The Australian teachers’ delegation is continuing its Israel journey with a teachers’ seminar organized jointly by KKL-JNF’s Education Department and its Resources and Development Division. The delegates spent the weekend in Jerusalem. On Friday, January 5th, they visited the Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter, the City of David, the Nahlaot neighborhood, Mahaneh Yehuda market and the Yemin Moshe neighborhood, and also enjoyed some free time in the city. On Saturday evening a special event was held at Ammunition Hill to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel and the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.
The Ammunition Hill site commemorates the battle waged for Jerusalem during the Six-Day War, when it was captured by paratroopers after the bloody combat in its trenches and bunkers. Ammunition Hill has been preserved as a symbol of courage and perseverance. On Saturday evening the Australian educators’ delegation took part in a moving event at the site, in celebration of the 70th anniversary of Israel’s independence and the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.
With the support of its friends in the USA, Canada and Australia, KKL-JNF has been involved in the development of the Ammunition Hill heritage site for many years. This support from abroad helps with regular activities at the site. In addition, it has facilitated the development of the garden and its greenery, and has provided the means to upgrade the amphitheater. One of the major donors is Harry Triguboff, a major friend of JNF Australia.
Alon Wald, who sits on the heritage site’s board of directors, accompanied the Australian visitors on their tour of this spot where his father Rami Wald fell in battle when Alon was only ten months old. “I’ve been following my father’s heritage all my life,” he said. “Ammunition Hill was my childhood playground. My father’s comrades in arms adopted me, and I tried to get to know him through their stories.”
For him, he said, Ammunition Hill was not a story of death and bereavement, but one of love for one’s country, friendship and choosing life. “My father and his comrades were not born heroes, they were no different from any one of us, and they fought for the values they believed in. My father is no longer alive, but the values he represented still exist.”
“We teach our students about the Six-Day war at school, but standing here we can really feel history,” said Debbi Benn of Perth. “It’s particularly interesting to hear the remarks of other teachers of different subjects when they talk about everything we’re seeing and experiencing as members of this delegation.”
The delegates walked along the trenches and bunkers where the fighting took place and wandered among the remains of the tanks and armored vehicles left behind at the site in mute testimony of that terrible battle.
At a new underground museum, the delegates learned about the liberation of Jerusalem during the Six-Day War from historical and political accounts, and also from the personal stories and the small, seemingly insignificant moments. They watched films in which veterans of the war described the battles for the liberation of Jerusalem, they listened to tales of heroism, and at the commemorative wall of honor they paid their respects to the memory of those who died. Thirty-six Israeli paratroopers fell in battle, together with seventy Jordanian combatants.
The visit to Ammunition Hill was of especial interest to Debbie Posner of Perth, whose son had served as a combat soldier in the IDF’s Paratroop Brigade. As is customary with the Paratroopers, the ceremony to mark the conclusion of his basic military training was held at Ammunition Hill. “I was moved to tears by the connection between my son’s story and the historic account of the liberation of Jerusalem,” she said.
KKL-JNF Deputy Chairman Shlomo Deri, who came to drink a toast with the delegates, told them, “I hope that you will be goodwill ambassadors for Israel within your communities and schools during this difficult period we are going through.”
The evening concluded with a lively reception in a hall whose walls were decorated with an exhibition of pictures of Jerusalem. The delegates sang and danced joyfully in celebration of the State of Israel and its capital.