The 2,300 ton freighter “Palmach,” the first seagoing vessel to be built for a private maritime company under the German-Israel reparations pact, slid down the ways here today.
When the ship’s interior is completed later this year, it will be taken over by a crew of 23 Israelis and commanded by “Captain Ike,” commander of the immigrant ship “Exodus” which ten years ago attempted unsuccessfully to run the British blockade of Palestine. The freighter, which will be owned and operated by the Atid Navigation Company of Haifa and the Federation of Kibbutzim, will carry citrus fruit in season and lumber the remainder of the year.
Present at the launching ceremonies were M. Ginsberg, director of the Israeli Communications Ministry, A. Sternberg, head of the import section of the Israel Purchasing Mission in Germany, Carl Katz, head of the Bremen Jewish community, and Erich Lueth, initiator of the “Peace With Israel” movement in Germany.
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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.
