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By Marilynn
Ahlin
Marilynn Ahlin
is a free-lance writer presently
living in Jerusalem. She is
currently working on a book
chronicling many of the miraculous
ways in which God has and is
fulfilling His promise to once
again establish His people in
their land. It is not without
sacrifice.
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STOCKADE
AND WATCHTOWER LEAD IN
I’m up
before the dawn, my rented Mazda packed
up for an early start, hoping to miss
the commuter traffic going north, that
it won’t be as life-threatening as I
have perceived it in the past. Driving
in Israel is still an intimidating
experience for one used to Seattle where
the drivers take turns at four-way
stops. Not so here! I’m learning to be
pushy, lean on my horn, make U-turns
almost anywhere, and, to pray fervently!
Today I’m going to see my friend Dorit,
her husband Dov and their three kids.
Dorit is my one Israeli friend whom I’ve
known since before I moved here. Meeting
her in Seattle was surely a "divine
appointment. I am looking forward to
spending a four day holiday with the
family in Nazrat Ilit (Jewish Nazareth),
built on a hill just above the ancient
city where Jesus grew up.
I make it out
of town, turning west toward the Sea,
then north, bypassing Tel Aviv and the
pretty Mediterranean cities along the
way, some ancient, others new and
modern. A few miles before Haifa I turn
east on a road known in Hebrew as "Vady
Milek" or in Arabic as "Vady
Mileh." The words Milek and/or
Mileh, mean salt. This road follows the
same route used in bible times to
transport salt to cities inland. The
salt was taken from the sea at the
fortress of Athlit on the Mediterranean
Sea, evaporated down to crystals and
then carried by caravan on this ancient
byway, now well paved. To this present
day salt is still being taken from the
sea at Athlit and evaporated down,
though by more modern methods. Heading
east through the valleys of Manasseh and
Zebulun, I see Mt. Tabor in the distance
and I know I’m getting close. Soon I’m
going through old Nazareth, and then up,
up to the top of the mountain, covered
with hundreds of apartments, forests of
pine and large parks. But now, I’m
lost. I think this is the most confusing
city in Israel. I make several wrong
turns and, finally, one last
intersection before looking for a phone
to call Dorit. I turn against my
instinct, right instead of left, and oh
joy, there is Dorit’s little shopping
mall, and I see their big apartment
building. I feel as though I should get
a medal. Soon I’m being engulfed by
many hugs.
Dorit is a born
historian and tourist. Her desire to
share the history of this land is only
equaled by my eagerness to learn it all.
She says this next day will be different
though, that this time we are all just
going to a park in the Beit She’an
Valley—no Bible history, or Roman
history or Crusader history, nope, just
a beautiful park—maybe Israel’s best
one.
One day later,
we are on our way. We head into the
valley, following the Hassi River,
passing several small Kibbutzim on our
way. We turn into a long drive, and we
have arrived. There is grass everywhere,
beautiful waterfalls, and little dams in
the river that create swimming holes
with banks of huge rocks to climb and
dive off. All this on a hot summer day
is just too wonderful. I’m in heaven
as I float around in the cool water,
playing with the three kids, eating
Dorit’s good picnic lunch. Then I look
up and see a tower and what seems to be
a sort of fort about 200 meters away,
just behind some trees. "Dorit,
what’s that?" I say. "Oh,
just one of Israel’s pioneer villages
that helped to change the boundaries of
our country. Now it’s a museum."
I’m hooked. A half hour later,
notebook and camera in hand I’m
climbing the ladder to the tower,
looking at every detail. What a
wonderful piece of history, just sitting
here. Dorit has that little "I knew
it" smile. As I read and look and
write, I find myself back in an earlier
time, 1936, trying to make a home, work
the land, and stay alive.
To my dear
friend Dorit, along with all of her
family who have given so generously of
their time and energy to this
"sojourner" with the notebook
and pen, I owe the deepest gratitude.
Thank you.
STOCKADE AND
WATCHTOWER SETTLEMENTS
Reclaiming the Land
After Adolf
Hitler came into power in Germany in
1933, there was a marked increase in
Jewish immigration to Israel. This
angered the local Arab population, who
did not want Jewish communities to be
strengthened or to spread.
In April, 1936,
Arab attacks were made against Jews
living in Jaffa. This marked the
beginning of three years of riots in
Israel directed primarily against Jewish
settlements, but also against the
British Mandatory forces. The riots
became known as "The 36-39
Events" (in Hebrew, me’oraot),
which was an early version of the
Intifada, or Arab uprisings, experienced
in Israel from 1987-1993, and again in
the year 2000 to the present time. These
early attacks spread, with violence,
burning and killing all over the land.
The armed gangs were directed by the
Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini.
Husseini was an avowed Jew hater, and
admirer and friend of Adolf Hitler. The
attacks were especially prevalent in
Samaria and the Galilee, wherever there
were isolated Jewish settlements.
Instead of
discouraging Jewish settlement, the
riots had the opposite effect. Because
the rioters were also wreaking havoc
amongst the British forces as well as
the Jews, the British reinforced their
troops. At the same time, the British
allowed small groups of trained Jewish
police units to operate under the
supervision of British forces. The
soldier placed in charge of training
these small units, or Notrim, was Capt.
Charles Orde Wingate, an ardent
Bible-believing Christian, supporter of
Zionism, a lover of Israel and friend to
the Jews. While in the past, the Jewish
settlers had not been allowed to arm
themselves, limited use of weapons was
now permitted for protection.
One of the beds in
a four bunk bedroom.
Note the heavy mosquito netting that was
needed.
Earlier, in
1929, various entities, including the
Jewish Agency, the Haganah (Jewish
underground military organization), the
Jewish National Fund and the
Agricultural Center had started working
together to expand the proposed Jewish
state by buying as much land as possible
for the purpose of creating new Jewish
settlements. However, by the time of the
1936-39 Arab riots, the threat to the
fledgling Jewish state was as great from
Britain as from their Arab neighbors.
Indeed, the British "Peel
Commission" was about to exclude
the whole of the beautiful, fertile Beit
She’an Valley from the proposed Jewish
state.
As soon as the
attacks began, the Jewish settlement
leaders began to meet to look for ways
to extend and strengthen the settlements
against siege. It was exceedingly
difficult to build a defensible
settlement before it would be attacked,
with much loss of life and property.
One night,
during the inception of these
"events," the fields of Tel
Amal-Nir David on the banks of the Hassi
Rivulet in the Beit She’an region were
set afire and destroyed. The members of
the settlement of Tel Amal had been
staying at nearby Kibbutz Beit Alpha
while awaiting the opportunity to build
their own settlement. After the burning
of their fields by local Arabs, a
meeting was immediately called to
discuss measures for protecting
themselves from further attacks. A
committee was formed, headed by members
Shlomo Gur from Tel Amal and Chaim
Sturmann from Kibbutz Ein Harod. Its
purpose was to explore better methods of
setting up new settlements wherein they
would be les vulnerable to attack,
especially during the building of the
settlement.
The problem was
to find a way to construct a settlement
so quickly that the construction would
be complete before it was discovered by
the raiders. A plan was devised to build
the complete settlement in a 12-hour
span of time. To accomplish this they
would prefabricate the whole structure
in nearby settlements and transport it
all to the desired location. They would
raise it within one night or day, within
the 12-hour limit. By the time the
settlement was discovered, it would be
defensible.
The
settlements, called "Stockade and
Watchtower Settlements," (in
Hebrew, Homah U-Migdal) would all be
constructed of the same design: 35 X35
meters square, a dining-kitchen area, 3
or 4 huts for living areas, shower room,
wash area and a place for animals. In
the center would be a 12 meter high
tower. Surrounding the buildings would
be a double wooden plank wall with 8
inches between the inside and outside
walls, which would be filled with
gravel, making it bullet proof. Also,
the pioneers devised special hiding
places called "slicks" for
storing illegal weapons for such time as
they might be needed.
A unit of the
newly formed "Notrim" would be
assigned to each group of settlers to
protect them as they were setting up the
stockade and tower.
Tel Amal would
be the first of these new prefabricated
settlements to be erected. In his diary,
Yehoshua Lurie, a Tel Amal pioneer,
relates the events occurring before and
during the hectic, difficult erection of
this very first settlement:
"November,
1936. Last night there was a stormy
meeting. The kibbutz members refuse to
accept the delay. Some see only one
option: to erect the settlement in one
day, surprise the Arabs and create a
fact, even at the cost of human lives.
"And
meanwhile, the rainy season approaches.
Once the road is waterlogged, we shall
not be able to transport the building
materials. A decision must soon be
reached.
"According
to the latest plan, a stockade must be
built in a single day with small living
quarters within its walls, and a tower
with a dynamo-powered searchlight in its
center. Preparations will take awhile,
but we must tackle it immediately and
vigorously.
"The
Havarim (Kibbutz members) are sitting up
at night, carefully scrutinizing every
detail. They have prepared a
prefabricated double-wooden wall, into
which gravel will be poured, making it
bullet proof. Within the fortification,
huts will be built to serve as living
quarters, and a 12 meter wooden tower is
being prepared, with a dynamo and a
searchlight still to be purchased…
"November
30th. Everything was set for
today, but pouring rains turned the
countryside into a quagmire and have
ruined our plans. The trucks, loaded
with gravel brought by rail, were not
offloaded because of the mud, and had to
be railed back to Haifa. The gravel was
offloaded at Shaffa Station. Everything
remained stuck in the mud. Everyone is
walking around grief-stricken. The whole
project has been postponed for ten days.
"A bright
sunny morning dawned. Along the road, at
the foothills of the Gilboa among the
vineyards of Beit Alpha, the procession
moved at a slow pace, step-by-step,
acknowledging the seriousness of the
moment…And so, silent and exhilarated,
the settlers reached the site with their
load. Everyone knew his job. There was
no need for a commander—offloading,
digging the holes, inserting the poles,
joining the prefabricated parts. Wall is
joined to wall and then clamped tight—the
stockade stands erect! Suddenly, the
noise of an approaching tractor: the
tower has arrived. It lies horizontal on
the platform…Cables are tied to it;
dozens of hands, supporting and pushing,
hoist it.
"The large
wooden structure is raised very slowly
and carefully…And as dusk falls, the
stockade is completed, the huts are
ready, and the searchlight at the top of
the tower beams into the darkness."
Tel Amar, the
original stockade and watch tower
settlement that is now a museum.
It is
interesting that the first settlement at
Tel Amal was never attacked, although
five of its members were later killed in
the nearby fields.
After Tel Amal
was erected, 56 more identical
settlements were constructed and put
into place in the ensuing three years,
thus changing forever the map of Eretz
Israel and establishing, among other
areas, the Beit She’an Valley as part
of the new state.
These new
settlements were created as far north as
Metulla and as far southwest as the area
of Ashkelon. There were also six
settlements erected east of the Sea of
Galilee and Jordan River.
Almost all of
the settlements were subjected to
frequent raids, but none was ever
abandoned. With one exception, the
stockade and tower at Tel Amal, all are
thriving communities to this day. Tel
Amal, however was dismantled and moved
to the nearby Gan Haslosha National
Park, where it is now a historical
museum. The nearby Kibbutz Nir David was
established on the Tel Amal site. It has
been a thriving kibbutz for three
generations of families.
One can wander
through the structure and imagine what
it might have been like to live and work
there during those tumultuous pre-state
days in this land. It is maintained as
though the workers might be coming in
from the fields at any moment.
Climbing the
tower, one looks out at the Gilboa
mountain range with Mt. Gilboa looming
above, barren and desolate. This
mountain is in stark contrast to the
rest of the range which is covered with
trees and where wild flowers grow in
profusion.
Barren Mt. Gilboa
King David
cursed this mountain in his grief over
the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. It was
here that the King and his sons were
killed, their bodies hung upon the walls
of Beit She’an, the Philistine city
located on the top of the mountain which
has been recently excavated by Israel.
Though the society for the restoration
of the land has tried to develop this
mountaintop area, it will not grow any
good thing to this day. As he looked
upon this mountaintop David said,
"Oh mountains of Gilboa, may you
have neither dew nor rain nor fields
that yield offerings…for there the
shield of the mighty was defeated…"
(2 Samuel 1:21)
Today Tel Amal
stands as a reminder of the
determination and resolve of these early
settlers in overcoming all odds, the
resolve that so many centuries ago King
David exemplified, following his God,
carving out a homeland in this same
land, given by eternal covenant to his
people:
"On that day the Lord made a
covenant with Abram and said, "To
your descendants I give this land, from
the River of Egypt (Nile) to the great
River, the River Euphrates…
"
Genesis
15:18
Abram
fell facedown, and God said to him,
"As for me, this is my covenant
with you: You will be the father of
many nations. No longer will you be
called Abram; your name will be
Abraham, for I have made you a
father of many nations. I will make
you very fruitful; I will make
nations of you, and kings will come
from you. I will establish my
covenant as an everlasting
covenant between me and you and you
and your descendants after you for
the generations to come, to be your
God and the god of your descendants
after you. The whole land of Canaan,
where you are now an alien, I will
give as an everlasting
possession to you and your
descendants after you, and I will be
their God.’ (emphasis added)
Genesis
17:3-8
He
remembers his covenant forever, the
word he commanded, for a thousand
generations, the covenant he made
with Abraham, the oath he swore to
Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a
decree, to Israel as an everlasting
covenant: "To you I will give
the land of Canaan as the portion
you will inherit."
Psalm
105:8-11
Bibliography:
Museum brochures and documents from
Tel Amal Museum at Gan HaSlosha,
Israel
King James New International Version
Bible
By Marilynn Ahlin
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