The New York Times · 3 December 1967

CP-1967-048

Christmas in the Old City of Jerusalem

By JAMES FERON

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Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM, Israel — Tanks rumbled through the streets of Jerusalem one night last week. This time, though, there were no accompanying artillery bursts, no squads of soldiers taking up positions in doorways, no strident calls on portable loudspeakers for surrender.

The only real interest in the rumbling armament came from a knot of men, some in uniform and with stop watches in hand, checking the time the tanks took to travel from one corner to the next. They were preparing for Israel’s Independence Day parade on May 2, and the fact that the men with the stop watches were working five months in advance of the event surprised few.

A nation that can defeat three Arab armies in six days apparently knows something about the need for careful planning. The parade, the biggest in the country’s history, will be the highlight of Israel’s 20th-anniversary celebration. Israel is preparing a year-long birthday party for herself.

It began early last month with the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Britain’s pledge to help establish a Jewish national home in Palestine, and will last through most of next year. Many of the celebrations have been planned with the tourist in mind and this, in turn, has created a few problems.

But they are the kind of problems to gladden any Tourism Minister’s heart, because the tourists were already on their way. Israel’s 20th year comes right after a victorious war that has channeled much of the traditional Holy Land traffic through the nation’s sea and air ports.

How this transcription was made

Read from the scan at 2.5x to 10x by a machine looking at the image of the page, not by OCR and not by a person. The folio prints 'THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1' and is then cut by the clipping edge, so the year is not on the scan; 3 December 1967 was a Sunday and the text's own dates (an Independence Day parade set for May 2, the Balfour anniversary 'early last month') carry the year. A subhead 'Birthday Party' inside the article is omitted from the excerpt, which is running body text only.

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