The story behind the projectAbout

1948 — 2025 · Seventy-eight years

The Zionist
Time Machine

Every year in Israel's history is a station. Turn the dial and hear what was on the air — original archival photos, voices from the radio, the story, and the song of that year.

A new edition of a 2011 graduation project · See the original · עברית

The Zionist Time Machine
About עברית

1989

Bus 405

The attack on Bus 405 on the Jerusalem highway shocks the nation, and at year's end a great wave of immigration from the Soviet Union begins to flow.

  1. Following an international arbitration ruling, Israel transferred Taba to Egyptian sovereignty, completing its withdrawal from Sinai.
  2. Gili and Galit represented Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest in Lausanne with the song "Derech Hamelech".
  3. A terrorist seized the steering wheel of Bus 405 from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and drove it over a cliff near Kiryat Ye'arim; sixteen people were murdered.
  4. A Syrian pilot defected with a MiG-23 and landed at the Megiddo airfield, where he asked for asylum in Israel.
Sources