Battle for Jerusalem

Overview

The Battle for Jerusalem took place during the 1947–1948 civil war phase of the 1947–1949 Palestine war. It saw Jewish and Arab militias in Mandatory Palestine, and later the militaries of Israel and Transjordan, fight for control over the city of Jerusalem. Under the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, Jerusalem was to be a corpus separatum administered by an international body. Fighting nevertheless immediately broke out in the city between Jewish and Arab militias, with bombings and other attacks being carried out by both sides.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

The Battle for Jerusalem arose directly from the contradictions between the 1947 UN Partition Plan, which designated Jerusalem as a corpus separatum under international administration, and the immediate outbreak of intercommunal violence on the ground. Rather than deferring to the proposed international framework, Jewish and Arab militias began fighting for control of the city as soon as the partition plan was announced, with bombings and attacks carried out by both sides. The contest drew in increasingly organized forces: on the Israeli side, David Shaltiel and Dov Yosef directed roughly 10,000 fighters, while Transjordan committed some 6,000 troops under Abdullah el Tell, Abd al-Qader al-Husseini, and John Bagot Glubb. The battle thus marked a transition from irregular militia conflict during the civil war phase of the 1947–1948 period to a contest between proto-state and state military forces. Jerusalem's status remained one of the central unresolved questions of the broader 1947–1949 war, and the fighting there illustrated how the internationalization scheme collapsed almost immediately under the pressures of competing national claims.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (5)