Operation Yevusi

Operation Yevusi
Part of 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine
Date April 22 - May 3, 1948 Location Jerusalem Result Incomplete due to cease-fire imposed by British army.
Belligerents
Haganah	Arab militias
Commanders and leaders
Yitzhak Sadeh Yitzhak Rabin (Harel) David Shaltiel (Etzioni)	Abou Dayieh (Local irregulars)
Strength
Two Brigades	unknown
Casualties and losses
over 70	unknown

Operation Yevusi was a Jewish military operation of the 1948 Arab Israeli War. Taking place in and around Jerusalem, it lasted two weeks, from 22 April 1948 to 3 May 1948. Commanded by Yitzhak Sadeh, its objective was to take a series of strategic areas prior to the departure of the British Army with the intention of capturing the Old City once they had gone. The operation failed to complete all its objectives after the British enforced a cease-fire.^[1] The attacking forces involved were the newly formed Palmach Harel Brigade, commanded by Yitzhak Rabin, and the Haganah Etzioni Brigade commanded by David Shaltiel.

Objectives

The operation had four objectives: Nabi Samuel, an Arab village north west of Jerusalem and the highest point in the area; Sheikh Jarrah, an Arab residential quarter north of the city wall controlling the road to Mount Scopus; Katamon, a middle class, mainly Christian Arab suburb of south-west Jerusalem; and Augusta Victoria east of the Old City.^[2]

Nabi Samuel and Sheikh Jarrah

The Harel Brigade arrived in Jerusalem on Wednesday 21st April. Their convoy had taken eight hours under fire to reach the city. The following day they started attacking the ridge of Nabi Samuel, but on the 23rd a company from Harel was ambushed and forced to retreat, losing over thirty men.^[3][4][5] Abandoning this objective, on 24 April Sadeh switched the attack to the Sheikh Jarrah district where things went much better. By 26 April his troops had complete control of the area. The Nablus Road, the route the British military planned for its final withdrawal, was now under Haganah control. The British reacted by ordering Jewish forces to withdraw. In the early evening of 27 April, British tanks supported by artillery entered Sheikh Jarrah and the Haganah troops withdrew to Mount Scopus, having blown up twenty houses.^[6][7][8][9]

Katamon

On 29 April, one week after the start of the operation, Sadeh switched the attack to Katamon. The main target was the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St Simeon, which was held by local Arab fighters with a contingent of volunteers from Iraq. There was also a unit from the Arab Legion guarding the empty Iraqi Consulate, at 28 Hizkiyahu HaMelech. Glubb Pasha ordered them to withdraw after the surrounding buildings had been taken. The attack began with a mortar and machine gun barrage, before members of Harel's 4th and 5th Battalions, aided by Etzion's 4th Battalion and totalling 120 men, struck south and eastwards from Neve Shaanan. The battle for the monastery lasted all day, with the number of Jewish fighters killed given by one source as forty, though other estimates are much lower. Another source states eighty Arabs were killed. During the evening of 30 April the area was shaken by two large explosions. By the following day, 1 May, the Jews had complete control of the area. Once again the British intervened and demanded a ceasefire. But this time the Jews remained in control of the area taken. While the attack on Katamon was taking place Arabs in the Old City fired on Jewish positions in Yemin Moshe and only stopped after action by the British Army. Also, further south, Jewish fighters occupying the Russian Monastery at Kfar Etzion succeeded in closing the Hebron/Jerusalem road to Arab traffic.^{[10][11][12][13][14]} On 3 May there was some fighting at Augusta Victoria.^[15]

Aftermath

With the operation only partially successful, Sadeh left Jerusalem. Dov Joseph, the military Governor of Jewish Jerusalem, ordered teams of men into Katamon to requisition all food they could find. The district was then looted. By the end of the war Israel had control of 12 of Jerusalem's 15 Arab residential quarters. An estimated minimum of 30,000 people had become refugees.^[16][17][18] About 750 non-Jews remained in the occupied Arab neighbourhoods; many of them Greeks living in the Greek Colony.^[19]

References and notes

1. ^ Collins, Larry & Lapierre, Dominique (1972) O Jerusalem! History Book Club edition by arrangement with Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Page 301. Sadeh to Rabin: "If we can get away with this Jerusalem will be all ours forty eight hours after the British leave." They do not include Victoria Augusta in their list of objectives but suggest that Rabin's forces were to push through the German Colony to Silwan.
2. ^ Kimche, Jon and David (1960) A Clash of Destinies. The Arab-Jewish War and the Founding of the State of Israel. Frederick A. Praeger. Library of Congress number 60-6996. Page 136.
3. ^ Kimche, Page 135, 136. Has "over 40 killed". The Palmach memorial website has 2 killed on 22 April, 32 killed on 23 April.
4. ^ Collins/Lapierre. Page 306. "35 Palmachniks killed."
5. ^ Herzog, Chaim (1982) The Arab-Israeli Wars. War and Peace in the Middle East. Arms and Armour Press. ISBN 0 85368 367 0. Page 40. "due to poor timing."
6. ^ Collins/Lapierre. Page 306. 6pm 27 April and withdrawal to Mount Scopus.
7. ^ Morris, Benny (1987) The birth of the Palestinian refugee problem, 1947-1949. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0 521 33028 9. Page 113. Sheikh Jarrah largely destroyed.
8. ^ Pappe, Ilan (2006) The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld. ISBN 1 85168 467 0. Page 98. "20 houses destroyed."
9. ^ Kimche. Page 136.
10. ^ Kimche. Page 136. 80 Arabs dead, "attacking force suffered 10 killed." Page 138. Closing the road from Hebron.
11. ^ Herzog. Page 40. Numbers of Battalions, number of men attacking and 40 dead. Mentions Iraqi Arab Liberation Army irregulars.
12. ^ Glubb, Sir John Bagot (1957) A Soldier with the Arabs. Hodder and Stoughton. Pages 72,73.
13. ^ Alternative Tourism Group (2005) Palestine and Palestinians. ATG Beit Sahour. ISBN 9950 319 01 3. Page 137. Address of Iraqi consulate. The Lebanese Consulate was 32 Kovshei Katamon Street.
14. ^ The Scotsman Saturday May 1st. Mentions Neve Shaanan, the barrage and presence of Iraqis and the two large explosions. "Jewish sources said that Haganah bomb crews had penetrated Arab-held territory and destroyed attack bases." Gives 30 Arabs killed and 15 Jews. Palmach website gives number of Palmach dead 29 April/1 May as 13.
15. ^ Palmach memorial website records 3 members killed, 3 May, Augusta Victoria.
16. ^ Collins/Lapierre. Pages 309, 313. Dov Joseph's order and Sadeh's departure.
17. ^ Cattan, Henry (1981) Jerusalem. Croom Helm. ISBN 0 7099 0412 6. Page 51. Number of Arab districts under Jewish control.
18. ^ Asali, K.J. (1989) Jerusalem in History. Scorpion Publishing. ISBN 0 905906 70 5. Page 259. Estimate of number of refugees. (Michael C. Hudson)
19. ^ Journal of Palestine Studies, 160 Volume XL, Number 4, Summer 2011. Amit, Gish Salvage or Plunder? Israel's "Collection" of Private Palestinian Libraries in West Jerusalem. Page 8. Puts the pre-war non-Jewish population of Qatamon, Talbiyya, Baq'a, Musrar, the German and Greek Colonies, and Abu Tor at 28,000.