The Liberation of Jerusalem, 1917
“I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD … [they will] return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and … shall possess it” (Jeremiah 30:3).
On December 9th the city of Jerusalem surrendered to the British Third Army under General Sir Edmund Allenby. So important was this victory in World War I that news of the surrender was embargoed. Great Britain announced it to the world from Parliament on the following day – Though the populace could well have interpreted the Nile flowing into Palestine metaphorically as the British troops in the “Egyptian Expeditionary Force” washed into the land of promise starting from the Nile, waters from the Nile did literally flow during the campaign. The daunting task of providing 500,000 gallons per day of water for the massing expeditionary force in the Sinai was met by laying a December 10th – and Allenby accepted surrender on the 11th.1 British victory meant that the oppressive rule of the Ottoman Turks for 400 years was ended. Jerusalem was taken in accordance with the strictest orders from General Allenby, “that there should be no fighting by British troops in and precincts of the holy city.”2
General Allenby
This date’s significance was clear to the Jews. December 10, 1917, the date of the announcement, was Kislev 25, 5678 on the Jewish calendar. That marked this as the first day of the joyous festival of lights, or “Hanukkah.” Once long before on a Kislev 25 in 165 BC, Jerusalem had been delivered. The first Hanukkah marked the deliverance from the oppression of the gentile Grecian despot Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the liberators were the army of Judas Maccabeus. For students of prophecy, the 1917 liberation of Jerusalem from Ottoman Turk rule marked one more stage in the fulfillment of the promised end of the “Times of the Gentiles” – “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the Times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24).
ARAB INTERESTS
Rejoicing in the Jewish, Christian and Arab communities was sincere, for the Turks had proven to be oppressive even to their Arab brothers in Islam. Part of the British success must be credited to support from military commander T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) working among the Hashemite Arabs. These Arab allies employed tactics they had honed through the centuries to disrupt Turkish supply lines. Raids by their marauding cavalry were characterized by General Allenby as their “national pastime” and the British provided £200,000 in gold to secure their service.3,4
God providentially can use even superstition against his opponents and a strong sentiment of awe surrounded the person of Allenby among the Turkish defenders and civilians. To their ear, the name “Allenby” sounds very much like “Al Nebi,” meaning “the prophet” in the Arabic tongue and this added weight to an Arab prophecy that rapidly circulated. Here this “Arab prophecy” is cited from the official records in the Brief Report of the British war office5 – “The Arab prophecy was fulfilled that when the Nile flowed into Palestine the prophet (Al Nebi) from the west should drive the Turk from Jerusalem.”
Though the populace could well have interpreted the Nile flowing into Palestine metaphorically as the British troops in the Egyptian Expeditionary Force washed into the land of promise starting from the Nile, waters from the Nile did literally flow during the campaign. The daunting task of providing 500,000 gallons per day of water for the massing expeditionary force in the Sinai was met by laying a pipeline from the Nile that came within 5 miles of Beersheva.6 On page two of the Brief Report, Allen by recounts of: “the difficulties to be overcome in the operation against Beersheva … the chief difficulties were those of water and transport.”
To the Arabs, “the prophet” from the west was liberating them from the Turks.
GAZA’S CAPTURE CRITICAL
Ottoman Turkish troops and their heavy fortifications in Gaza controlled the approach to the Holy Land and provided the defense against the British forces based in Suez, Egypt. Initial British assaults on Gaza had stalled after two unsuccessful attempts in the spring of 1917 and a tense stalemate prevailed. Having reorganized and reinforced the forces when he took over command of these forces in late June 1917, Allenby opened the campaign with the “Third Battle of Gaza,” from October 31 to November 7, 1917. He surprised the defenders not with an attack directly on Gaza, but with an attack at Beersheva to the west. This strategy permitted the army to capture Gaza from behind the main Turkish defensive lines.
Reasonable claims have been made that this stratagem of attacking Beersheva and this key victory for the capture of the Holy Land was pressed upon Allenby by Aaron Aaronsohn, an agricultural scientist and Zionist living in Palestine. Aaronsohn had established the “NILI” spy network comprised of Zionist settlers to support the British.7
ON TO JERUSALEM
After moving past these defenses in Gaza, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force made steady progress day-by-day until confronting Jerusalem in early December. The general made certain that his attacks from the outer defenses on the north of Jerusalem left plenty of opportunity for Turkish retreat.
All accounts of the campaign note an abrupt change in weather three days prior to surrender. Discomforting heat gave place to cold drenching winter rains. This both reduced the fighting and made it impractical to carry out Turkish orders that Jews and Christians be forced to join the Turkish retreat.8 Turkish defenders continued serious resistance, but Allenby’s string of victories, combined with massive desertion from the Turkish ranks, left them outnumbered 6:1.9 A note of surrender was received late on December 9th.
ENTERING THE HOLY CITY
We now know that Allenby followed orders from London when he dismounted to enter Jerusalem through the Jaffa gate on foot out of respect for the Holy City.10 In contrast to all custom for victorious entry, no flags were displayed by the conquerors. The rains stopped and on the crisp midday of December 11, 1917 – “At 12:30 the Holy city was surrendered for the 23rd time and for the first time to British arms, and on this occasion without bloodshed among the inhabitants or damage to the buildings of the city itself.” 11
Entering Jaffa Gate on foot.
This entrance was to be staged as a pointed contrast in conduct to the pomp of the German Kaiser’s visit of 1898.
The Egyptian Expeditionary Force was comprised of troops and cavalry from England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Australia, India, New Zealand, France, and Italy. Allenby was also following orders from the Prime Minister that he “secure the Holy places, both Christian and Mohametan, from violation of any kind.” 12 After the victorious general reassured everyone in a public announcement that all holy places would be respected and business as usual should continue, Mohammedan officers and soldiers from the Indian contingent were assigned to guard the mosque of Omar.13
A POLICY OF TOLERANCE FOR ALL
It is easy to read into the British posture a real desire for tolerance for all in Jerusalem. We see a policy aimed at bringing together Moslem Arabs, Christians, and Jews in a united front against the Turks. But especially bright were the hopes for the Zionist Jews now that the Balfour declaration and its promise of Jewish independence could have force. The British recognized Zionism as a civilizing and reforming influence that was a marked contrast to Turkish misrule. In closing the official Brief Record (of 1919) almost prophetically, the only Zionist leader named was Chaim Weiszmann:
Proclamation of Tolerance
“… the [Zionist] colonists … were able to cooperate in the efforts made on behalf of the whole Hebrew community by the energetic Dr. Chaim Weiszmann and the Zionist Commission, which culminated in the ceremonial foundation of the University of Jerusalem as a symbol of their confidence in the future and their recognition of the necessity of imparting higher education in their own language.”
This good will between Great Britain and the Zionists would soon vanish like the waters of a cloudburst on a desert. On the part of the Zionists, further growth in numbers and organization were necessary. Before Israel’s independence, once again Rachel would weep as the horrors of the holocaust would slay her children without mercy. Thirty-one years after Allenby’s victory in Jerusalem the British would turn over authority in 1948 to Chaim Weiszmann who became the first president of the reborn nation of Israel.
– Richard Doctor
(1) Massey, William T., How Jerusalem was won, London, Constable and Co. (1919), page 191. Massey, a correspondent accompanying the expedition, writes “Communications from correspondents were suspended until the announcement could be made by a minister in the House of Commons.”
(2) Massey, op. cit., page 158.
(3) Pritchard, James B., The Ancient Near East – A New Anthology of Texts and Pictures, Princeton University Press (1975), page 112. The Arab marauding tactics were ancient, and Nebuchadnezzar spent a full year in campaigning against the Arabs before turning his armies towards the capture of Jerusalem. Allenby was a careful student of history and was giving an honest appraisal.
(4) Army Records Society, Allenby in Palestine – the middle east correspondence of FM Viscount Allenby June 1917 to October 1919, Matthew Hughes Sutton Publishing GL, for the Army Records Society, Heritage House, PO Box 21, Baldock, Hertfordshire SG7 5SH (2004), page 42. Correspondence from Allenby 26 July 1917.
(5) A Brief record of the advance of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force: under the command of General Sir Edmund H.H. Allenby, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., July 1917 to October 1918, compiled from official sources (2nd ed.), London, H.M.S.O. (1919), page 107. 11 Dec. 19l7 report.
(6) A Brief Record, op. cit., pg 83, The Royal Engineers, Water Supply.
(7) Bloom, Cecil; Aaron Aaronsohn: Agronomist, Spy, Zionist, http:// www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=1854. Bloom writes, “In fact, after Aaronsohn’s death, Allenby acknowledged his contribution in paying tribute to the man. He wrote that “Aaron Aaronsohn’s death deprived me of a valued friend and of a staff officer impossible to replace … His death is a loss to the British Empire and to Zionism, but the work he has done can never die.”
(8) A Brief record, op. cit., Plate 55. “The arrival of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force was fortunately timed as to prevent the wholesale deportation of Hebrew colonists and residents that had actually been ordered by the Turks, and these careful agriculturalists were able to restore to a great extent the properties in the Kaza of Jaffa which they had been able to preserve in part from the spoliation of the enemy.”
(9) A Brief Record, op. cit., Plate 22, 26-27 November 1917.
(10) Army Records Society, op. cit., page 92, Correspondence from Field Marshall Robertson, London, 21 Nov 1917, specifically instructed Allenby, “In the event of Jerusalem being occupied, it would be of considerable political importance if you, on officially entering the city, dismount at the city gate and enter on foot.”
(11) Massey, op. cit., page 190.
(12) Army Records Society, op. cit., page 87, Correspondence of 16 November 1917.
(13) Army Records Society, op. cit., page 106, 11 December 1919. The Indian contingent from whom these troops were drawn had already distinguished themselves in this campaign by their adeptness at the hill and cave fighting. Such warfare was familiar to them from previous experience skirmishing in Baluchistan (the mountainous border region of Pakistan and Iran).