Seio Otta, director of the foreign relations department of the Japanese Red Cross, arrived in Israel today to handle the arrangements for the payment of $1.5 million in indemnifications for the victims of the Lydda Airport massacre of May 30. Otta was received by Japanese Embassy representatives here and then left for Jerusalem, where he will meet with Foreign Office and Magen David Adom officials. He will also meet the Lydda victims still in Tel Hashomer Hospital outside Tel Aviv in order to express the feelings of regret of the Japanese government and people.
A special committee investigating the emergency medical care at Lydda Airport found that while the evacuation of victims at the time of the May 30 massacre was carried out promptly and efficiently, this was done on a spontaneous basis and not as an organized effort. The committee suggested that a central medical body be set up at Lydda to tackle all problems such as first aid, notifying ambulances at nearby stations and preparing a team of first aid orderlies at the airport. The committee also suggested that a prearranged plan for distributing the injured to various hospitals be prepared and practiced.
Last night, Premier Golda Meir eulogized Prof. Aharon Katzir-Katchalsky, a world famous chemist who headed the polymer department at the Weizmann Institute who was killed in the Lydda massacre. Mrs. Meir said that if Israel appears today among leading nations in science, it is because of people like Katzir. The eulogy was delivered at a Weizmann Institute meeting marking the one month anniversary of Katzir’s death.
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.
