Jerusalem
At midnight from May 14th to May 15th of 1948, at the moment when the British mandate expired and the State of Israel was proclaimed the British mandate government and the last military troops left the city. Jewish armed forces managed to capture governmental buildings in the center of the city abandoned by the English. Not long before that Hagana seized several Arab quarters of the New City. But the siege of Jerusalem by the Arabs continued for 2 more months because Latrun domineering over the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was not captured by the Jewish army. At the end of May, the pipeline supplying Jerusalem with water from the Yarkon river was damaged; the city power plant stopped working because of lack of fuel. The population of the Jewish quarter of the Old City (around 2,000 people) suffered severely from this tough blockade.
In the months of the siege of the Jewish parts of Jerusalem (the end of 1947- the middle of July of 1948), the western part of the city controlled by the Jewish forces as well as the Scopus mountain were heavily bombed (mainly by the Arab Legion); that resulted in 170 people being killed and around 1,000 injured. Victuals, water and fuel were distributed by cards; power supply of the city was stopped. Due to the Jewish part of Jerusalem being cut off from the cemetery on the Olive mountain burials were carried out on temporary burial sites. A runway was built for light airplanes through which communication with other parts of the country was maintained.
Egypt’s armed forces invaded the country after declaration of independence and managed to come to the southern and south-western suburbs of the city; the Egyptians united with groups of the Arab Legion of Transjordan, which blocked Jerusalem from the East, North and North-West and besieged the Jewish quarter of the Old City. In spite of the fact that the Jewish troops (on the night from 17 to 18 of May) managed to break into the Old City the few defenders of the Jewish quarter who suffered great losses were no longer able to hold their positions. On 28 of May, the Jewish quarter capitulated; the wounded, the women, the children and the old (around 1,300 people) were evacuated to the western part of town, while the quarter’s defenders were taken captives. Jewish settlements Atarod and Neve-Jacob north of Jerusalem were also given up.
The Arab Legion undertook attacks against kibbutz Ramats-Rachel (May 22, together with the Egyptian troops) on the southern outskirts of Jerusalem as well as on the Scopus mountain in the north but these attacks were rebutted by the few defenders. In the western vicinities of Jerusalem attacks of the Legion against kibbutz Ma’al-ha-Hamish were rebutted. However, three attempts by the Jewish forces to capture Latrun were of no avail, and communication with the city resumed only after a ground road (the so-called Birman road) bypassing Latrun was built in the hardest conditions with the help of Jerusalem’s volunteers.
As a result of a ceasefire agreement signed under UN supervision on June 11, 1948, the eastern Jerusalem including the Old City was left under Transjordan’s control, while the western Jerusalem –– under control of the state of Israel.
The divided city (1948-1967). For a period of time after the ceasefire Jerusalem’s condition remained uncertain. The city was divided into two parts by a demarcation line, which crossed Jerusalem from south to north; relationships between the two parts were regulated by an agreement signed between the commander of the Arab Legion and the head of the Israeli forces in town. Egyptian troops continued to threaten the city from their positions in the area of Bethlehem.
During ten-day fighting that broke out on July 9, 1948, after expiry of the term of the ceasefire agreement the Jewish forces broke through the defense lines of the Egyptian troops and captured village Ain-Kerem south-west of Jerusalem. On the night from 16 to 17 of July, the soldiers of the army of defense of Israel and detachments of Etsel broke into the old city from two sides but had to leave it several hours before a second ceasefire agreement was enacted. In October of 1948, as a result of “Job” operation the Egyptian troops were forced to leave their positions, and the threat to Jerusalem from the south was eliminated.
UN’s mediator F. Bernadot’s proposal to demilitarize Jerusalem and fully give it under Transjordan’s control was rejected by the Israeli government. After Bernadot’s assassination on September 17 of 1948 (maybe, by members of Lehi) the Israeli government dismissed Etsel and Lehi forces that had been operating as independent units and mobilized their members into the ranks of the Defense Army of Israel.
The population of the Jewish part of Jerusalem participated in January of 1949 in elections to constituent assembly that was later called Knesset of the first calling. The first meeting of the Knesset (February 14-17) took pace in Jerusalem in the building of the Jewish agency; later the Knesset held meeting in Tel Aviv. But when on December 10 of 1949, the General Assembly of the UN passed a resolution, according to which the entire Jerusalem and its vicinities had to be given under international control the government of Israel on December 13 of 1949 officially proclaimed Jerusalem capital of the state of Israel and ordered that the Knesset and other governmental establishments be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Transjordan also rejected this UN resolution, and in the future it was used only by Vatican and several other states represented in the UN to criticize Israel.
Four-year long fighting in the city and its vicinities, blocking by Transjordan –– despite the conditions of the peace treaty signed on April 3, 1949 –– a free access for Jews to the Scopus mountain and the holy places in the Old City, fear that Jerusalem would turn into an international city, location of administrative centers of the Arab part of Palestine in Amman and location of many Israeli governmental establishments in Tel Aviv (despite the government’s decision of transferring them to Jerusalem), –– all this led to an abrupt decrease of the city’s population. If in 1948, in Jerusalem there were 100,000 Jews, 40,000 Moslems and 25,000 Christians, in 1949, around 68,000 Jews, 931 Christians and 28 Moslems lived in the Jewish part of the city, while the population of Eastern Jerusalem even in 1956 did not exceed 46,000 people.
Having occupied in May of 1948 the Eastern part of Jerusalem, the Arab Legion destroyed the Jewish quarter in the Old City, including almost all synagogues, Yeshivas and social-charity organizations. The Jewish cemetery on the Olive Mountain’s slope was defiled. On December 13 of 1948, Transjordan’s parliament passed a law on annexing the areas of former Palestine occupied by the Arab forces; this included Eastern Jerusalem. In April of 1950, Jerusalem was formally proclaimed “the Second Capital” of the country called Hashimit Kingdom of Jordan. Although it was given status of a region center, the city was several years left without electricity and almost without any water supply from outside. But development of the Eastern part of Jerusalem gradually began.
A new Arab living quarter and an American colony with numerous hotels and stores appeared north of the Old City’s walls. On the eve of the Six Day War the population of the Eastern Jerusalem reached up to 65,000, 25,000 of which lived in the Old City. Instead of the roads that ran through the Jewish part of the city and near it north and south of Jerusalem circular highways were built. The majority of the Arab population of Jerusalem was occupied by serving numerous tourists and pilgrims who visited the city.
In Western Jerusalem after a short period of uncertainty and vague future that led to a significant decrease of the Jewish population (see above) a process of restoration and development of the Jewish part of Jerusalem began. Water and power supply were fixed; on May 1 of 1949, railway communication with the littoral plane was resumed; new highways connecting Jerusalem to the other parts of Israel were paved. In 1954-58, new corpuses of the Jewish University in Gev’at-Ram (architects D. Carmy, C. Meltser, Z. Riechter) were built, and in 1952-61, –– a new “Hadassa” medical center (architect I. Neifeld) near Ain-Kerem village, which was supposed to replace the campus and medical center cut off on the Scopus mountain and to put an end to these establishments’ functioning in temporary facilities that hosted them since 1947.
A big concert hall “Binyanei Ha-umma” (1951; architect Z. Reichter), a memorial of European Jewry’s Catastrophe Iad Va-Shem (1953-57; architect Arie al-Hanani), the building of Israeli academy of Natural and Human Sciences (started to be built as an institute after Van Lyr; 1964; architects D. Resnik and S. Pozner) and others were constructed. In the end of 1950s, construction of a complex of governmental buildings was begun, and in 1966 –– that of the Knesset, which had previously presided in a temporary facility (architects I. Clarvein /1893-1970/, D. Carmy, Dora Gad /1912-2003/). In 1966-67, construction of the Israel’s National museum (architects A. Mansfeld /1912-2004/, Dora Gad) was completed. At the same period, buildings of Supreme Rabbinate (1958), Hebrew Union College (1962; architect H. Rau) and others were constructed.
Along with construction of governmental and public buildings, intense community and industrial construction was underway. The city quarters and villages adjoining the city abandoned by Arab dwellers during the Independence war were significantly enlarged and refurbished, and Jews –– repatriates who had arrived to the country during those years in the first place –– settled there. Several big hotels were erected in the city to serve the increasing number of tourists. Jerusalem significantly developed in western direction. Quarters Kiriath-Iovel (since 1954) and Kiriath-Menahem (since 1958) were built. In the south-west ten new quarters appeared; they received a joint name Gonen. Former Arab villages Malha, Ain-Kerem and Deir-Yassin as well as districts Mus Rara, Abu-Tor (western part –– Giv’at Hananeya), Talbie, Baka, Kattamon, the so-called German colony were inhabited by Jews. Arab village Bet-Safafa located south of Jerusalem ended up divided into two parts by Israeli-Jordan line of ceasefire.
Te city being divided into two parts made tension an inherent characteristic of its daily life. Massive concrete walls and barbed fences stretched alongside the demarcation line; in fortified posts along the demarcation line there were constantly armed garrisons on both sides. From time to time, many times without any obvious pretexts, sentinels of the Arab Legion opened snipers’ fire from the walls of the Old City at the dwellers of Jewish Jerusalem; at times this fire did not cease for days. United Nations observers’ interference (they had been in Jerusalem since the ceasefire of 1949) did not always yield positive results. But despite extraordinary tension in the city the population of Jewish Jerusalem steadily increased and by the time of the Six Day War reached up to 185,000 people.
The Six Day War. On the first day of the Six Day War, June 5 of 1967, Jordan troops broke the peace treaty, seized the UN quarters and began artillery bombing of the Jewish quarters of Jerusalem in an attempt to break into the southern part of the city. The attacks of the Jordanians were rebutted, and in the course of fighting that lasted until midday of June 7 the entire Jerusalem ended up under control of the Israeli forces. In a battle for Jerusalem and its vicinities 180 Israeli soldiers got fallen, while the bombing of the Jewish part of the city caused civilian casualties among the Jewish population. Especially fierce fighting took place in the northern part of Jerusalem over Giv’at-ha-Tahmoshet where the Arab Legion had well fortified positions dominating over the city.
On June 28 of 1967, the Israeli government’s decree spread jurisdiction of the state of Israel over the whole territory of Jerusalem. New municipal borders of the city were established; its dividing partitions were destroyed, and Jerusalem’s dwellers for the first time after almost 19 years were able to freely move around the whole city. The uniting of Jerusalem stirred up enthusiasm among the world Jewry, and on Shavuot festival that occurred soon tens of thousands of Jerusalem’s Jews and those from other parts of the country gathered at the Western Wall.
After formal uniting of Jerusalem, the Israeli government took measures to factually restore the union of the city. New municipal borders of joined Jerusalem included both parts of the city in their municipal borders until 1967 as well as a number of suburbs of Eastern Jerusalem and villages adjoining it. The uniting brought traditional and multinational features back to the city: the total amount of dwellers reached up to 268,000, 73% of which were Jews (197,000), while less than 27% were Moslems and Christians. Eastern Jerusalem was connected to the Israeli water-supply system; city services were integrated; construction of living blocks in “Nobody’s” zones along the former demarcation line was begun and intense construction of living quarters, the location of which was chosen in the way that would create physical oneness of the city and make its new division impossible was launched.
In this way new quarters and districts appeared: Ramot-Ashcol, Giv’at-ha-Miftar, Ma’a lot-Dafna, Sanhedria-ha-Murhevet, Giv’at-Shapira (Giv’a Tsafatit), Neveh-Ja’cob, Pizgat-Zeev and Ramot-Allon in the north; Giloh, Har-Homa and Talpiot-Mizrah in the south of the city. Their characteristics are free planning with wide passages, a variety of buildings’ patterns and number of floors according to the natural relief. Along with rapid growth of the city its population also vigorously increased: in the new quarters alongside indigenous dwellers of Jerusalem and those who migrated from other cities in the country new repatriates settled.
Immediately after Jerusalem’s uniting the shacks that neared the Western wall were torn down and a spacious square was created; the Jewish cemetery on the Olive Mountain slopes defiled by the Jordanians was restored, and works on reconstructing of the Jewish quarter of the Old City destroyed during the Jordanian occupation were begun. On an empty place between a wall of the Old City and the Jewish quarters located in front of it as well as in the valleys surrounding the Old City planting of a National Park began.
Along with construction of new living quarters rapid development and refurbishment of old quarters and the center of the city took pace; a number of many-storied buildings (administrative and commercial facilities, hotels, living blocks) were constructed downtown. In 1970s, the residence of the President of the country (1970-72; architect Abba al-Hannani, fence –– Betsalel Shats), “Teatron Ierushalaim” (1970-72; architects S. and M. Nuddlers and S. Beacsong) and others were built. The university campus on the Scopus Mountain was enlarged and reconstructed; the Human Sciences department moved into it, and activity of the Hadassa medical center was also resumed there in 1975. Taking measures for rapid development of Jerusalem the Israeli government and the authorities of the city unequivocally make sure that the holy places are preserved and representatives of all the religious confessions have access to them.
Jerusalem’s uniting led to a social-economical integration of the city’s population: many dwellers of the former Eastern and Western parts work in the other part of the city. Arab population of Jerusalem in the new municipal borders received status of permanent residency of Israel. Israeli labor and social legislature’s spreading over the Arab population led to significant increase of its welfare. Many Arabs –– dwellers of the controlled territories –– strived to move to Jerusalem (this tendency remains to this day). During the Judgment Day War there were no tragic incidents in the city.
Jerusalem ceased to be a borderline city after the Six Day War; it was no longer connected to the main highly populated centers of the country by a narrow vulnerable corridor; Jerusalem gradually became not only a nominal but also the factual political and administrative center of the country. Governmental establishments are located today both in the western and eastern parts of the city (the Ministries of Construction and Justice, the Supreme and Jerusalem’s Police Commissariats, the Regional Court and so forth).
Although the majority of the countries to this day refuse to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel and their embassies are located in Tel Aviv activity of diplomats accredited in Israel basically is centered in Jerusalem where there are the President of the country, the government and the Knesset. When in 1977 Egyptian president A. Sadat made a decision to personally address the deputies of the Israeli parliament Jerusalem –– the Knesset’s seat –– was recognized as the only city fit for that. In the documents of a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1978 the Egyptian side agreed to leave the question about Jerusalem’s future status open.
In an attempt to show firm determination to resist any efforts to put the right of the Jewish nation over its native capital in question the Knesset with predominant majority of votes issued on July 30 of 1980 a law proclaiming united Jerusalem capital of the State of Israel.