Independence War to the Kotel

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Sara and I went on a journey through time, back to the days of the Israeli Independence War in 1948. Sara’s grandfather, Igal Naor, was in the Palmach, 4th Battalion, Harel Brigade, under the command of Yitzhak Rabin. We spent the day retracing some of his experiences during the war.

It is very important to note that the Independence War was fought by not only the major Arab armies that declared war on the new state of Israel but primarily was between the small bands of fighters that made up the local Israelis and local Arabs sides. Before the official declaration, gangs on both sides would fight each other without any organization. The Israelis knew that once Ben Gurion declared Israeli independence they would be facing a full scale war. They began banding together the different groups of fighters including the Palmach and Hagana, into a more organized army under specific structure.

Everything I write here is as best as I can recall, and hopefully I didn’t mix up the facts.

First Stop – Shaar Hagai

Our first stop was the memorial for the 5th Battalion that overlooked Shaar Hagai and helped to give us better context of the story we were being told.

At Shaar Hagai, the Israelis were taking control of the hilltops surrounding the road in order for the convoys to get to Jerusalem with food and supplies. Since there was only one road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and at the time Tel Aviv was the biggest city, but Jerusalem still had around 100,000 Jews living there, the convoys had to get through. Yigal was sent with the convoys several times, and was normally in the front in the armored vehicle. This first stop was to us a place to understand the consequences of single battle could be, taking the hilltops each time took the lives of many soldiers each time to send a convoy.

Second Stop – Castel

As we hiked to the top of the hill where the main battles happened Igal recounted one of the most interesting stories from his past. The village Castel was the central point of the road to Jerusalem, whoever controlled Castel controlled the road to Jerusalem. Igal and his company had taken control of Castel twice. The first time his company joined with a couple others to take over Castel, there were many Arabs taking hold there. The capture took a night and a day. There were many losses, but for the convoys to get to Jerusalem this was a must.

After the capture of Castel, the Arabs joined from several nearby villages and attacked Castel for 5 days and nights. Just as they were about to recapture Castel, the Arabs retreated, Igal was not sure why other than they were scared or not willing to do a final push. Abd Elkadir El Husseini, the nephew of the Mufti, religious leader, of all the Muslim Arabs in Israel, arrived the following day. He took command of the Arabs, and ordered another attack. The companies now with some reinforcements defended the Castel until the Arab fighters scattered in retreat.

El Husseini thought his forces had won due to the silence, the following day he went with two body guards to Castel to congratulate the troops. When he arrived within fifty feet or so from the main building of Castel he called out in Arabic to whoever was inside, to him unknowingly were Israeli. The commander inside was expecting a fellow officer that day to relieve him of his duty at that post also responded back in Arabic to come on in. In 1948 Arabic was still commonly used among the soldiers and other Israelis. El Husseini thought that Israeli calling him was one of the British officers who was fighting for him. He called back in English something along the lines of, “Well done boys”. Instantly the Israeli commander knew he was on the Arab’s side and yelled out “Shoot them, they aren’t ours!” in Hebrew.

The guy in the middle, El Husseini, fell and the other two Arabs fled. The Israeli commander knew he had killed an officer of some kind, but his Driver’s License, which was found on his body, said his name was Abd Elkadir El Seini. Though the commander’s higher up asked him to bring the body to the road for a jeep to pick it up to identify, the commander refused because he felt neglected by the officials who had refused to relive them of duty. Not knowing he was one of the most important people in the field, they held onto the body and maintained a normal lookout.

Meanwhile, the Arabs knew who he was and thought he was alive and being held as a POW. They called for all Arabs all over the country to come and take over Castel. The following day over a thousand Arabs attacked at once from three directions. A full retreat was required. Many soldiers fell, and many fell trying to bring back the injured. When the soldiers made it back to the nearest Israeli outpost, news was sent back to HQ. Once the news was understood, HQ immediately ordered a retake of Castel without waiting. The commander waited a while to respond, but then said we will retake it at night with one company. At night Igal along with his company reinforced in numbers by another injured company, for a total of 80 soldiers, made it to the base of Castel overnight, and charged up the hill to retake Castel with what could have been a thousand Arabs lying in wait. They entered the central building and found the entire place deserted. It was only until later that they realized that the Arabs threw away a huge advantage by leaving with El Husseini’s body for a funeral, leaving no one behind to defend. Igal was one of the soldiers that captured Castel the final two times, the first in a long firefight lasting a week. The second being the time where Castel has since been under the control of Israel.

Third Stop – Har Adar

This are was a radar station that the British built and left behind for the nearby Arab population to use. It was a critical place in the war because it controlled who could communicate over the airwaves. The Israelis knew that they had to take control of it before the Arabs did. They attacked from three sides at the same time, each with very small squads, and from an opposing hilltop they had one jeep they found with a canon and three shells. They fired two and left one for reserves and forced the Arabs to retreat. Igal later went on to explain how the area was used to conduct other battles with nearby fighters.

While we were there they had some vehicles used in different Israeli wars, including the same types that Igal himself rode in in the Independence War. Because the Israelis were left on their own during the war they had to be smart in order to have military technologies. They took a regular car used for farming and civilian uses and the local blacksmiths would reinforce them with metal they had lying around from sheds and such. These were the armored vehicles that led all the convoys from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and could barely stop bullets from hand guns, yet this was their protection in the war.

Fourth Stop – The Monastery

Unfortunately we have no pictures of this are but by now we were inside of Jerusalem, on the outskirts of the Old City. The story was told near a monastery that ended up being the focal point of the battle. Igal told a personal account of how he was able to shoot someone who was trying to infiltrate their post. The gunner kept appearing at the same time, in the same place to shoot. Igal prepared to take him down and when he saw the familiar hair he steadied his breath and took his aim. The man fell and didn’t appear again.

Another incident was when they mounted the machine gun in pairs, one the shooter and one the ammo holder. Igal was the shooter and he noticed some movement several hundred feet out and said to his partner “I see some movement I’m going to shoot him.” His partner said “I haven’t shot anyone all day, give me a shot.” Igal then began to back away from his gun and at that same moment he felt and heard a bullet wiz by his ear which would have killed him had he not moved at that moment. The two men switched positions but the sniper had run off.

Fifth Stop – Mount Zion

This stop was the most personal for Igal because it was the location that he lost his eye during the war. They were posted by another monastery a hundred feet away from the Zion Gate entrance to the Old City. There was a sniper who had kept peppering them with bullets and they fired back. Igal was on a machine gun where the ammo was loaded in vertically above the barrel instead of below or to the side as was standard. The sniper’s bullet hit the ammo in front of Igal’s face and shrapnel got into his right eye, though at the time he assumed it was a bullet. Igal bandaged his face and had two of his soldiers carry him down the hill to await evacuation to the hospital, a jeep arrived two hours later to take him.

Sixth Stop – Zion Gate

Igal told us about the final stand the Palamach took at Mount Zion, the battle he didn’t participate. The Jewish quarter was situated behind the walls on the side of were Zion Gate was. There were fighters they were trying to help but the gate was sealed by the Jordanians. His brigade detonated the entrance of the gate, only a few dozen of the fighters were left. They entered the Jewish Quarter eliminating the Arab soldiers defending the entrance. They were able to meet up with the Jewish resistance inside the city. They had been fighting the Jordanian army for nearly a week straight when they were forced to surrender. Initially they were going to let some non-fighters stay behind but the Jordanian general was unhappy with the number of fighters left to be POWs and took all males from age 15 to 55 as prisoners.

Igal’s stories ended here but we continued our טִיוּל (tour) inside of the Old City.

The Kotel

After making our way through shuk in the Jewish Quarter, we arrived at the Kotel just as the sun was setting turning the Jerusalem bricks gold. After taking a few pictures in front of the Kotel in the shared area I made my way to the men’s section to put on tfillin, before the sun had fully set. I first went to the Chabad booth set up on the side. They told me to go the guy with the white beard and ask him what he did in the summer of ’72. He responded by saying that he had met The Rebbe for the first time in nothing but a tablecloth. He did the usual, where are you from, and I was unsurprised to find out that he knew all of the rabbis from Irvine. After wrapping tfillin at the wall I headed back to join the rest of the group and make our way home to the kibbutz.

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