1968 in Israel

Israel entered 1968 less than seven months after the Six-Day War, with the conflict's diplomatic and security consequences still unsettled. Diplomacy centered on UN Security Council Resolution 242 and Gunnar Jarring's mission, while Palestinian terrorist attacks and renewed Egyptian fire challenged the ceasefires.[1][2] The year also marked Israel's twentieth anniversary, giving the Jerusalem military parade and the Zionist Congress unusual symbolic prominence.[3][4]

Events unfolded on several connected tracks. The Labor Party was formed in January, and the Karameh raid followed a deadly March mine attack.[5][6] The July hijacking of El Al Flight 426 internationalized Palestinian aviation terrorism, while fighting intensified along the Suez Canal.[7][8] In December, the Athens airport attack was followed by Israel's raid on Beirut International Airport.[9]

On January 21, 1968, three Knesset parties — Mapai, Ahdut Ha'avoda, and Rafi (Israel Workers List) — merged to establish the Israel Labor Party, then called the Labor Alliance.[5][10] Mapai secretary general Golda Meir agreed to chair the party's foundation conference.[5] The new party's governing bodies allocated 57 percent of positions to Mapai and 21.5 percent to each of the other two components.[10] With 54 Knesset mandates, the merged party became the largest in Knesset history.[11] David Ben-Gurion opposed the union and formed the National List rather than join it.[10]

On March 18, 1968, a school bus carrying Herzlia High School pupils on an outing in the Negev struck a mine, killing the school doctor and a 22-year-old escort guide and wounding 28 children.[12] Three days later, Israeli forces launched a large-scale operation against Fatah bases in and around the Jordanian town of Karameh, seeking to dismantle Fatah's infrastructure east of the Jordan River.[6] The assault began at approximately 6:30 a.m. and involved coordinated air and ground elements; weather and timing problems disrupted a planned paratroop component.[12][13]

Jordanian forces joined the fighting alongside Fatah, and Israeli forces withdrew after roughly twelve to fifteen hours, leaving some equipment behind. A contemporary account reported 24 Israeli dead, three missing, and approximately 70 wounded, with around 150 Fatah fighters and 100 Jordanian soldiers killed.[12] A later Mako account reported 28 Israeli dead, three missing, and about 90 wounded, alongside 79 Jordanian and 150 Fatah fatalities.[13] Maariv gave figures of 33 Israeli, 61 Jordanian, and 130 Palestinian dead.[14] One Israeli aircraft was shot down and its pilot rescued.[12] The operation has been described as the first significant military clash between Israel and an Arab army since the Six-Day War.[14]

Palestinians and Jordanians regard Karameh as a victory, pointing to the Israeli withdrawal, while the battle has received comparatively little attention in Israeli public memory.[6] Washington had urged Israel to exercise restraint, warning that reprisal operations could attract recruits to terrorist organizations, weaken Jordan's government, and dangerously intensify the cycle of attacks and counterstrikes.[9]

During Passover 1968, a small group of religious-Zionist activists — primarily students and graduates of Jerusalem's Merkaz Harav yeshiva associated with Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook — carried out a settlement action at the Park Hotel in central Hebron.[15] On April 11, the group entered the hotel while posing as guests and sent the defense minister a holiday telegram signed by the "settlers of Hebron."[16] The action was an early step in settling territory captured in the Six-Day War and led to the establishment of Kiryat Arba outside Hebron and, later, a Jewish community within Hebron itself.[15] The return carried deep historical resonance because Hebron's earlier Jewish community had been abandoned after the 1929 massacres.[17]

The same year also saw Jews return to Gush Etzion, the bloc of communities captured by Jordan in 1948 and abandoned after the Jewish population was expelled.[17] These developments renewed Jewish communal life at two historically significant locations in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria.[17]

On July 22 or 23, 1968 — sources differ by one day — members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine seized El Al Flight 426, a Boeing 707 carrying 38 passengers and 10 crew from Rome to Tel Aviv, and diverted it to Dar El-Beida Airport in Algeria.[7][18] Non-Israeli passengers were released within 24 hours, followed by the women and children, while 12 Israeli men remained in Algerian custody.[7] Algeria released the aircraft, passengers, and crew on September 1 after approximately 39 to 40 days, following international pressure and an Israeli prisoner release connected to the settlement.[7][18] No one was killed. It remains the first and only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft.[7]

Bombings also struck civilian targets inside Israel. Three bombs exploded in central Tel Aviv on September 4, killing one person and wounding 71.[19][20] On November 22, a car bomb at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market killed 12 people and injured 52.[19][20] A PFLP attack known as the "night of the hand grenades" occurred in Jerusalem on August 18.[21]

On December 26, two PFLP terrorists who had traveled to Athens from Beirut fired automatic weapons and threw grenades at an El Al aircraft preparing to depart for Paris. One Israeli passenger was killed, crew members were injured, and the aircraft caught fire and was severely damaged.[9][22] Greek authorities captured the attackers, and the PFLP claimed responsibility from its Beirut office.[9]

Two days later, Israel retaliated in Operation Gift. Helicopters departing Ramat David began landing at Beirut International Airport at approximately 21:18, and Israeli commandos attacked aircraft and airport facilities for about 20 minutes.[23] The operation destroyed 14 aircraft according to the detailed operational account, while another contemporary account reported 13; no Israeli casualties were recorded.[23][9] The United States criticized the action as disproportionate and directed at an essentially innocent target.[9]

The conflict later known as the War of Attrition took shape along the Suez Canal during 1968, although sources date its beginning differently. Some researchers identify September or October 1968, while ADL dates the beginning to March 8, 1969, when Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser formally proclaimed the war.[8][24] Other accounts trace the conflict to hostilities that began soon after the Six-Day War or identify September 1968 as the start of Egypt's sustained campaign.[2][25]

A period of relative quiet ended sharply on August 26, when an Egyptian commando unit crossed the canal, killed two Israeli soldiers, and kidnapped a third.[12] On September 8, Egypt opened a massive artillery bombardment, described in a contemporary account as a 10,000-shell barrage. Ten Israeli soldiers were killed as Egypt sought to disrupt fortification work, wear down Israeli forces, and generate international pressure for an Israeli withdrawal from Sinai.[2][26] Further artillery and infantry attacks on October 26 killed another 15 or 16 Israelis and wounded dozens.[12][26]

On October 31–November 1, Israel launched Operation Shock. Paratroopers commanded by Matan Vilnai struck targets inside Egypt, including two Nile bridges and a transformer station, disrupting Cairo's electricity supply and temporarily halting Egyptian activity.[26][8] Israel accelerated construction of fortified positions along the canal, which later became known as the Bar-Lev Line.[8][2] Nasser articulated a three-phase strategy in the fall of 1968: "stand fast," "deter Israel," and "wage a war of liberation."[2] Fighting also continued on the Jordanian front, where Jordanian forces and Palestinian terrorist groups fired bazookas, Katyushas, and artillery at Israeli communities; Israeli artillery shelled Irbid in June, while patrols and an electronic fence contributed to a reduction in cross-border attacks.[2]

Senior Israeli and Jordanian officials began secret talks in London in May 1968, with exchanges continuing into November.[9] Israel proposed an arrangement broadly based on the Allon Plan: Jordan would receive political control over roughly two-thirds of a demilitarized West Bank — Judea and Samaria — while Israel retained military control.[9] King Hussein grew increasingly skeptical that Israel would offer terms he could accept and eventually broke off the talks.[9]

In parallel, Israel signaled openness to broader diplomatic engagement. On February 12, Israel notified UN Special Representative Gunnar Jarring that it was prepared to negotiate on matters covered by Security Council Resolution 242.[2] Foreign Minister Abba Eban presented a nine-point Israeli peace plan to the UN General Assembly on October 8, calling for negotiated permanent peace, secure and recognized boundaries, mutual non-aggression, freedom of movement and navigation, a conference on the refugee problem, arrangements for Jerusalem's holy places, recognition of sovereignty and national rights, and regional cooperation.[12][2]

U.S. government records describe Israel as viewing the post-1967 situation as an opportunity for genuine peace and as prepared to exchange most occupied Arab territory for a peace agreement while seeking adjustments to the prewar borders on security grounds. Israel was not willing to consider returning East Jerusalem to Arab control.[9] During Prime Minister Levi Eshkol's January visit to President Lyndon Johnson in Texas, Johnson urged Israeli flexibility, while Eshkol emphasized Israel's hostile surroundings and need for military strength and explicit security arrangements.[9]

A central issue in Israeli-American relations during 1968 was Israel's request for 50 U.S. F-4 Phantom fighters, which Prime Minister Eshkol presented as essential to maintaining Israel's air superiority.[9] U.S. officials initially hesitated, and negotiations included proposed conditions related to Israel's nuclear policy. Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin rejected those conditions as an infringement on Israeli sovereignty.[9] On November 9, President Johnson decided that the sale would proceed without conditions.[9]

The agreement was announced on December 27. Israel was to receive 16 Phantom aircraft in late 1969 and 34 more in 1970, at a total cost of $285 million paid in cash.[27] The agreement represented Israel's largest single arms purchase up to that point and marked a significant shift in U.S. arms-supply policy toward Israel.[27]

The 27th Zionist Congress convened at Jerusalem's National Convention Centre from June 9 to 19, 1968, with 644 delegates bearing full voting rights and representing 29 countries.[3] The opening ceremony marked the seventieth anniversary of the First Zionist Congress and the twentieth anniversary of the State of Israel.[3]

The Congress unanimously endorsed the 1968 Jerusalem Programme, defining Zionism's aims as Jewish unity and Israel's centrality in Jewish life; the ingathering of Jews in Eretz Israel through aliyah; strengthening Israel on the basis of justice and peace; preserving Jewish identity through education and Jewish cultural values; and protecting Jewish rights everywhere.[3] Its political resolutions characterized the Six-Day War as having been forced upon Israel by its neighbors and called for peace through direct negotiations with Arab countries.[3]

On May 12, 1968, the Israeli government established 28 Iyar on the Hebrew calendar as Jerusalem's annual national holiday, commemorating the reunification of the city and the Jewish people's connection with Jerusalem following the Six-Day War.[28] The inaugural commemoration featured a nighttime Dance of Flags — a festive march through Jerusalem to the Western Wall, with Israeli flags and orchestras on wheels.[29] The celebration was later moved to daytime to allow greater public participation.[29]

Israel's first general-interest television network began broadcasting in spring 1968. The Center for Israel Education and Globes date the inaugural transmission and Jerusalem military-parade coverage to May 2, while a Ynet account gives May 6.[30][31] The broadcast team, led by Professor Elihu Katz and his deputy Uzi Feld, had been tasked with introducing Hebrew- and Arabic-language programming in the post–Six-Day War era and had roughly three months to prepare.[32][31] The team obtained an outside-broadcast van for £230,000 and placed a camera on a construction crane 20 stories high. The broadcast drew a record audience in a country with approximately 30,000 black-and-white television sets.[31]

Prime Minister Eshkol and Information Minister Yisrael Galili had specifically requested parade coverage.[31] Katz later recalled that the production was so demanding that, had he understood the difficulty in advance, he might have selected an easier premiere for the inexperienced crew.[32] A separate chronology dates the beginning of regular scheduled broadcasting to December 25, when television began operating three days a week, indicating that the earlier parade coverage was a special transmission rather than the start of a continuous schedule.[33] The early news program "Mabat" was described as the first program broadcast in Hebrew; its initial edition was prepared in three days and planned as two weekly 40-minute broadcasts.[34]

Israel hosted the third Paralympic Games in November 1968 as part of the country's twentieth-anniversary celebrations after Mexico withdrew as host, citing technical difficulties.[35][36] The Israeli government and ILAN stepped in to organize the event. Because suitable equipment was lacking to move wheelchair users on and off aircraft, El Al and the airport authority built a special lift called "Al-Alit."[36]

The opening ceremony took place on November 4 at the Hebrew University Stadium at Givat Ram in Jerusalem before approximately 10,000 spectators, with Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon declaring the Games open.[35][37] Competitions were held in Ramat Gan, and the closing ceremony took place on November 13 at the Tel Aviv fairgrounds.[35][37] About 750 athletes from 29 countries competed in 10 sports, and Israel sent 54 athletes.[36]

Israel placed third behind the United States and the United Kingdom, winning 18 gold medals and approximately 61 or 62 medals in total, depending on the source.[35][36] One Ynet account gives 62 medals, while another gives 61.[37][38] Israel defeated the United States in the wheelchair-basketball final.[36] Malcha Halfon won the javelin and shot put while setting world records, Tzipi Rubin won five gold and two silver medals across three sports, and Italy's Roberto Marson was named the outstanding competitor after winning nine gold medals.[35][37] Many Israeli competitors were war-disabled athletes or victims of terrorism.[35]

On August 2, oil reached Haifa on the Mediterranean coast from Eilat on the Red Sea by pipeline for the first time, making the overland route a viable alternative to the Suez Canal for oil transit.[39] The pipeline offered Israel and its trading partners a strategic bypass of the waterway, which remained closed following the Six-Day War.

Israel's broader economic performance in 1968 was exceptional. Real GNP grew by 15.3 percent over 1967, productivity per work-hour rose 3.0 percent, the industrial production index climbed 28.7 percent, and industrial exports expanded by 24.8 percent.[40] Total exports reached $1.18 billion.[40] One study counted 20,544 Jewish immigrants in 1968 and classified 31.6 percent by European-American birth and 68.4 percent by Asian-African birth.[41] A separate Jewish Agency report recorded 18,087 "immigrants and settling tourists," including 172 engineers and surveyors, 625 merchants and sales agents, and 291 workers in machinery trades. The two totals are not directly comparable because they use different population categories.[40]

On January 25, 1968, the Israeli submarine Dakar disappeared in the Mediterranean while returning from England. Searches were suspended on February 4, and the vessel and all 69 crew members were declared lost on March 6; the wreck was not discovered until 1999.[42]

An Open Bridges policy instituted after the Six-Day War remained in operation during 1968, allowing West Bank Arabs to travel to Jordan and sell produce in Arab countries. Gaza residents could travel to the West Bank and beyond, while high-school graduates could take Egyptian matriculation examinations and attend Egyptian and other Arab universities.[17][43]

On December 5, doctors at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva performed Israel's first heart transplant on Yitzhak Sulam, a 41-year-old father of four from Jaffa. The seven-hour procedure transplanted the heart of accident victim Abraham Sedgat. Sulam died two weeks later; the hospital attributed his death to kidney failure and pneumonia rather than rejection of the transplanted heart. The case prompted public disagreement among religious authorities about heart transplantation.[44]

On December 30, the Knesset passed the State Commissions of Inquiry Law, authorizing appointed panels to investigate matters of public concern and state interest.[45] The law created the basis for independent commissions but did not require a sitting government to establish one.[45]

At Purim in March, Tel Aviv's Adloyada parade on Ibn Gabirol Street reflected the national mood after the Six-Day War, featuring oversized puppets of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Jordanian King Hussein as if they were conducting a telephone conversation.[46] The twentieth anniversary of independence was marked by a large IDF parade in Jerusalem. The Air Force flew over the capital for the first time during such a ceremony, and approximately half a million visitors came to the city.[4]

Several developments of 1968 shaped later years. The Park Hotel action led to Kiryat Arba and later renewed Jewish settlement inside Hebron, while the canal fighting expanded into the wider War of Attrition.[15][8] The Phantom agreement scheduled aircraft deliveries for 1969 and 1970, and television moved from special transmissions toward regular programming, although sources differ on the exact launch chronology.[27][33]

The chronology of the War of Attrition remains disputed. Some researchers date its beginning to September–October 1968, ADL gives March 8, 1969, and other accounts treat the clashes beginning soon after the Six-Day War as part of the same conflict.[8][24] Official and reference accounts also differ over whether September 1968 marked the war's beginning or a major escalation within a conflict already underway.[2][25]

Karameh is remembered differently by the parties involved: Palestinians and Jordanians celebrate the Israeli withdrawal as a victory, while the battle occupies a less prominent place in Israeli public memory.[6] Casualty estimates also vary substantially. A contemporary letter reported 24 Israeli fatalities, while a later Mako account reported 28 and Maariv reported 33.[12][13] The reported Jordanian and Palestinian losses likewise differ.[14]

The El Al Flight 426 hijacking is dated July 22 by the U.S. Department of State and July 23 by the National Library of Israel and The Jerusalem Post.[1][47] ADL instead lists July 18.[24] Accounts describe captivity lasting from three weeks to approximately 40 days and give different figures for the prisoners released by Israel.[22][7] One account reports 16 prisoners and another 24.[7][48]

Sources also disagree on the date of the Athens airport attack and the scale of Operation Gift. One account incorrectly places the Athens attack on November 26, while contemporary U.S. records date it to December 26.[23][9] The Beirut raid is reported as having destroyed either 13 or 14 aircraft.[9][23] Television accounts variously identify May 2 or May 6 as the date of the first parade broadcast, while another chronology uses December 25 for the start of regular broadcasting.[31][34] Israeli medal totals at the Paralympic Games are similarly reported as either 61 or 62.[37][38]