To not think casually of the sacrifice that was asked

...This ground was made sacred by what these soldiers did here. American diplomats should be brought to Ammunition Hill, before they begin plotting their path to a Nobel Prize. There are higher honors.

Daniel Pollak..
zoa.org..
21 January '14..

Every diplomat who visits Israel is inevitably brought to Yad Vashem, the dramatic and appropriate emotional high point of every trip to Israel. Something is missing, though, in the lack of understanding of so many well-meaning foreigners who come to Israel. After seeing the usual sights, they inevitably repeat the same tired diplomatic formula and too often fail to understand the relationship between the Jewish people and Jerusalem. There is another destination that should be visited by every VIP as they come to Jerusalem, and that is Ammunition Hill, on the northern part of what in 1967 was Jordanian occupied eastern Jerusalem.

The hill was strategic, so along with the nearby Police Academy, it was fortified with stone trenches and manned by veterans of the Arab Legion. On June 6, 1967, a very bloody battle was fought here, and the Israeli paratroopers who took the hill paid dearly for opening the Northern route to the Old City. Due to the terrain and the prepared system of trenches, the stubborn defenders were able to inflict casualties on the paratroopers far in excess of normal rates. About one-third of the elite soldiers in the reinforced company were wounded, and 36 were killed.

Ammunition Hill

Yaacov Lozowick
Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations
11 May '10

According to the Jewish calender, tomorrow will be the 43rd anniversary of the unification of Jerusalem. Which means that tonight is the 43rd anniversary of the battle on Givat Hatachmoshet, Ammunition Hill.

Between 1949 and 1967, while Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan, there was an Israeli enclave about a mile to the east of the border, in the Jordanian part of town. This was Mount Scopus, with the campus of the Hebrew university and Haddassh hospital. There was an agreement whereby every two weeks 200 Israelis would cross Jordanian territory to the enclave, and sit there until the next group replaced them two weeks later.

In honor of Yom Yerushalayim, a very special video - Jerusalem Day: Reflections by Rabbi Yisrael Ariel

Throughout the whole period everyone knew that sooner or later the war would resume, and that when that happened Israel would try to reconnect the mountain with the city. To prevent this the Jordanians built a series of fortifications in that mile, and its centerpiece was Amunition Hill, an apt name borrowed from the days after the British conquered the city in 1917 and General Allenby stored his army's ammunition there....

....On the night between June 5th and 6th 1967 the paratroopers, backed by a few tanks, made their attack, directly on the Jordanian fortifications. The section of the battle on Ammunition Hill raged from about 2am to 5:30, early next morning. It was face to face combat, between the best forces each side had. 71 Jordanians were killed, and 35 Israelis: most of the defenders died, as did a quarter of the attackers.



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