The JPost - Six Day War Special

Six Days, Three Brigades, One Jerusalem

By Yael Ami-El

The courageous battles that captured our hearts and our holy city June 7, 1967, Uzi Narkis, Head of Central Command, to his troops: "We stood guard over you, Jerusalem, and today we have entered your gates. Jerusalem, the city of David and Solomon, is now in the hands of Israeli forces. This morning, in the shadow of the Kotel, we sang Hatikva and remembered those who fell... This day will be remembered forever in the hearts of our people together with the glory of your heroism." (translated from One Jerusalem, by Uzi Narkis).

In 1948, at the end of the War of Independence, Israel signed a cease-fire agreement with Jordan and for the next 19 years Jerusalem was a city divided by barbed wire and concrete walls. The border ran for 7 km. from Beit Safafa in the south, past Ramat Rahel, Talpiot, Abu Tor, Har Zion, the walls of the Old City, Hutzot Hayotzer, Musrara, and Beit Yisrael to the Shmuel Hanavi neighborhood in the north.

Behind enemy lines lay the tiny and vulnerable Israeli enclave on Mt. Scopus, manned only by a small force of soldiers. Mt. Scopus would not be able to defend itself against a large Jordanian attack and contingency plans had been made if the enclave was attacked.

WHAT CAME to be known as the Six Day War began on the morning of June 5, 1967, when the Israeli airforce executed a preemptive strike on Egyptian airfields, destroying the Egyptian airforce on the ground. The attack was made after Egypt had ordered its troops to advance to its border with Israel, and closed the Straits of Tiran leading to Eilat.

At the same time the government of Israel sent a message to King Hussein of Jordan advising him to stay out of the conflict. However, at 9:45 a.m. Jordan opened fire on Jerusalem, and by 1 p.m. the Jordanian Legion had taken over UN headquarters at Government House (now part of the east Talpiot neighborhood) in the demilitarized zone.

In order to prevent further Jordanian advances, the soldiers of the Jerusalem Brigade, under the command of Eliezer Ben-Amitai, took over Government House following a 20-minute battle, and by early evening had conquered all the Jordanian outposts in the area of Talpiot and Kibbutz Ramat Rahel. The Jerusalem Brigade went on to take Abu Tor and began to close in on the Jordanian-held Old City of Jerusalem from the south. The brigade later advanced south to take Bethlehem and Gush Etzion.

Meanwhile, the Har-El Brigade (Armored Corps), under Uri Ben-Ari, was sent to drive a wedge into the chain of mountains surrounding Jerusalem from the west and north leading to Mount Scopus, and to prevent Jordan from cutting off Jerusalem from the north. On the morning of June 6, they reached Tel El-Ful, the highest hill overlooking the main north-south road from Shechem to Jerusalem.

Out of an original force of 14, six Israeli Sherman tanks remained and were expected to stop the 100 Jordanian Patton tanks (a newer model than the Shermans) in the area. In the end, the Israeli tanks were confronted by only three Pattons and the battle at the foot of Tel El-Ful was short-lived with two Pattons taken out while the third disappeared.

On the night between the 5th and 6th of June, the Paratroop Brigade under the command of Motta Gur was given their orders: make a quick thrust up to Mt. Scopus and prepare to enter the Old City. Their objectives were the Police School and Ammunition Hill (now next to Ramot Eshkol), the Sheikh Jarrakh and American Colony neighborhoods, Wadi Joz, and the Rockefeller Museum next to the Old City walls.

Twenty-four paratroopers lost their lives on Ammunition Hill in a bloody battle that lasted several hours, ending on the morning of June 6. There were 40 fortified positions on this hill and every point was covered by enemy fire. The Jordanians were heavily entrenched there due to its proximity to Mt. Scopus.

The Israeli troops fought like lions, but as the song Ammunition Hill, which vividly describes this heroic battle, says: "whoever still wished to live, should not have been on Ammunition Hill." The Israeli soldiers were advancing in one of the trenches, but the Jordanians kept throwing grenades into the trench from above. Someone had to go up on top and take out the Jordanians.

Eitan Naveh did not hesitate. He climbed out of the trench and ran forward shooting, killing many of the enemy. He shot into the trench as well, killing Jordanian soldiers there too. Running exposed to enemy fire, Naveh was subsequently shot and killed, and was posthumously awarded a medal for his courage. The present-day memorial on Ammunition Hill honors the 183 men who gave their lives to free Jerusalem.

Menachem Begin, listening to the BBC in the early hours of June 7, heard that the UN was about to call for a cease-fire. He urged Prime Minister Levi Eshkol not to miss this historic opportunity, and to send troops into the Old City. That morning Israeli ground forces, aided by the airforce, completed their encirclement of the Old City. The order to take the Old City finally came and Motta Gur, together with his paratroopers, advanced from the Mount of Olives towards the Lions Gate. At the same time, the Jerusalem Brigade entered the Old City through the Dung Gate. The paratroopers were the first to reach the Temple Mount and Gur's now famous words were heard: "The Temple Mount is ours!" The soldiers then found themselves at the Western Wall - a place denied to the Jewish people for the nearly 20 years since independence.

"I remembered our family visits to the Kotel 25 years ago," writes Motta Gur in his book, The Temple Mount is Ours, "the walk through the narrow alleyways and the markets. I don't remember details as I was only a child, but the impression made by those who prayed is still with me... They and the Kotel were like one body. In the right-hand corner, a short distance from the soldiers, stood a man. No, he wasn't standing; it was as if he was glued to the stones. He was a part of the Kotel - one of its stones... Nothing moved. Not his head or his hair. Not his body nor his legs. His two hands were flat against the stones as if they were trying to bore into them.

"I locked in on him like radar. I could not stop staring. I was glued to him from afar just as he was glued to the Kotel. Through him I felt the Kotel. Through his still body I felt the beating of the Jewish heart bursting out from the stone.

Thus we stood together for a few minutes - he and I and the Kotel."

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