Latrun | |
|---|---|
Village | |
 Trappist Monastery | |
| Etymology: fromLatronis[1] | |
  Latrun  Latrun | |
| Coordinates:31°49′55″N34°58′53″E / 31.83194°N 34.98139°E /31.83194; 34.98139 | |
| Palestine grid | 148/137 |
| Administered by | Israel |
| Claimed by | Israel andPalestine |
| Israeli district | Jerusalem |
| Palestinian governorate | Ramallah and al-Bireh |
| Time zone | UTC+02:00 (IST,PST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+03:00 (IDT,PDT) |
Latrun (Hebrew:לטרון,Latrun;Arabic:اللطرون,al-Latrun) is a strategic hilltop in theLatrun salient in theAyalon Valley. It overlooks the road betweenTel Aviv andJerusalem, 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem and 14 kilometers southeast ofRamla. It was the site offierce fighting during the1948 war. During the period of 1949–1967, it was occupied by Jordan at the edge of ano man's land between the armistice lines. In the 1967 war, it was occupied by Israel.
The hilltop includes theLatrun Abbey,Mini Israel (a park with scale models of historic buildings around Israel),The International Center for the Study of Bird Migration (ICSBM), theYad La-Shiryon memorial to armored corps soldiers killed in action, and militarytank museum.Neve Shalom (Oasis of Peace) is a joint Israeli-Palestinian community on a hilltop south of Latrun.Canada Park is nearby to the east.
The name Latrun is derived from the ruins of a medievalCrusader castle. There are two theories regarding the origin of the name. One is that it is a corruption of the Old FrenchLa toron des chevaliers, or of the CastilianLa torón de los caballeros (The Castle of the Knights), so named by theKnights Templar, or by its Castilian founder, Rodrigo Gonzales de Lara (see below). The other is that it is from the Latin,Domus boni Latronis (The House of the GoodThief),[2] a name given by 14th-century Christian pilgrims after thepenitent thief who was crucified by the Romans alongside Jesus (Luke 23:40–43).[3]
In theHebrew Bible, theAyalon Valley was the site of a battle in which theIsraelites, led byJoshua, defeated theAmorites (Joshua 10:1–11).[3]
Later,Judah Maccabee established his camp here in preparation for battle with theSeleucid Greeks, who had invaded Judea and were camped atEmmaus; this site is today identified by archaeologists as Hurvat Eked.[4] According to theBook of Maccabees,Judah Maccabee learned that the Greeks were planning to march on his position, and successfully ambushed the invaders. The Jewish victory in what was later called theBattle of Emmaus led to greater Jewish autonomy underHasmonean rule over the next century.[5]
Little remains of the castle, which was reputedly built in 1130s by a Castilian noblemanRodrigo González de Lara[6] who later gave it to theTemplars. The main tower was later surrounded with a rectangular enclosure with vaulted chambers. This in turn was enclosed by an outer court, of which one tower survives.[7][8][9]
Walid Khalidi in his bookAll That Remains describes al-Latrun as a small village established in the late 19th century by villagers from nearbyEmmaus.
In 1883, thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Latrun as a fewadobe huts among the ruins of a medieval fortress.[10]
In December 1890, a monastery was established at Latrun by French, German and Flemish monks of theTrappist order, fromSept-Fons Abbey in France, at the request of Monseigneur Poyet of theLatin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The monastery(fr) is dedicated toOur Lady of the Seven Sorrows. The liturgy is in French. The monks bought the 'Maccabee Hotel', formerly called 'The Howard' from the Batato brothers together with two-hundred hectares of land and started the community in a building which still stands in the monastic domain.[11] The old monastery complex was built between 1891 and 1897.[12] In 1909 it was given the status of apriory and that of anabbey in 1937.[13] The community was expelled by the Ottoman Turks between 1914–1918 and the buildings pillaged, a new monastery being built during the next three decades.[12]
The monks established a vineyard using knowledge gained in France and advice from an expert in the employ of BaronEdmond James de Rothschild from theCarmel-Mizrahi Winery. Today they produce a wide variety of wines that are sold in the Abbey shop and elsewhere.[5]
In the1922 census of Palestine, conducted by theBritish Mandate authorities,Latrun had a population of 59, allMuslims. In addition,Dair Latrun ("The monastery of Latrun") had a population of 37 Christian males.[14] In the1931 census they were counted together, and Latrun had a population 120; 76 Muslims and 44 Christians, in a total of 16 "houses".[15]
During WWI the monastery sustained significant damage. Latrun and its environs saw heavy fighting during theSinai and Palestine campaign, an offensive launched in the fall of 1917 by the Entente powers against the Ottoman Empire and its allies. The monastery's interior furnishings, as well as all of its windows and doors, were either looted or destroyed as a result of the conflict. After the war, a new monastery was built at Latrun in 1926, and the crypt was completed in 1933. However the church was again damaged during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, and required further restoration. This work was completed, and the church officially consecrated, on 21 November 1953.[12] The monastery was designed by the community's first abbot, Dom Paul Couvreur, and is an example ofCistercian architecture. Many of the stained-glass windows were produced by a monk of the community.[citation needed]
A Juniorate, a school for young boys, ran from 1931 until 1963 and provided many vocations for the community, especially of Lebanese monks.[13]
Following the1936–39 Arab revolt, theBritish authorities built a number of police forts (namedTegart forts after their designer[16]) at various locations; Latrun was chosen due to its strategic significance, particularly its dominant position above the Tel-Aviv-Jerusalem road. Many members of theYishuv who had resisted the British administration were imprisoned in a detention camp at Latrun.Moshe Sharett, later Israel's second Prime Minister, and several other members of theJewish Agency's Executive Committee, were held at Latrun for several months in 1946.[17][18][19]
As of the1945 statistics, the population of the Latrun village had grown to 190 Christians,[20] with a total of 8,376dunams of land.[21] Of this, a total of 6,705 dunams were used forcereals, 439 dunams were irrigated or used for orchards, 7 for citrus and bananas,[22] while 4 dunams were classified as built-up public areas.[23]
The road from the coastal plain to Jerusalem was blocked after the British withdrew and handed the fort of Latrun over toJordan'sArab Legion. The Arab Legionnaires used the fort to shell Israeli vehicles traveling on the road below, effectively imposing amilitary siege on Jerusalem and the Jewish residents there, despite that the United Nations plan was to keep Jerusalem as an international zone with neither Jordan, Israel, nor the PalestinianArab Higher Committee having sovereignty over it.[24]
On 24 May 1948, ten days after theIsraeli Declaration of Independence per theUnited Nations General Assembly's Resolution 181[25] and the Arab assaults against Israel which followed, the Jordanian Legion's fort was assaulted by combined forces of Israel's newly created7th Armored Brigade, and a battalion of theAlexandroni Brigade.Ariel Sharon, then a platoon commander, was wounded at Latrun along with many of his soldiers. The assault, codenamedOperation Bin Nun Alef (24–25 May), was unsuccessful, sustaining heavy casualties. On 31 May 1948, a second attack against the fort, codenamedOperation Bin Nun Bet, also failed, although the outer defenses had been breached.
Many of the Israeli fighters were youngHolocaust survivors who had just arrived in the country and had minimal military training.[26] The official casualty figure for both battles was 139.[citation needed]
To circumvent the blocked road, a makeshift camouflaged road through the seemingly impassable mountains towards Jerusalem was constructed under the command ofMickey (David) Marcus.[citation needed] This bypassed the main routes overlooked by Latrun and was named theBurma Road after itsemergency supply-line namesake between Kunming (China) and Lashio (Burma), improvised by the Allies inWorld War II. By 10 June 1948, the road was fully operational, putting an end to the month-old Arab blockade.[27]
On 2 August, theTruce Commission drew the attention of theSecurity Council to the Arabs' refusal to allow water and food supplies to reach Jewish WestJerusalem. After much negotiation, it was agreed that United Nations convoys would transport supplies, but the convoys often came under sniper fire. Towards the end of August, the situation improved. The destruction of the Latrun pumping station made it impossible for water in adequate quantities to flow to West Jerusalem, but theIsraelis built an auxiliary small-capacity water pipeline along the "Burma Road", which provided a minimum amount of water.[28]
AfterOperation Danny, Israeli forces anticipated a Jordanian counterattack,[29] possibly from Latrun, but King Abdullah remained within the bounds of the tacit agreement made with the Jewish Agency and kept his troops at Latrun.[30]
In the1949 Armistice Agreements, the fort remained asalient underJordanian control, which was in turn surrounded by a perimeter ofno man's land. Under the cease-fire agreement,Jordan was not to disrupt Israeli travelers using this road; in practice, constant sniper attacks led Israel to build abypass road around the bulge.
In theSix-Day War of 1967, Latrun was captured by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and the main road to Jerusalem was reopened and made safe for travel.
The village of Latrun, our first objective, was built around the ruins of an oldCrusader castle on the crest of a hill overlooking the Jerusalem road. On the southern slopes of the olive groves stretched down the road, while at the bottom of the western slope sat a big Trappist monastery.[31]
The Latrun monastic community allowed two communities,Neve Shalom/Wahat as-Salam[32] and an affiliate of theJesus-Bruderschaft [de],[33] to be established on its land.TheTegart fort became theYad La-Shiryon memorial for the fallen soldiers of theIsraeli Armored Corps and a museum was established there.[34]
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