The Jasmin, the first Israeli freighter to call at an Egyptian port, docked at Alexandria Friday to discharge four containers, two of them with general cargo and the others with fresh apples and apricots. Her arrival marked the beginning of a bi-weekly cargo service between Israel and Egypt operated by the Zim Lines, Israel’s national shipping company.
The event created no stir in Alexandria although it was symbolic of the normalization of relations between Israel and Egypt which, many Israelis complain, is proceeding too slowly. Israeli freighters have been passing through the Suez Canal for the past year, but none with cargo for Egypt. The Jasmin tied up between two Egyptian freighters, the Cleopatra and the Emir Fahed. Her master, Captain Aryeh Freiling, gave a luncheon aboard for the Egyptian agents representing Zim and the Israeli Commercial Attache in Egypt, Uzzi Nethanel.
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.
