On January 16th, 1948, just a few months before Israel declared independence, a convoy of 35 Palmach troops delivering supplies to Jews in the Gush Etzion area of Judea, southeast of Jerusalem, were ambushed, slaughtered, and their bodies mutilated by Arab villagers nearby.
Read more: This Day In History: Arabs Slaughter & Defile Bodies Of 35 Jewish Fighters
On January 15th, 1958, Dr. Rudolf Israel Kastner, a Zionist activist and grandfather to current MK Merav Michaeli, was posthumously exonerated from all charges connecting him to the Nazi regime in Hungary. Dr. Kastner was born in the border town of Cluj-Napoca in modern-day Romania to a Jewish-Hungarian family. Being extremely educated and fluent in 8 separate languages, Kastner would grow up to become a leading figure in the Hungarian Zionist movement well into WWII.
Read more: This Day In History: After His Assassination Kastner Cleared Of Aiding Nazis
On January 12th, 1977, large protests broke out all throughout Israel immediately after the French government announced they would be releasing Abu Daoud, the person regarded as the mastermind behind the Munich massacre in 1972. Mohammad Daoud Oudeh, or Abu Daoud who managed to escape towards Syria and Lebanon after the massacre that killed close to a dozen Israeli athletes, was intercepted by French police while traveling from Beirut into Europe.
Read more: This Day In History: France Releases Munich Massacre Terrorist After 5 Years
On January 10th, 1996 Jordan’s King Hussein made his long overdue first public visit to Israel, more than a year after the peace agreement was signed with Israel and just a few short months after the Rabin assassination, which he claimed to have been deeply affected by.
Read more: This Day In History: King Hussein Flies Himself To Tel Aviv For First Official Visit
On January 7th, 1858, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, widely considered the one to resurrect biblical Hebrew and develop it into a modern language, is born as Eliezer Yitzchak Perelman in the Lithuanian village of Luzhky under the rule of the Russian Empire.
Read more: This Day In History: Eliezer Ben Yehuda, The Father Of Modern Hebrew Is Born
