O Jerusalem!

by Larry Collins

  In 1949, the government of Israel began to move its offices to Jerusalem, proclaiming the New City its capital in defiance of the United Nations and the United States, both of which still clung to the hope of internationalizing it.

  Behind Old Jerusalem's ramparts, the Wailing Wall was deserted, its only guardians the black-robed women slipping past it, an occasional tourist or the Arab children playing in the narrow alley running past its ancient stones. The ruins of the Jewish Quarter, picked clean of every object of value, lay exposed to the sun like the upturned stones of a desecrated cemetery, convincing evidence, the Arabs would sometimes say, of how permanent had been its residents' eviction from their quarter.

  It was not to be as permanent as they had hoped. In June 1967, after twice warning King Hussein to stop the shelling of New Jerusalem, Israel went to war with Jordan. The paratroopers of Uzi Narciss, the man who had ordered his Palmach back from Zion Gate in May 1948, captured the Old City after forty-eight hours of fighting. In the wake of their victory, a parade of Israelis flocked to the walls. Sweating paratroopers, ecstatic old rabbis, government ministers, and bearded teenagers joined in that emotional hour when an ancient people at last regained the most vital landmark of their existence. Among the first to contemplate its stones were the two men who had hoped to cling to them in 1948, Dov Joseph and David Shaltiel.

  All across the city, the first days following the end of the June war witnessed an extraordinary intermingling of peoples, of Arabs and Jews renewing old friendships, rediscovering sights, sounds, smells and landscapes. In that brief euphoric hour, the battlements and gunports were dismantled, the barbed wire was rolled up, no man's land rehabilitated. Once again Jerusalem was a united city, its two halves rejoined in their common whole, the ugly scars of war removed. The blessing of its newfound unity would be disturbed, however, and the euphoria that had burst out in the aftermath of the war would be of limited duration.

  The government of Israel, anxious to place its new occupation of its ancient capital beyond question, formally annexed the conquered portions of the city. New immigrants were encouraged to move to Jerusalem and plans were developed to link it more closely to the Jewish state by surrounding it with new settlements. Jerusalem, the Israeli government made it clear, could not be considered negotiable in a peace settlement with Arab states, although special measures for the protection of its shrines would be contemplated.

  For their part, the Arabs, angered by what they sensed was an effort to diminish their numbers and role in the city, withdrew into a muted hostility toward Jerusalem's new regime. The rise of the fedayeen elsewhere inevitably had its effect in Jerusalem, and the awful wreckage of terrorist bombs once again scarred the city in the marketplace of Mahane Yehuda, the dining room of Hebrew University, a supermarket crowded with Sabbath shoppers . . .

  And so, while the barbed wire and the battlements were gone, the line dividing the city's heart remained. As the image of ancient Jerusalem had decorated the walls of Jewish homes in the Diaspora, a portrait of the Dome of the Rock now graces Arab homes from Beirut to Baghdad—and unless Arab and Jew can display more tolerance and understanding of each other than they have done in the past, the ancient prayer "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem" may well become a war cry for future generations of another Semitic people.

  Written for the great Hebrew King who made the city his capital, the words of the ancient psalm of David remain as true today as when they were first sung:

  Pray for the peace for Jerusalem . . .

  Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within

  Thy palaces.

  BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

  ARABS

  ABOU GHARBIEH, Bajhat: The defender of the Musrara quarter became active in the Palestine guerrilla movement in Amman.

  ABOUSSOUAN, Dr. Samy: The survivor of the explosion of the Hotel Semiramis became a dentist in Beirut.

  ANTONIOUS, Katy: She returned to the city in which she had been such a noted hostess and continued her activities on the Arab side of Jerusalem until the Six-Day War in June 1967. She lived in Beirut until her death.

  AZZAM Pasha, Abdurrahman: Retired as secretary general of the Arab League in 1956. Lived in Beirut until his death.

  DEEB, George: The man who furnished the Egyptian Army its road maps of Palestine became a businessman in Amman.

  GENNO, Abou Khalil: The man who helped destroy the Palestine Post became a wealthy businessman in Jerusalem. In the aftermath of the Six-Day War, he tried for a time to promote Arab-Israeli harmony.

  GHORY, Emile: After the war he was a member of the Jordanian parliament, maintained close ties with the Mufti and served as an intermediary between the government and the fedayeen.

  HALABY, Assiya: The woman who bid the last British goodbye remained in Jerusalem. She has since been jailed twice for her protests against the city's annexation to Israel.

  IREKAT, Kamal: The organizer of the ambush of the Nebi Daniel convoy became the Speaker of the Jordanian parliament.

  JUMEAN, Emile: Before his retirement, Jumean served in the Arab Legion and was the aide of King Hussein's brother, Prince Mohammed.

  KAUKJI, Fawzi el: The commander of the Liberation Army lived in seclusion outside Beirut until his death.

  KHALIDY, Mrs. Ambara: The Khalidy family settled in Beirut. Sami Khalidy never fully recovered from the shock of leaving Jerusalem and died shortly thereafter. Among Ambara Khalidy's sons are a distinguished historian and a prize-winning chemist.

  KUTUB, Fawzi el: Kutub pursues his career as an explosives expert in Damascus, where his services are at the disposal of the Palestine fedayeen.

  MAJAJ, Hameh: Never remarried, the man who lost his wife to Uri Cohen's bomb at Jaffa Gate lives quietly in Amman.

  MAJALI, Habes: The commander of the Arab Legion at Latrun was called in by King Hussein to serve as minister of defense when the Jordanian Army moved against the fedayeen.

  MARDAM, Colonel Fouad: Mardam was condemned to death by a Syrian tribunal after the war for his role in the loss of the Arab League's army at Bari Harbor. His Israeli enemies, to establish the fact that he was innocent of wrongdoing in the affair, revealing their role in the capture of the Argiro and Mardam's life was subsequently spared.

  PULLI, Antonio: Spared by the 1952 Nasser coup d'etat which overthrew Egypt's King Farouk, the indefatigable organizer of Farouk's night life opened a pastry shop in a Cairo suburb.

  ROUSAN, Mahmoud: A member of parliament from Irbid, Rousan, Majah's adjutant at Latrun, was dismissed from the Jordanian Army on the charge of having been involved in pro-Nasser activities. He fled to Syria in 1971 after King Hussein crushed the fedayeen.

  TANNOUS, Nimra: The "Tigress" of the switchboard at the Arabs' Rawdah School headquarters was later employed by the Jordanian government in its Refugee Department.

  TELL, Abdullah: The Arab Legion's Jerusalem commander went into voluntary exile in Cairo in 1950 after his popularity among the Palestinians led to his dismissal from his Jerusalem command. Sentenced to death in absentia for a role he always denied playing in the assassination of King Abdullah, he remained in Cairo until 1967, when King Hussein pardoned him. He has since died.

  TELL, Wasfi: The officer whose warnings were ignored so frequently in 1948 was assassinated in Cairo in December 1971.

  BRITISH

  BEELEY, Sir Harold: Bevin's senior aide in 1948 retired in 1969 after a long and distinguished diplomatic career, including ambassadorships in Moscow and Cairo. He has since died.

  CHURCHILL, Colonel Jack: Retired from the British Army, the man who attempted to rescue the Hadassah convoy lives quietly outside London.

  CUNNINGHAM, General Sir Alan: The last High Commissioner in Palestine lived in retirement outside London until his death.

  GLUBB, General Sir John Bagot (Glubb Pasha): Glubb was summarily dismissed by King Hussein in 1956 at the instigation of a group of the Legion's Arab officers led by Ali Abou Nuwar, the young man who had told his British superior, "India is not yo
ur country." He returned to England, and before his death led an active life writing and lecturing about a subject few men knew better than he, the Arab world.

  JONES, Brigadier C. P.: Jerusalem's last British commander was the Governor of London's Chelsea Pensioners Hospital before he died.

  KIRKBRIDE, Sir Alec: Before he died, Sir Alec called on his long years of service in Amman in his role as a director of the British Bank of the Middle-East.

  MACMILLAN, General Sir Gordon H. A.: After retiring from active service, the last commander of the British forces in Palestine lived in Scotland until his death.

  ISRAELIS

  ALLON, Yigal: The commander of the Palmach in 1948 embarked on to a political career and eventually served as deputy prime minister in Golda Meir's government.

  AVIDAR, Joseph: The man who ran the Haganah's supply efforts in 1948 became a director of the nation's trade-union organization, Histadrut.

  AVRIEL, Ehud: Until his death, the man who was responsible for the purchase of so many arms served as Israel's ambassador to Rome and was a member of the International Zionist Action Committee.

  CHARNY, Carmi: The man who helped stop the Legion's armor at Sheikh Jarrah became one of Israel's outstanding Hebrew poets.

  CHOREV, Amos: Chorev, who helped discover the "Burma Road," retired from active service as a general in the Israeli Army.

  COHEN, Uri: As a senior pilot with El Al Israel Airlines, the man who was an Irgun terrorist in 1948 helped thwart an Arab terrorist attempt to throw a grenade into an airport bus in Frankfurt, Germany in the 1970's.

  ELAZAR, David "Dado": The officer who had to kick his men awake during the attack on Zion Gate became Chief of Staff of the Israel defense forces. Before he died he commanded the Israeli forces on the northern front in the Six-Day War.

  FEDERMANN, Xiel: The Santa Claus of the Haganah presides today over the largest conglomerate in Israel.

  GAZIT, Mordechai: Gazit returned to the civil service after spending months recuperating from the wound he received in the Old City. He became involved in the settlement of new immigrants in Israel and served as Israel's ambassador to France.

  HERZOG, Chaim (Vivian): The former Guards officer is now President of Israel.

  HOD, Mordechai: One of the first two pilots to arrive with Avriel's Messerschmitts, Hod commanded the Israeli Air Force during the Six-Day War.

  JOSEPH, Dov: Jerusalem's Civil Affairs Chief's experience stood him in good stead. During Israel's lean years after the 1948 war, Joseph applied it on a national scale and his name became a household word in Israel. Before he died he lived in semiretirement in Jerusalem and maintained his law practice.

  LASKOV, Haim: The commander of Israel's first armored columns became the chairman of the Citrus Marketing Board.

  LEVI, Yitzhak: Shaltiel's intelligence officer now manages his own publishing firm in Jerusalem.

  LORCH, Netanel: The young man who thought "dancing is for the innocents" later took charge of the Israel Foreign Office's United Nations Relations Department. He is the author of the Israel Army's official history of the 1948 war, The Edge of the Sword.

  NARCISS, Uzi: Retired from the Israel Army after the Six-Day War, the man who withdrew his Palmachniks from Zion Gate later took charge of Israel's new-immigrants program.

  NEVO, Yosef: Long and happily married, Nevo remained in the Army until after the Six-Day War, was later the mayor of Herzlia and is a military-affairs commentator.

  RABIN, Yitzhak: The commander of the Har-el Brigade led his nation's army to victory in the Six-Day War, and later became Israel's ambassador to the United States and Prime Minister of Israel.

  RUSSNAK, Moshe: The Old City's commander was later employed by the Hadassah organization.

  SHALTIEL, David: Jerusalem's Haganah commander died in 1969 after a long diplomatic career in Europe and South America.

  SHAMIR, Shlomo: The commander of the Seventh Brigade retired after a long and distinguished military career.

  SINAI, Zvi: The commander of Operation Keddem remained in the Army and took a position at GHQ Tel Aviv, involved in military history.

  SLAVINE, Haim: Ben-Gurion's arms-manufacturing expert who scoured the United States for surplus machine tools turned to supervising a more peaceful activity, the assembly of prefabricated houses.

  WEIZMAN, Ezer: One of the first two pilots to reach Israel with Ehud Avriel's ME-110s, he later became Minister of Transportation and Minister of Defense.

  YADIN, Yigal: Yadin followed in his father's footsteps and before his death was one of the world's leading archaeologists.

  THE OTHERS

  REYNIER, Jacques de: Reynier moved to Geneva after retiring from the Red Cross.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Rarely have authors been as indebted to as wide an array of people and sources as we have been in preparing O Jerusalem! The research for the book took us two years of intensive efforts in the Middle East, the United States and Europe, and it would be quite impossible to enumerate all those people who so kindly gave us of their time and help. In addition, for political reasons, many of them would prefer to remain anonymous. If space compels us to be brief, we beg the indulgence of the many we have not been able to mention, with the assurance of our gratitude and esteem.

  In Israel, Lieutenant Colonel Eli Bar-Lev of the Defense Ministry Information Department and his assistants were particularly helpful in arranging appointments for us. Colonel Gershon Rivlin, editor of the Israeli military publishing house Maarachot, gave us much valuable guidance to documents and written records. Teddy Kollek, Jerusalem's mayor, put the resources of his municipality at our disposal.

  Mr. David Ben-Gurion kindly granted us two four-hour interviews, painstakingly reviewing for us his memories of 1948, according us the rare privilege of opening his diaries and reading us extracts from his entries of the time. Despite her busy Prime Minister's schedule, Mrs. Golda Meir gave us a lengthy interview, even pushing back an appointment with a departing diplomat to extend our conversation.

  Mrs. David Shaltiel kindly put at our disposal her husband's voluminous files, logbooks and military documents, which were invaluable to us in recreating the situation in Jerusalem in 1948. Ehud Avriel took great amounts of time to painstakingly reconstruct with us his arms-purchasing activities, opening up his cornucopia of memorabilia, invoices, bank deposit slips, his "Ethiopian" purchase orders, all of which gave us the impression of being in Prague in the springtime of 1948. Joseph Avidar exhumed his long-buried Haganah archives to review with us almost machine gun by machine gun in their meticulously kept pages the gradual evolution of the underground army's stores.

  Invaluable were our long walks through Jerusalem with Jacob Tsur as he patiently explained street by street and neighborhood by neighborhood the city's quirks and complexities. At Hulda, in the countryside around Latrun, Vivian Herzog graciously reconstructed the terrible battles of Latrun.

  In Amman, Peter Saleh, chief of the Jordan Information Department, and Ibrahim Izzidine, press officer at the royal palace, were particularly kind and helpful to us. His Majesty King Hussein graciously offered us access to the files of the Arab Legion. Abdullah Tell was a source of enormous help, patiently sitting with us for hours in his home in Amman, reviewing day by day his activities during the fighting in Jerusalem. As Vivian Herzog had, Mahmoud Rousan reconstructed for us with his diaries and his maps the battles of Latrun as he had witnessed them from his Arab Legion positions.

  Emile Ghory and Bajhat Abou Gharbieh were particularly helpful, devoting to us long hours in which they reviewed the role of the Palestine irregulars in 1948 and particularly that played by their dead leader, Abdul Khader Husseini.

  Two of Lebanon's leaders, Dr. Charles Malik and Camille Chamoun, were good enough to review for us in detail the United Nations debate in which they participated, and to unearth the reports and cables they compiled at the time. In Cairo, we owed a special debt to the assistance of Mohammed Hassenein Heikal and to Mrs. Abdul Khader Husseini, wh
o showed us her husband's last letters, as well as to Antonio Pulli Bey for his insights into King Farouk's court.

  Sir John Glubb took time from his own busy writing schedule to review with us the vital role he played in the events of 1948. Sir Alec Kirkbride, Sir Alan Cunningham, Sir Gordon MacMillan and Sir Harold Beeley were all most kind in offering their time and counsel.

  In the United States, among the many people who assisted us, we would like to particularly thank Mr. Clark Clifford for giving us permission to review his personal papers, and the helpful and professional staff of the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. Jacques de Reynier of the International Red Cross kindly gave us his private diary and helped with his recollection of Deir Yassin.

  Our most particular thanks go to those collaborators who worked with us on the book and without whose aid it would have been impossible to accomplish our task. First and foremost among them was Miss Dominique Conchon, our inestimable companion and collaborator along the hard three-and-a-half-year route which led to this O Jerusalem! With care, intelligence, and a constant faith in our task, she oversaw the organization of our files of notes, recordings and documents, supervising translations, assembling in well-ordered dossiers over eight thousand pages of original research. During the long and lonely months required to write the book, she was a cheerful friend and valued critic overseeing the typing of our manuscripts.

  We owe an equally substantial debt to our researchers, Lily Rivlin, an able and determined interviewer whose work made a great contribution to our task in Israel; Mr. Suleiman Moussa, a distinguished historian in his own right; and our Palestinian friend Diana, who interviewed many of her compatriots for us. René Clair of the French Academy kindly read the French version of the manuscript and gave us the benefit of his good counsel. Madame Colette Modiano, author of another soon-to-be-published work on the Middle East, was a constant source of support.