Notes
253 Notes 1. A Murder Plot 1. For a full description of this event, see chapter 5. 2. The Givati Brigade was founded in December 1947. At the start of the 1948 War of Independence, the brigade was charged with operations in the central region of Israel. As the war entered its second stage, Givati became the 5th Brigade and was moved to the south. One battalion fought on the Jerusalem front. When Israel declared independence, Givati consisted of five battalions. A sixth battalion was founded on May 30, 1948. It was converted into a reserve brigade in 1956. 2. An Unexpected Visitor 1. “Boer” is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the eighteenth century. 2. “Muftis” are Muslim religious leaders, similar to bishops; they are often (as here) political leaders as well. 3. Mandatory Palestine was a geopolitical entity under British administration , carved out of Ottoman Southern Syria after World War I. The British civil administration in Palestine operated from 1920 until 1948. This administrationwasformalizedwiththeLeagueofNations’consentin1923 under the British Mandate for Palestine. 4. Following the outbreak of disturbances at the end of 1947, the road between Tel Aviv and Jewish Jerusalem became increasingly difficult for Jewish vehicles. Ambushes by Palestinian Arab irregulars became more frequent and more sophisticated. In January 1948 the number of trucks supplying Jewish Jerusalem had fallen to thirty. By March the daily average number of trucks reaching Jerusalem was six. The intention of the besieging forces was to isolate the 100,000 Jewish residents of the city from the rest of the Jewish inhabitants of Palestine. In particular, the Arab forces tried to cut offtheroadtoJerusalemfromthecoastalplain,wherethemajorityofthe 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. 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 War of Independence. 5. For information on Masada, see chapter 3. The Siege of Jerusalem 254 Notes to Pages 17–18 in the year 70 was the decisive event of the First Jewish-Roman War. The Roman army, led by the future emperor Titus, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by its Jewish defenders in 66. The siege ended with the sacking of the city and the destruction of its famous Second Temple. The destruction of both the First and Second Temples is still mourned annually as the Jewish fast of Tisha B’Av. The Arch of Titus, celebrating the Roman sack of Jerusalem and the Temple, still stands in Rome. 6. The Battle of Tel Hai in the Upper Galilee was fought in March 1920 and is perceived by some scholars to be the first armed engagement of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Shiite Arab militia, accompanied by Bedouin from a nearby village, attacked the Jewish agricultural settlement of Tel Hai. Eight Jews were killed, including Joseph Trumpeldor, a hero of World War I and commander of the Jewish defenders of Tel Hai, who was shot in the hand and stomach, and died while being evacuated to Kfar Giladi that evening. The battle is considered to have been decisive in determining the border between Palestine and Lebanon, making the Upper Galilee part of Mandatory Palestine. A national monument depicting a defiant lion was erected in memory of Trumpeldor and his seven comrades. The city of Kiryat Shemona (literally “Town of the Eight”) was named after them. Today Tel Hai is home to a large regional college offering bachelor’s and postgraduate degrees in a variety of disciplines. 7. The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was meant to lead to the creation of two separate independent Arab and Jewish states and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem. On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending the adoption and implementation of the plan as Resolution 181. The plan was accepted by the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine through the JewishAgency,butwasrejectedbyleadersoftheArabcommunity,including the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee, who were supported in their rejectionbythestatesoftheArabLeague.TheArab...
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