Thread by @lennybendavid

#JerusalemDay. Thread. 1/
I danced at the Western Wall on Jerusalem Day w/ fellow students from KBYeshiva in 1969 -- 53 y.a.
It's been a long tradition, but Jews were denied access before 1967.
Illustration by Elhanan Ben Uri answers US & Pal objections.
Pride & Determination.

#JerusalemDay. Thread. 2/
I found this #Jerusalem "parade" from ~1915 when Jer'm was ruled by the Turks.
Jews were forcibly conscripted & marched into the Turkish Army. The army looted food & supplies from the Jews. (Ottoman Archives)

Jewish humiliation.

#JerusalemDay. Thread. 3/
With younger Jewish men drafted or in hiding, the Turks took out their rage against old Jewish men. The German officer who took these picture ~1915 captioned them "Jewish merchants" probably based on the anti-Semitic image of Shylock.
Jewish humiliation.

*source British Imperial War Museum

#JerusalemDay 4/
The Turks expelled thousands of Jews, especially those w Russian background. See this Turkish document I found in the Ottoman Archives. The caption is theirs.

#Jerusalem 5/
Jews of Jer'm saw the British capture of the city as their liberation. W/ Allenby's arrival, one Jewish Kiwi soldier, Louis Salek, climbed David's Tower & hoisted a Jewish flag. Arabs objected & the Brits took it down.

The Brits acceding to Arabs became the rule.

#Jerusalem /6
Euphoric over the removal of Turkish rule over Jerusalem, Jews, even the ultra-Orthodox, rejoiced and called for prayers on the 1st anniversary of the British "Liberation." This flyer called for assembly in synagogues & prayers for the English king.

It didn't last.

#Jerusalem /7
The British often mollycoddled the Arabs and their radical leader Haj Amin al-Husseini, even allowing pogroms against Jews. Jewish defenders were arrested.
Pogroms led to these Jewish "parades" from the Old City in 1929 & 1939.
Expulsion & Humiliation.

Jerusalem 8/
When Mufti Haj Amin wasn't inciting pogroms vs the Jews, he was spying on their Western Wall prayers from his window above the very narrow alleyway. No chairs, Torahs, or shofars permitted.
After modest furniture brought in, his incitement led to massacres in 1929.

#JerusalemDay 9/
This was the narrow & tiny Kotel area [marked in yellow]. Rubbish was thrown into the ally from the Mughrabi Qtr; animals led thru the Jewish prayer area. Jews going to prayer were assaulted. A public latrine built adjacent to the wall.

Zeppelin picture 1930s

#JerusalemDay 10/
The ultimate expulsion from #Jerusalem was in 1948 when the Jordanians expelled the Jews from the Old City. 100s taken to Jordanian POW camps.
And the Western Wall stood forlorn, with the Jordanian army keeping the area judenrein.

Humiliation & Expulsion.

#JerusalemDay 11/
The Jewish Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem was evacuated, bombed, and bulldozed.
Great synagogues, yeshivot, and schools like Porat Yosef were destroyed.
Destruction and humiliation.
The area remained so until June 1967.

#JerusalemDay 12/
Everything about the 6-Day War seemed miraculous to Jews worldwide. Just days earlier everyone feared Israel would be destroyed.
Jews thronged to the Western Wall. But w/ holiday of Shavuot approaching, Jer'm Mayor Teddy Kollek feared the 10,000s coming. So...

#JerusalemDay 13/
Kollek recruited bulldozer drivers (they were too old to be pulled into the army) and ordered them to clear the Mughrabi area (which btw was slated by Jordan for urban renewal). haaretz.com/israel-news/20…

#JerusalemDay 14/
After decades of humiliation & dispersion, Jews returned, rebuilt the Jewish Qtr, excavated Jewish sites from the 1st & 2nd Temples, built great centers for learning and synagogues.
The Western Wall plaza has alsonbecome a national stage.

Pride & Determination.

#JerusalemDay 15/end
Despite threats from #Hamas, cautionary comments by US officials, warnings from media pundits & dimwits, & gutless Israeli commentators, this day does not belong just to "radical Israelis" or "settlers."
Foremost #JerusalemDay is a hybrid Jewish/Israeli day.

#JerusalemDay 1967.
After the Western Wall plaza was cleared, 200,000 Jews converged on the holy shrine on Shavuot. A festival pilgrimage of that size had not taken place since the Temple days.

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