Talk:1975 in Israel

Notable to a few thousand British residents

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• January 8 - Yehoshua Ben-Zion convicted of embezzling £20 million from the Israeli-British Bank which collapsed in July 1974 owing British investors £46.6 million. Padres Hana (talk) 14:13, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

We are not re-writing history here - we are committed to fill these articles only with prominent events that received significant coverage in the Israeli media or worldwide mainstream media during that specific year and/or had a significant impact on the Israeli public. Did this event have a significant coverage in the Israeli media or worldwide mainstream media during 1975 ? if so please provide sources which indicate so. Did this event have a significant impact on the Israeli public? if so please elaborate and provide sources which indicate so. TheCuriousGnome (talk) 14:29, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

I looked into this. Generally I lean toward keeping well sourced information on condition the article is a) not too long, and b) the presented information does not give undue weight to a certain point of view. So I lean towards inclusion for the following reasons:

1. A collapse of a bank is certainly a notable incident.
2. If it was true that the listed events should have "significant coverage in the Israeli media or worldwide mainstream media during 1975" then certainly we would would never include the births of various celebrities which are currently included. The conclusion is that the criteria is not based on significant coverage during 1975, rather on what would be useful for our readers, based on sources from 1975 until today.
3. The birth of "Muki, Israeli singer and rapper" is less significant on a historical perspective than this trial.
4. The trial seems to have long standing impact on Israeli law in view of controversy surrounding the later pardon of Ben Zion, allegedly due to a false medical certificate (Israel Yearbook on Human Rights 1979, Volume 9; Volume 1979 By Yoram Dinstein, p. 201; Justice in Israel: a study of the Israeli judiciary, p. 241).
5. Ben Zion himself was a notable person, director of the Israel British Bank, who stole 40 million dollars in 1974, served only 3 of 12 prison years. He was pardoned by personal intervention of Menachem Begin. Later was involved in a libel lawsuit against Maariv related to the pardon.
6. I found many sources in English covering this event, and assume (but did't check) there would be very significant coverage in Hebrew sources, but I see that the hebrew Wikipedia does have an article about him.
7. I don't see any harm in keeping this information, this article is not too long or biased. Yehoshua Ben-Zion is a good candidate for a new article. Marokwitz (talk) 07:27, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

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