Siege of Jerusalem

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Siege of Jerusalem
Part of 1948 Arab-Israeli War
Date November 9, 1947 – July 18, 1948 Location Jerusalem, Israel Result Israeli forces captured western Jerusalem, Transjordanians captured the Old City and northern districts. The city was divided for 19 years.
Belligerents
Israel Before May 1948 Jewish militias: (Haganah, Irgun, Lehi)	Transjordan Army of the Holy War Arab Liberation Army British officers seconded to Transjordan Egypt
Commanders
David Shaltiel	Mohammad Amin al-Husayni Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni Anwar Nusseiba , General Sir John Bagot Glubb Pasha
Strength
1,500-3,000 men	6,000 Jordanian troops 2,000 Egyptian troops 500 Palestinian militia
Casualties and losses
700 military dead, 3,300 civilian dead (approx.)	unknown

The siege of Jerusalem was an Arab attempt to block the road to Jerusalem in the days leading up to Israeli independence, from December 1, 1947 to July 10, 1948, preventing supplies from reaching the city.^[1][2]

History

Main residential areas of Jerusalem in 1947

The siege was initiated by local Palestinian Arab militias immediately after the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. According to the plan, Jerusalem was to be an international zone surrounded on all sides by the Arab state. Before the British mandate expired, Palestinian Arab militias attacked Jews in and around Jerusalem. Although British forces sometimes confiscated weapons from the Haganah, they forcibly repelled attempted Arab incursions into the Jewish Quarter, sustaining casualties in the process.^[3][4] From May 15, following the end of the mandate and the declaration of the state of Israel, the Palestinian Arab militias were joined by the Transjordan Arab Legion, assisted by British officers, and by the Egyptian Army, which invaded Palestine.^[1][2]

The intention of besieging forces was to isolate the 100,000 Jewish residents of the city from the rest of the Jewish inhabitants of Palestine and, in the case of the Jordanian forces, to conquer East Jerusalem (including the Old City).^[1][2] Aside from the large Jewish population, Jerusalem held special importance to the Yishuv for "religious and nationalist" reasons.^[5] In particular, the Arab forces tried to cut off the road to Jerusalem from the coastal plain, where the majority of the Jewish population resided. The Arabs blocked access to Jerusalem "at Latrun and Bab al-Wad," a narrow valley surrounded by Arab villages on hills on both sides.^[6] The Arabs also fired off shells indiscriminately into West Jerusalem. Jewish civilian casualties were very high.^[7] The Arab Legion also cut off the water pipe to Jerusalem.^{[citation needed]} The breaking of the siege on Jerusalem and the annexation of the captured areas to the Jewish state became primary goals for the Israelis in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.^[5]

The fighting led to the evacuation of the kibbutz Neve Yaakov and the Jewish towns of Atarot, Kalya, and Beit HaArava, and the expulsion of the Jewish inhabitants of the Old City of Jerusalem.^[2][3] Before the war, the Jews of the Old City had friendly relations with their Arab neighbors and were sorry to have to leave.^[3]

Convoys

Vieiw of the road to Jerusalem entering Bab al Wab seen from the Arab Legion positions at Latrun

Convoys of armoured vehicles which carried supply to the Jewish population were repeatedly attacked on the road to Jerusalem, inflicting heavy casualties and bringing the Jewish residents to the brink of starvation.^[8] Operation Nachshon and Operation Maccabee were held by Jewish military forces in April and May 1948 in attempt to seize control of the strategic "corridor". In late May and early June the Israeli launched several assaults on the Latrun salient but without succeeding of taking the position to the Arab Legion. Nevertheless, they were able to build a bypass road through the Judean Hills called the Burma Road, which was opened to traffic on June 10. During Operation Dani they launched two other attacks on Latrun, again without success and attacked several Arab villages to widen Jerusalem corridor that was 2 km wide in the area of Latrun.

A Jewish medical convoy on its way to Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus was attacked on April 13, 1948. The British had provided no escort (as they had in previous months) and the British failed to intervene during the attack or help the Jews. In the end, 78 Jews (mostly unarmed medical personnel) were murdered.^[9]

Food rationing

Starting in early 1948, the Arab forces had severed the supply line supply line to Jewish Jerusalem (especially to the Old City). In response, the mayor of Jerusalem, Dov Yosef, introduced a draconian system of food rationing during the siege.^[10] The mallow plant played an important role in Jerusalem history at this time. When convoys bearing foodstuffs could not reach the city, the residents of Jerusalem went out to the fields to pick mallow leaves, which are rich in iron and vitamins. The Jerusalem radio station, Kol Hamagen, broadcast instructions for cooking mallow. When the broadcasts were picked up in Jordan, they sparked victory celebrations. Radio Amman announced that the fact that the Jews were eating leaves, food for donkeys and cattle, was a sign that they were dying of starvation and would soon surrender.^[11]

United Nations reaction

Part of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, which the Jews of Mandatory Palestine accepted and the Arabs of Mandatory Palestine and neighboring states rejected, was that Jerusalem would be a corpus separatum, meaning that the United Nations would assume responsibility for the city and it would not be a part of either the proposed Arab or Jewish states. Israel argued that the partition plan regarding Jerusalem was "null and void" due to the UN's "active relinquishing of responsibility in a critical hour" when the UN did not act to protect the city.^[12][13] The Arabs, who had been against Jerusalem's internationalization all along, felt similarly.^[2]

References

External links

• Yehuda Lapidot, Jerusalem 1948, History of an Irgun Fighter Besieged History of an Irgun Fighter

Bibliography

• Benny Morris 1948: The History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008
• Dov Joseph (1960) The Faithful City. New York: Simon and Schuster
• John Roy Carlson (1951) From Cairo to Damascus. New York: Alfred A. Knopf
• Larry Collins & Dominique LaPierre (1972) O Jerusalem. New York: Simon and Schuster
• Levi, Ytzhak, Nine Measures: The Battles for Jerusalem in the War of Independence, Ma'arachot, 1986 (Hebrew)