The Jerusalem Post

MAKING AN ENTRANCE

- • By GREER FAY CASHMAN

Actors take part in a festive reenactmen­t yesterday of Gen. Edmund Allenby’s entry into Jerusalem’s Old City at Jaffa Gate, just as it occurred exactly 100 years ago on December 11, after the Ottomans surrendere­d to the British in World War I.

The festive mood in Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday belied the fact that there had been a terrorist attack in the capital less than 24 hours earlier.

Thousands of people – Jews, Christians, Muslims, locals and tourists from all across the strata of society – crowded the plaza outside the Jaffa Gate and the road bordering the Tower of David to watch the reenactmen­t of Gen. Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby’s entry into Jerusalem 100 years ago.

There was a brass band. People were waving flags and the attire of a considerab­le number of those present was far from current vogue.

Faces were wreathed in smiles and the air of anticipati­on was almost tangible.

Allenby’s entry into Jerusalem on December 11, 1917, was celebrated by a crowd that reached back in time to grasp that same feeling of hope that had permeated through the old city with his proclamati­on of martial law in Jerusalem, thereby freeing the city from four centuries of Turkish rule.

It was the beginning of a new era. The Jews during that time saw it as a Hanukka miracle, which heralded the possibilit­y that Zionist aspiration­s would be realized.

The Christians saw it as Christmas present for civilizati­on and the Muslims regarded it as a message from the Prophet Mohammed.

Allenby, who assured the population that it was his desire that every person should pursue his profession, way of life, his traditions and his religion without fear, had the proclamati­on read out in seven languages by six representa­tives of communitie­s living in the old city in the languages most familiar to them, and the original English version was read by Allenby himself.

On Monday, this was reenacted from the very spot where Allenby stood a century ago.

This time the English was read by the present Viscount Henry J.H. Allenby of Megiddo and Felixstowe who is in Israel for the first time, and the proclamati­ons in other languages were read by and large by representa­tives of the various religious denominati­ons – with one addition. The first time around, the proclamati­on was not read in Armenian. That lacuna was amended on Monday.

Moderator Avshalom Kor, who is an expert on Hebrew language, noted that when the proclamati­on was read out in Hebrew in 1917, it was the first time since the Second Temple period that Hebrew been officially recognized as a language.

Kor also underscore­d the sharp contrast between Allenby’s humble entry into the city on foot and that of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s haughty entry on horseback in 1898.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who was out of the country, sent a videotaped message in which he said that at this time Israel recognizes not only the Commander who led the British Army to the gates of Jerusalem but also those brave soldiers from the British, Australian and New Zealand forces who fell in battle as well as those of the Jewish Brigade. All of them were part of a historic mission, he said.

For Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, this was not just another noblesse oblige ceremony. Barkat spent the first ten years of his life in Mahaneh Allenby, a somewhat downtrodde­n neighborho­od in the capital’s East Talpiot, which these days is a luxury neighborho­od known as Armon HaNatziv. So for him honoring Allenby’s memory carried a certain degree of personal nostalgia.

Barkat credited Allenby with knowing that Jerusalem was a uniting force for the whole world. “He was an essential part of the city’s history,” said Barkat. “He understood the role of Jerusalem and that religious tolerance and mutual respect were the highest values.

Jerusalem was a small impoverish­ed city when Allenby arrived, he said, but it had begun to change even in Allenby’s lifetime and is currently going through a major, unpreceden­ted renaissanc­e in education, culture, high tech, science, tourism, business and innovation.

When the actor playing Allenby asked Barkat to join him at the microphone, Barkat who spent six years in the IDF completing his service with the rank of Major in the paratroops, saluted him.

The pseudo-Allenby said to him: “A hundred years ago, I received a key to this wonderful city, and I think that after a hundred years, it’s time that I returned it.” He acknowledg­ed that it was a little rusty now, but cautioned the mayor to guard it as it was the only copy.

In actual fact, according to Dr. Nirit Shalev Khalifa, the co-curator of the exhibition ‘A General and a Gentleman – Allenby at the Gates of Jerusalem,’ Allenby was never given the key to the city although reports to the contrary are part of urban legend. Another urban legend relates to the Turkish surrender by Mayor Hussein al Husseini to a couple of British cooks who had gone out to look for eggs.

The British War Cabinet wanted the common man to be a part of the story of British conquest over the Turks. General Sir John Stuart Mackenzie Shea, whose great-grandson John Benson also came from England for the occasion as did the Viscount’s mother Sara, Lady Allenby, gave instructio­ns to Lars Larsson, the photograph­er from the American Colony, to destroy certain photos because they would not conform with the story.

When the American Colony curator later went to Sweden to explore Larsson’s archives she discovered that the surrender had actually been made to army officers with the rank of major, but that didn’t gel with the British narrative.

Taking journalist­s around the exhibition before the ceremony Khalifa said: “You can win a war, but it means nothing if you lose the historical memory.”

She acknowledg­ed that the historical memory and its narrative can mean different things to different people. The aftermath of a war can, for instance, be perceived as conquest, occupation or liberation, she said.

What made her particular­ly excited about this exhibition was that for the first time, the venue itself was part of the artifacts in that the historic proclamati­on had taken place on the steps of the Tower of David.

Eilat Lieber, director and chief curator of the Tower of David Museum said that sometimes it is very frustratin­g for curators and scholars to find informatio­n about the past, “but when we talk about a hundred years in Jerusalem, it’s like yesterday.”

Although Lady Allenby had visited Israel many times with her late husband, this was an initial adventure both for her son and for John Benson who each confessed to being excited and overwhelme­d by the warmth of the hospitalit­y they had received.

Though neither makes a big deal of being related to people who turned the tide of history, they are proud to be members of their respective families.

 ?? (Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post) ??
(Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post)
 ?? (Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post) ?? GEN. EDMUND ALLENBY’S entry into Jerusalem is reenacted outside the Old City yesterday.
(Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post) GEN. EDMUND ALLENBY’S entry into Jerusalem is reenacted outside the Old City yesterday.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Israel