Allenby Square, a name commemorating Field Marshal

Field Marshal

Field Marshal is a military rank. Traditionally, it is the highest military rank in an army.-Etymology:The origin of the rank of field marshal dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the king's horses , from the time of the early Frankish kings.-Usage and hierarchical...

 Edmund Allenby who commanded the British forces which captured Palestine

Sinai and Palestine Campaign

The Sinai and Palestine Campaigns took place in the Middle Eastern Theatre of World War I. A series of battles were fought between British Empire, German Empire and Ottoman Empire forces from 26 January 1915 to 31 October 1918, when the Armistice of Mudros was signed between the Ottoman Empire and...

 in the First World War, has been bestowed at different times on two different square

Plaza

Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...

s in Jerusalem.

This divergent naming was connected both to prestige struggles within the British forces entering Jerusalem in late 1917, leading to what became known as "the multiple surrenders", and to later vicissitudes of the struggle between Israelis and Arabs for control of the city.

The Multiple Surrenders

The British Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 advanced along the Jaffa-Jerusalem Highway

Highway 1 (Israel)

Highway 1 , is the main highway connecting Tel Aviv with Jerusalem.-History:The section between Latrun and Jerusalem roughly follows an ancient path connecting Jaffa and Jerusalem...

 and approached Jerusalem. During the night between December 8 and December 9, 1917, the Ottoman Army withdrew, sparing Jerusalem what might have been a bloody and destructive battle.

On the following day the Palestinian Mayor of Jerusalem, Hussin Salim Al Husseiny, set out to tender the city's formal surrender to the British. Near the Shaare Tzedek Hospital

Sha'arei Tzedek Medical Center

The Shaare Zedek Medical Center is a major hospital in Jerusalem, Israel.- History :Shaare Zedek was the first large hospital in Jerusalem and is today the city's fastest growing hospital and the only major medical facility in the city's center...

, at what was then the sparsely populated western outskirts of Jerusalem, he met with a couple of British kitchen sergeants, and - not familiar with British military rank insignia - tendered the capitulation to them.

However, the officer in charge was displeased with this informal ceremony, and held a second surrender ceremony on the same windswept hill, with his own participation; a higher officer demanded and got a third one, still in the same location; and finally, Field Marshal Allenby insisted on still a fourth and final one, held this time at a different location - just outside the Jaffa Gate in the Old City wall, which Allenby then ceremoniously entered, making the point of dismounting and entering on foot out of respect for its religious significance. The Mayor of Jerusalem was not present at the final surrender, having caught pneumonia from too much standing on the exposed hill in the cold mountain winter. Allenby visited him in the hospital.

Due to these manoeuvres, there were two competing days of the Surrender of Jerusalem (December 9 and 11) and two locations: the hill where the original ceremony took place, and the Jaffa Gate where Allenby's ceremony was held. These discrepancies left still-tangible traces on the map of Jerusalem.

The Monument

In 1920, a British war memorial was erected on the hill where the first surrender ceremony took place.

The three-metre high rectangular monument, similar in style to other British WWI memorials, was designed by the architect Wallcousins. It bore the date of December 9 (rather than 11), with the text:

Near this spot, the Holy City was surrendered to the 60th London Division

60th (2/2nd London) Division

The British 60th Division was the second of two second-line Territorial Force divisions formed from the surplus of London recruits in 1914. Originally the division merely supplied the first-line Territorial divisions with drafts to replace losses through casualties...

, 9th December 1917.
Erected by their comrades to those officers, NCOs and men who fell in fighting for Jerusalem.

The monument creates a silhouette resembling medieval knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

s, a reference to the comparison made at the time by many Britons between the 1917 conquest of Palestine and the crusades

Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...

. An equestrian statue of Allenby was planned to stand on the pinnacle, but was never actually installed.

According to Israeli researcher Dov Genehovsky, the monument was built from the stones of the dismantled Ottoman clock tower which had been erected on top of the Jaffa Gate at the accession of the Sultan Abdul Hamid

Abdul Hamid

Abdul Hamid is a Muslim male given name, and in modern usage, surname. It is built from the Arabic words Abd, al- and Ḥamid. The name means "servant of the All-laudable", al-Ḥamīd being one of the names of God in the Qur'an, which give rise to the Muslim theophoric names.The letter a of the al- is...

.

The First Allenby Square

The hill where the first surrender took place was at that time on the western edge of Jerusalem just beyond the walls of the old city. Allenby held his ceremony at the square near Jaffa gate, which was then named "Allenby Square."

Throughout the years of British rule in Mandatory Palestine, Allenby Square was in the midst of a bustling thoroughfare. However, with the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War

1948 Arab-Israeli War

The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...

, the square became part of the battlefield, separating first the Jewish and Arab militias from each other, and later the newly-formed IDF

Israel Defense Forces

The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...

 (Israeli Defence Forces) from the Jordanian

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

 Arab Legion

Arab Legion

The Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century.-Creation:...

.

The 1949 Armistice Agreements

1949 Armistice Agreements

The 1949 Armistice Agreements are a set of agreements signed during 1949 between Israel and neighboring Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. The agreements ended the official hostilities of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and established armistice lines between Israeli forces and the forces in...

 fixed the position of Allenby Square as part of the no-man's-land, and it remained such until the conquest of East Jerusalem and its annexation to Israel in 1967.

In the first flush of victory euphoria, the Israeli authorities decided to change the name of the square to "IDF Square" (ככר צה"ל), which is its name up to the present, a conspicuous location on the invisible seam line that roughly divides the largely Israeli-inhabited West Jerusalem and the largely Palestinian-inhabited Eastern sector, forty years after the unification of the city.

The Second Allenby Square

During the British period, the 1920 monument, in the midst of an empty field, became gradually surrounded by the houses of the Romema neighborhood. After the creation of Israel, the Jerusalem Municipality surrounded it by an elliptical fence and planted some bushes; however, it was not officially declared a city square or given a name, and the area became increasingly neglected.

Allenby, whose memory is regarded with some favour in official Israel, was deprived in 1967 of "his" square, and the authorities decided to bestow the name on this neglected area around the monument - though some commentators objected, stating that Allenby had not taken place in the ceremony on that spot, and disdained it. Nevertheless, the name was duly bestowed.

It remained, however, rather neglected: only in 1994 did the municipality make the effort, after many protests by neighbours, to establish a proper playground for the Romema children. It was further refurbished, with new paving and lighting, when the new Jerusalem Central Bus Station

Jerusalem Central Bus Station

The Jerusalem Central Bus Station is the main bus depot in Jerusalem, Israel and one of the busiest bus stations in the country. Located on Jaffa Road near the entrance to the city, it serves Egged, Superbus and Dan intercity bus routes...

was created nearby.