This Week in History: 3 dead in terror attack on Jerusalem cinema as part of Arab Rebellion

Premium special: A glimpse into historical moments in Israeli news from 'The Jerusalem Post' Page 1 archives.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
A WOMAN holds a copy of ‘The Jerusalem Post’s Independence Day Supplement during a celebration of the country’s 25th year. (photo credit: JERUSALEM POST ARCHIVE)
A WOMAN holds a copy of ‘The Jerusalem Post’s Independence Day Supplement during a celebration of the country’s 25th year.
(photo credit: JERUSALEM POST ARCHIVE)
 
On May 16, 1936, a terror attack on Jerusalem's Edison cinema left three Jews dead and two injured, after an assailant fired five shots into the crowd as they were leaving the theater. The Edison was located in Zichron Moshe, an exclusively Jewish residential area. The shooting was one of a series of attacks carried out between 1936-39, as part of the Arab revolt in Palestine, against British colonial rule and mass Jewish immigration. The Edison theater was closed in 1995, in favor of a housing complex for haredim.  
On May 15, 1974, Israeli troops stormed an elementary school building in Ma'alot where three Arab terrorists held 85 children captive, ending the two-day ordeal with the deaths of over 25 hostages and 68 other casualties. The hostage-takers were three armed members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) who entered Israel from Lebanon, and after taking the children hostage, demanded the release of 23 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. When a Golani Brigade unit stormed the building, a gun fight ensued, in which the terrorists killed children with grenades and automatic weapons, before they themselves were killed by the soldiers.     
The discovery of 11 letters written by Shimon Bar Kochba, leader of the Jewish revolt against the Romans in the second century C.E., was made in Jerusalem on May 11, 1960. The letters comprised correspondence, mainly orders, between Bar Kochba and his subordinates, mainly Yehonatan Bar Ba'yah and Masbala. The letters were written on papyrus and wooden slats, and were found in a cave by Nahal Hever on the western bank of the Dead Sea.