With the exception of essential public services workers in every industry in all parts of Israel laid down their tools today and celebrated May Day in traditional fashion.
Parades and demonstrations were held in all cities and towns and rallies were held in the villages and kibbutzim. In Jerusalem few government officials were at their desks and even the post office was staffed by a skeleton crew. Banks were open, but employes who chose to celebrate the labor holiday were not required to come to work.
More than 15, 000 Tel Aviv workers participated in a demonstration held at the beach end of Tel Aviv’s main street, Allenby Road. There were no incidents in the crowded city, though several hundred Communists who organized a separate May Day parade were jeered and called “Israel haters.”
In Jerusalem a meeting in convention center was the scene of a disturbance caused by Communists who shouted a variety of slogans including criticism of the projected visit here of James P. Richards, President Eisenhower’s personal envoy to the Middle East. When the Communists refused to subside and resisted ushers’ attempts to throw them out. police were called.
At Herzliah. French Ambassador Pierre Gilbert told 5, 000 people that Franco-Israel economic cooperation would continue and stressed the favorable future of Elath as a port. He reviewed events leading up to France’s decision to help arm Israel and hailed Israel’s “glorious victory” in the Sinai. The port of Haifa and the industrial complexes throughout the city were quiet today as all workers observed May Day. The local stadium was filled for a rally addressed by Mayor Abba Hushi and labor leaders. In Beersheba; the industrial and papulation center of the Negev, and in various southern settlements rallies featuring speeches, dances and singing, were held.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
