Ammunition Hill

One of the most successful - and definitely the most meaningful - outings we made during the recent Chanukah break was to Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem. Ammunition Hill (the hill where the British stored ammunition during the Mandate Period) was the name given to a former Jordanian military post that was taken by IDF (Israel Defence Forces) paratroopers in a landmark battle during the 1967 Six Day War. It became a national Heritage and Memorial Site, with a museum dedicated to the liberation of Jerusalem in that war and to the 182 Israeli soldiers who lost their lives in the battles for Jerusalem and her surroundings.

The boys have reached an age where we are comfortable taking them to these places, which I suspect they find both fascinating and also a little scary. After all, they will both one day serve in the IDF themselves, since in Israel military service is compulsory. They are still young enough to enjoy the whole soldier/battle thing though and my youngest thoroughly enjoyed climbing through the well preserved trenches and bunkers at the site, an empty Uzi, lent to him by one of the female soldiers working at the museum, in hand.
Ammunition Hill (in Hebrew Givat Hatachmoshet) lies between the modern Jerusalem neighbourhoods of Ramat Eshkol and French Hill. The site is preserved as it was in the war and includes a museum that commemorates the soldiers who fell in the battle, as well as a rousing film which explains the stages of the battle of the three brigades, the Air Force and the Central Command, who liberated Jerusalem. Standing in the winter sunshine, beautiful views surrounding us, it was really quite hard to believe that this place had once been conquered by the Jordanians and cut off from Israel.

Today Ammunition Hill houses the main Jerusalem induction centre for new IDF recruits. When my sons were born the possibility that they might not need to serve in the IDF was there. It was tiny, but it was there. Now it is more than unlikely. One day they will be soldiers, but, in the meantime, on this beautiful winter's day, we were happy for them to pretend and to learn a little about the history of the country they are lucky enough to live in.