Every school child in Israel is familiar with the historic moments and images of the liberation of Jerusalem’s Old City and the Western Wall: Commander of the Paratroopers Brigade, Motta Gur’s famous declaration: “The Temple Mount is in our hands!”; Rabbi Shlomo Goren blowing the shofar; Israeli paratroopers at the Western Wall, tears of joy running down their faces. But how did the Old City of Jerusalem come under Jordanian control from 1948 to 1967 to begin with? The answer, as is in such cases, is complicated. Today we will tour the area to try and gain some insight into the events that led to the capture of the most sacred city to the Jewish people.
Our tour will focus on Mount Zion and the Old City’s Zion Gate – the battlegrounds where a heroic effort was made by the Jewish forces to prevent the fall of the Jewish Quarter into Jordanian hands in 1948.
Type of tour: walking tour
Estimated duration: 2-3 hours
Difficulty: easy
Starting point: The Begin Heritage Center (Waze: “Begin Heritage Center”). There is free parking in front of the Mount Zion Hotel and blue and white paid parking in the HaTachana compound. While looking over Mount Zion and the Valley of Hinnom, we will learn about the background to the battle for the Old City during the War of Independence.
Those who remained within the Old City walls and those who settled outside of them
After approximately 300 years in which Jerusalem was a non-walled city under Mamluk rule, the Ottomans, who conquered the land in the 16th century, built a fortified gated wall around the city. One of the entrances through that wall is the Zion Gate, which was built in 1542.
The construction of the wall delimited the built-up area of Jerusalem until the middle of the 19th century, when the “exodus of the walls” began, during which the Mishkenot Sha’ananim neighborhood and its iconic flour mill were built. In the decades that followed, the Jerusalem Jewish, Christian and Muslim populations began to expand outside the city walls, and within a short period the city center moved from the Old City to the New City.
What about those who remained within the walls? The Jews, who until the expansion were the largest demographic among the residents of Jerusalem, became a minority of about ten percent of the residents of the Old City. The Jewish Quarter in the Old City was relatively small, surrounded by a massive Arab population, with not only a deep ravine but also a thick wall separating it from the nearest Jewish neighborhood , Yemin Moshe, which would prove detrimental to its residents in the War of Independence.
On May 13, 1948, following the UN’s vote in favor of the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel and the termination of the British mandate in Israel, the British took their leave of the Old City, handing over the keys to Rabbi Mordechai Weingarten, who was considered the leader of the Jewish Quarter. At that point, there were approximately 1,700 Jews living in the Quarter, of which 150 of them were the Quarter’s defenders, but possessing very few weapons and little ammunition.
The departure of the British and Operation Shfifone (Viper)
With the departure of the British, the 150 Jewish fighters within the Old City, launched Operation Shfifon (Viper) to seize the vacated British military posts, take control over strategic areas and demolish houses in the parameter of the Jewish Quarter to create a buffer zone against assault.
Although the force was able to seize the British posts, it could not take over strategic areas mainly due to the lack of sufficient forces. The planned demolition of the parameter houses was scrapped altogether. One – temporary – achievement the force gained however, was the capture of a church rooftop in the Arminian Quarter, affording the Jewish defenders a line of sight to the Jewish Quarter and the Zion Gate. However, the Armenians requested that the force leave the church and in returned gave their promised the grounds would remain neutral. Within a short while after the Jewish force left the church, the Arabs seized control of it and began sniping at the Jewish Quarter, rendering the now Jewish post at the Zion Gate ineffective as it was in the line of fire, thus the Jewish force retreated. The retreat from the Zion Gate will have a detrimental outcome later in the battle over the Old City.
And then, only two days after the declaration of the State of Israel, on May 16, hostile Arab forces began launching assaults against the Jewish residents of the Old City in the aim of driving them out of the city altogether. By the 17th, a third of the Jewish Quarter had been captured by the Arab forces, and without immediate reinforcements and aid it was soon to fall into Arab hands. In light of the dire situation, The Haganah paramilitary – part of the Palmach force preceding the IDF – decided to break into the Jewish Quarter to reinforce the defending force there. The plan was to break into the Quarter through the Jaffa Gate under cover of a diversion at the Zion Gate to engage the Arab forces. However, as the Zion Gate was held by the Arabs, the Jewish forces first needed to take control of the area immediately outside the gate.
A diversion exceeding expectations: the battle of the Zion Gate
The mission was assigned to Uri Ben Ari, commander of the Palmach Harel Division Fourth breaching Company A. The ensuing events show the dramatic discrepancy between the orders Commander Ben Ari had received and events on the ground.
Uri Ben Ari recounts:
“At that moment I was interrupted by a knock on the door. Hedva came in and with her a messenger from battalion headquarters. The man handed me a sealed envelope… The envelope contained an order from the battalion: “Company A must depart immediately for the Yemin Moshe neighborhood in the city. It must reach the neighborhood under cover of darkness… The mission: to carry out a diversionary operation on Mount Zion, which would divert the enemy’s attention from the main effort of the Etzioni Brigade, which will break through the Jaffa Gate to the Old City. The element of surprise is crucial.”
(From Ben Ari’s book “After Me!”, pg. 228)
However, the Palmach refused to play a mere diversional role in the operation, and in light of the situation in the field, Ben Ari decided to change the mission.
“I made my decision. Not a diversion but the conquest of the mountain. It is doable … a calculated but possible risk. And a little luck wouldn’t hurt either. My eyes met the eyes of the guys with me. Without saying a word, we understood: not a diversion, but full occupation”
(Ibid, pg. 237)
The mission progressed as planned. Toward sunrise the western section of Mount Zion was taken by the Palmach force. It can be said the mission exceeded expectations, and the last barrier between the Palmach force and the besieged Quarter was the Zion Gate. However, the assault on the Jaffa Gate failed. Uzi Narkis, one of the deputy commanders of the 4th Battalion of the Harel Brigade, later commander of the IDF Central Command, describes the events:
“With a barrage of fire the likes of which Jerusalem had never heard, the battle began. In the morning we found ourselves, almost oblivious to the fact, in control of Mount Zion.”
Before we move on to the next part of the battle story, we will descend from the Begin Heritage Center towards the Sultan’s Pool ravine – Brehat Ha’sultan. We will travel on the road to the other side of the ravine, passing by the Sebil – a gate built on top of the Sultan’s Pool Dam. On our way to Mount Zion we will look left and see the cable car that was used to transport supplies to Mount Zion for 19 years. We will cross the road carefully and reach a tunnel.
This tunnel, similarly to the cable car, was used to secretly transport supplies to Mount Zion. The tunnel has been partially restored and can be walked through. We will enter the tunnel and exit near the Samuel Gobat School on Mount Zion. In the metal roof of the tunnel, the various Hebrew names for the city of Jerusalem were cut out, allowing the sun to shine through and cast the names onto the floor and walls.
On the left of the tunnel there are outdoor stairs, which are called the Beni Marshak staircase, named after the Fourth Company’s culture and education officer, for his contribution in the battle.
On our way to Zion Gate we will look at the Dormition Abby Tower. This is an outstanding illustration of the control and line of fire of those who sat atop the tower.
A near takeover: the capture and the retreat
In light of the failed breakthrough of the Jaffa Gate and the achievements at Zion Gate, it was decided to break into the Jewish Quarter through Zion Gate (this coincided with another attempt to break through Jaffa Gate on May 19, 1948 by the Hagana’s Etzioni Brigade) ). The commander appointed for the force was David Elazar, “Dado”, later to become the IDF’s ninth Chief of Staff. This is how Dado described the events:
“The plan for the break-in was for two combat engineers to approach the gate, place 40 kg of explosives under Zion Gate, which was a large gate; an iron gate. The engineers ran forward and placed the explosives with a delay mechanism – and returned to the force. We waited a bit. Then came the explosion. I shouted: ‘Follow me!’ – and no one got up. It turned out that the soldiers [exhausted from hours of heavy combat] had fallen asleep, and even the huge explosion did not wake them up. I had to go from one to the other and wake them up. Then the first ten soldiers advanced and took control of the gate, immediately followed by the rest of the force, which entered the gate in order to advance along the road to the Jewish Quarter… We accomplished the big task. We reached the Jews in the Old City… 1,700 people were saved… They pounced on us, tore us apart [with joy], kissing us…”
(Dado, “48 Years and 20 Days,” p. 67 of the new edition.)
In the same interview Uzi Narkis described the mission:
“At 2:40 after midnight, the sky turned red from the explosion of the charges placed near Zion Gate. The gate collapsed and an announcement came through the communication system: ‘We’re in.’ Later we heard: ‘We have reached the Jewish Quarter.’ Finally, we heard indistinct noises on the communications. These were the sounds of kisses showered by the defenders of the Quarter on their rescuers.”
Meanwhile, an event was unfolding, which would later become the cause for much debate, until this day: the retreat from Zion Gate due to the force’s inability to hold on to the post. After the retreat, and after another failed attempt to break through the Jaffa Gate, the Jordanian Legion returned to lay siege to the Quarter.
According to the Palmach soldiers, the promised reinforcements and replacements for their exhausted men had never arrived, thus there was little choice but to give the order to retreat. Both Dado and Uzi Narkis spoke about the exhaustion of the forces. Narkis claims to have asked for a replacement force, but the force that was sent lacked the training to continue repelling the attacks and hold on to the post, and he ordered the men to join the defenders of the Quarter instead.
Narkis described the events:
“The remainder of the forces retreated and the gate was captured. From that moment until the liberation of the Old City, I went over the events in my head time after time – what could I have done then and did not do? The military considerations were impeccable, but an eternal regret came to be. The Old City of Jerusalem had fallen.”
While the Palmach was agonizing over the failure, there were those who outright accused them of abandoning the Quarter. The retreat from Zion Gate was strongly criticized by Ezra Yachin, a fighter of another Jewish paramilitary militia, Lehi, who took part in the battle. Yachin claimed that there was a power struggle between the forces:
“Uzi Narkis announced… that his exhausted men would not stay put, and demanded replacement… He sent a group of young men from the Guard Corps, who were mainly experienced in building fortifications, and did not know how to hold a rifle… Shaltiel [commander of the Palmach’s Etzioni force and commander of the Jerusalem campaign] knew that had he informed our men [from the Lehi] of the need for people to replace the Palmach fighters, we would not have left a single fighter outside the walls. All of us, with our weapons and equipment, would have headed there [to Jerusalem] under any circumstances! This was Jerusalem – the lifelong dream of the Jewish people. And the Etzel organization members, who were eager to reach out and replace the Haganah members in Ramat Rachel, would certainly jump with joy at such a proposal…”
Operation Kedem and the faulty explosives
On May 28, the Jewish Quarter surrendered and its defenders were taken prisoner by the Jordanians. The Quarter will be liberated only after 19 years, during the Six-Day War.
In July 1948, on the eve of the second hiatus in the War of Independence, one final attempt was made to take over the Old City – Operation Kedem. A force from the Etzioni Brigade was to break through into the old city from the Zion Gate area, a Lehi force was to breach the wall between the new gate and Jaffa Gate, and an Etzel force was to break through the new gate. The Etzioni and Lehi forces were equipped with a special breaching charge prepared especially for the operation. The explosive was called the “cone”, each weighing 150 kg (330 pounds), and was designed to demolish a section of the Old City wall. Despite the difficulties and delays, both cones were detonated. The noise was tremendous, but the cones only breached a small opening in the wall and the forces had to retreat. The explosive agent appeared to be defective or substandard. The fact that both cones failed reinforces this hypothesis. The Etzel force was able to break into the city through the new gate but was ordered to retreat due to concerns that it would be trapped in the Old City
Another planned operation, named Operation Explosive Device, was not executed due to the signing of an “honest ceasefire agreement” between commander of the Haganah forces in Jerusalem and liaison for negotiations with the Arabs, Moshe Dayan and the commander of the Jordanian forces in Jerusalem, Abdullah a-Tal.
Back to our tour: after hearing the story of the capture and retreat, and before entering through Zion Gate, we will turn west (left) and walk a few dozen meters to where the breaching attempt was made in the wall. The site cannot be missed as a large concrete block and a small explanatory sign are telltale signs of the exact location.
We will then turn back and enter the old city through the Zion Gate.
From Zion Gate, we will turn right at the edge of the Armenian Quarter and make our way to the Jewish Quarter. We will cross the road and reach Chabad Street (which demarcates the border between the Jewish and Armenian Quarters). We will tell the story of the Jews besieged in the Old Quarter another time.
The lessons of the Mount Zion capture and the loss of the Jewish Quarter
In terms of the values that led to the successes, we see commitment to the mission, even in the face of abject exhaustion. This was coupled with creative thinking and the leveraging of gains, when one arena proves to be more instrumental than another, and the battle shifts from a diversion to a successful capture.
What about the failures? It seems that better coordination among the Jewish assault forces and better collaboration among the various forces in the battlefield would have yielded better results.
Together we shall prevail is more than just a saying – it is an edict of the battle field.