after the Czar’s assassination, the first Zionist migration, or “Aliyah” to the land of Israel would begin.

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On March 10th, 1970, Israel’s Law of Return, which was originally passed in 1950, was amended to fully define the question of “Who is a Jew” and based on that who is worthy of Israeli citizenship. The amendment was presented by Minister of Justice Yaakov-Shimshon Shapira, and the discourse ahead of its passage highlighted the sharp difference between orthodox and secular positions in Israel, as well the non-Orthodox movements in the Diaspora.

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On March 8th, 1969, the Egyptian armed forces launched a major offensive at Israeli positions on the eastern parts of the Israeli-controlled Suez Canal, beginning the War of Attrition that lasted until August 1970.  

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