Finnish passport used for Israel - Our Passports
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  • 1952 passport used by Niilo Kalervo Askanian
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October 18, 2021
in Articles, Cold War, Passports
by Neil
0 Comments

Finnish passport used for Israel

 

Early arms cooperation from the 1950’s.

 

Israel was founded in 1948, and from its early stages of existence it has been under threat of war and aggression. Actually, the Jewish population living in this ancient land has always been under some sort of peril from their Arab neighbors within, starting with the riots breaking out years earlier: 1929 Palestine riots & 1936-39 Arab revolt in Palestine. The Jewish community in British Palestine, the Yishuv, had to find means to defend themselves, by joining the local police force or gathering arms and establishing their own protection, such as the Tower and Stockade. Various Jewish defense organizations existed.

 

Living under constant threat of violence for a long period of time, even after the establishing of the State, lead to an arms embargo being placed by the international community on the region. Similar cases again appeared later as well. The young country was thus put in a position were it had to fend for itself, producing illegally weapons when under the British and later on establishing its own production of arms and becoming today a leading force. One such “project” was the Arms shipments from Czechoslovakia to Israel 1947-49. The state tried to locate partners and those who would assist her in this cause, and one of the successful corporations was with the Finnish industrial company Tampella that joined forces with the Israeli company Solel Boneh, which later evolved into the Soltam Systems (the Israeli Ministry of Interior visa extension clearly indicates the company).

 

I have added images from a Finnish passport issued in 1952 to well known inventor working for Tampella and being sent to Israel following the cooperation between the two companies. Passport number 3401 was issued to Niilo Kalervo Askanian aged 35 on August 16th. The Israeli visa was issued at Stockholm on the 25th by Israeli diplomat Yaacov Avnon (1919-1996) from Vilnius. Entry/departure from Lod airport near Tell Aviv are for the dates September 4th to May 18th, 1953. Arrival to Israel was via Paris, thus the French visa from 3 days earlier from Helsinki was required. Leaving Israel back to Finland was done by direct flight, we can see the foreign currency annotation at the back of the passport by the Israeli Finance Ministry for the ticket price of IL 316.4, using SAS airlines.

 

I have added images of this fine document.

 

 

Thank you for reading “Our Passports”.

Neil Kaplan
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