There have been so much interest in the 1948 archive, so I decided to publish another installment. Pictures do speak better than words. The following are the photos taken by John Phillips, all in June of 1948.
The Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem after Jews left
Jewish woman and child receiving Arab-supplied bread at hospital
Priest walking past the Convent of Notre Dae du France which was damaged during fighting in the city
Jewish prisoner being escorted by Arab soldiers
A Jewish man preparing to evacuate Jerusalem
Stanton St. in Haifa completely deserted after the Jews drove out all the civilians
Women and children refugees evacuating the village of Zenin
A barge bringing Arab refugees to the dock in Haifa
A 13-yr-old Arab boy lying dead on street of Haifa
Dead Jewish Englishwoman lying on hospital floor after surrender of Jerusalem
The photograph by John Phillips captioned “Dead Jewish Englishwoman lying on hospital floor after surrender of Jerusalem” must be that of 22-year-old Esther Cailingold, a London bookseller’s daughter, who had taught English at the Evelina de Rothschild school in Jerusalem before volunteering to serve with the Haganah. She was mortally wounded while defending the Old City’s Jewish Quarter against the British-officered Arab Legion and died on the floor of the Armenian Monastery on May 29, 1948. A biography entitled An Unlikely Heroine (Vallentine Mitchell, 2000) was published by Asher Cailingold, Esther’s younger brother.
Asher Cailingold comments: “The picture of my late sister in Part 3 was removed from Phillipp’s exhibition and from his book at our request. My Mother was alive at that time and we did not want her to see the photo with its shocking caption. As of Shabbat pm My 29th 1948, there were no more Jews in what had been the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. So the captions should read May 1948 and not June. My sister, Esther, died in the early hours of Shabbat morning and she and one other Haganah soldier were brought out through Zion gate and in 1950, they were buried in the Military cemetery on Mount Herzl. Others who were killed in the fighting were buried in a mass grave in the Jewish Quarter and, in 1967, the bodies were reburied on the Mount of Olives.”
Injured Arab soldiers lying on cots wayting to be evacuated in Haifa
Nurse treating wounded Jewish soldier in Jerusalem
An Arab child refugee waiting on the dock to leave Hafia
Dr. Moussa Husseini (4R), and a leader of Haganah forces, walking with Arab soldiers after signing the surrender of Jerusalem
Arab refugees in Haifa waiting to be ferried to an Arab city
An Arab guard checking a car at the road block
King Abdullah (C) and his party climbing the steps of the Dome of the Rock
King Abdullah (C) and his party standing in front of the Dome of the Rock
King Abdullah of Jordan (CL) and his party leaving Haram esh Sarif
King Abdullah (C) and his party attending a banquet during truce
King Abdullah Ibn Hussein (L) talking with Sir Harry Luke
Israel's Foreign Minister Moseh Sharett (R) seated with members provisional govt, Golda Meir Israel while Israel Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion reads Proclamation of Nationhood. Jerusalem, Israel May 1948. Frank Scherschel
A Royal Marine searching an Arab
King Abdullah of Jordan (C) touring Jerusalem during truce
The following are all 1948 photos by Frank Scherschel. All these Frank Scherschel were taken in May.
Hurrying toward air raid shelter in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Passenger Inspection Hal
Press conference given by Moshe Shertok (center).
Magen David Adom driving Jerusalem - Tel Aviv highway to go into action near Bab el Wad
Final patrol by British tanks pushes three rubble strewn streets of Jaffa intent on preventing any further fighting between Jews and Arabs before experation of mandate
Arabs drinking coffee and smoking Hubble-Bubbles
People running away from the watersfront during air raid in Tel Aviv
Christian family going to Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem
Municipal authorities of Jerusalem
Old City of Jerusalem
Photos licensed for personal non-commercial use only by LIFE.
The 1948 Israel LIFE photographs are published in three posts:
[ UPDATE: An Anatomy of a Viral Post ]
- Further Reading:
- LIFE in Israel in 1948 – Part 2
- LIFE in Israel in 1948 – Part 1
- LIFE in Israel in 1949 by John Phillips
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{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
I have seen some debates about the 1948 Life photos on different blogs, etc. The pictures speak for themselves. But what people see in the pictures is whole different matter.People with divergent political views pull out of the photos what they prefer to see. Not just in photos but with the entire river of information people seek confirmation for the existing opinions. Humans are conditioned to resist surprise and to change their perceptions only under an extreme duress.
Stanton st. in Haifa is now called Shivat Tziyon st.
Aviv, thank you for the info. Do Arabs live on that street? Any traces of the neighborhood history there?
It's not a residential street anymore. The whole neighborhood, Wadi Salib, was settled by Jewish immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa, who rioted about discrimination in a famous event of Israel's 1950's. These were then moved to another part of Haifa by the '60's. The area has been mostly deserted ever since, and some of the buildings have been destroyed.
Since there are governmental buildings built very recently nearby, including the courthouse, you can find some of the remaining buildings revamped into offices for law firms, accounting firms and the like.
Arabs do live in nearby streets, though. Also, I might add that although Haifa has a large Arab minority and still more Arabs commuting to work from the Galilee, Haifa has seen only very little sectarian violence since 1948, not counting bombers from the West Bank or rockets from Lebanon.
Thanks, that was interesting.
amazing!!!!!!
I lived trought those days!! remember them so well!!!
Born in Jerusalem 1938.
Thanks a lot I think Ben, these photographs are a great contribution to understand more or less what happened between 1947-1948, but incomplete without reading the following websites:
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Uri, you want to say something to contribute to the conversation, great, but spamming comments with links is not the way to do it.
Maty, tell us some stories.
the material is wonderful. As one who didn't have the sense to go immigrate when I became an adult, rubs salt in the wound. But it is well deserved.
there is always plenty of salt available.
i was born in israel in 1944. both mom and dad were hagganah members. dad fought
in lebenon. great pictures. amazing and great rememberance. thank you. yehudit
Wonderful photos- thanks for all your hard work. I am reading Ben-Gurion’s “Israel- A Personal History”, and the whole first part is about the 1948 War – these photos (esp. the ones of Jerusalem and those showing the British led Arab Legion – all the “officers” are British -) add a lot to what I am reading. Considering how much better armed and trained the Arab Legion was (these photos don’t show the other invading Arab armies- Egyptian in the south -also British trained and armed -and Iraqis to the North), it’s amazing that the Jews held out. Not all Arabs were opposed to the Jewish State – read Hillel Cohen’s book. And thanks, again.
Thank you for some interesting pictures. I really enjoyed looking at them. Would be interesting to know if any one recognises themselves from the pictures and to hear their stories.
A. from Israel
Wow, very gripping photos! What a great collection.
Ben,
I read some of your blogging and felt we have a common ground.
I am writing a novel about the rebirth of Israel titled “1948″ and would like to ask if you mind if I use some of these photos for my blog. I am using the blog to not only attract attention to some startling facts about Israel’s reestablishment, but also attract the attention of an agent or publisher, hoping to see my novel published.
Thanks for posting these inspiring photos.
Dave Longeuay
The picture with the title: Mosheh Shertok giving a press confernce, doesn’t show Moshe Shertock at all. Just look at the picture of Golda Meir with Moshe Shertock a few shots before and you see that the press conference did,t have Moshe in the picture. I knw Mosheh very well from the Hagana in Israel and when I met him in Italy while serving in the British Army.
I object to the pictures showing so many very religious Jews who did not serve in the Hagana or the Israeli Army. In fact the ultra religious Neturei Karta served as spies for the Arabs.
I know, I was there!
Hans, I also didn’t see Moshe Shertok in the photo, but the caption in the archive said Moshe Shertok. Either this is a mistake or Mosheh Shertok is the man with his back to the camera to the left of a woman. And thank you for your heroism on behalf of our people.
Ben, Thank you very much. I was born in Tel Aviv 8 years after most of these photos were taken, but still they awake a lot of emotions. I hope these photos will be seen by many generation to come (Jews, Arabs and British) Again, thank you.
These are wonderful photos. Thank you.
What caught my attention and impressed me most is that I could not make up who is who most of the time…. Arabs, Jews, and Christians all merged into one suffering, fighting, and migrating people. I also did not notice any hatred and violence in the faces, neither on those fighting nor on those suffering.
I hope that these photos will make us think and ponder over the futility of war and fighting over territory. They certainly show that everybody lost something….and there was suffering everywhere… with no conquerors
Tina
Tel-Aviv 2009
The photos, captions, and comments of Israel, 1948, are valuable contributions to the history
of the time.
The three LIFE posts, with images of all combatants (Jews, Arabs, Brits) bring us back to those awesome days when Israel was fighting for its independance. Some of the captions are biased and inaccurate but no matter. We can capture the tenure, the terror, the true nature of events by the keen eye of the camera. We learn, again, of the exact participation of the British in fomenting the violence between Jew and Arab. And view with emotion the sites of the Old City
(especially the Tiferet Yisrael synogogue before it was destroyed) and how Jews were
expelled and taken into captivity. And we see the young idealists who were fearless.
This website is a must for all serious people who want to know what really happened, not what
some pseudo-historians repeat with political correctness and false axes to grind.
In the current global realities where Israel is once again pressured to re-divide Jerusalem, it is even more important to understand the background, as these photos illustrate, of how Israel came into being and how Jerusalem fought for its life in 1948,
Yitzchak
Modiin, Israel , April, 2010
These pictures go directly to ones neshoma. Part of the history of our people going back to biblical times.
Thank you for this monumental effort.
For anyone visiting Jerusalem, John Phillip’s photos from May 28, 1948, the day the Jewish quarter fell to the Jordanians, are on display with a moving 10 min documentary at the ‘One Last Day Museum’ in the Cardo area of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.
Sun-Thursday 9:00-15:00 Friday 9:00-13:00
tel: 02-6288142.
These pictures go directly to ones neshoma.
Ben,
Great presentation of these pictures. You are correct that many of them were included in a book titled A Will to Survive. I had it at one point, but I think that it was donated to some library some time ago. What was nice about the book was that it located the individuals that were in the pictures, primarily those from the Jewish Quarter, and spoke with them forty years later and found out more details about the picture.
I think somebody is confusing Shertok with Sharett (incorrectly captioned as “Moseh”). Two different Moshes.
Daniel, I think Shertok is in front with his back to the camera, not the person , perhaps a journalist, asking a question by the table.
I am o;d engoh to recall some of life magazine photographs not all thanks for sending them. second moshe shertok changed his name to moshe sharet, he wanted to set an example to those who were opposed to change thier names to hebrew last name out of respect to thier long heritage….my father was among them……. naomi
I looked at these photo’s with so much on my heart. Where does one begin to comment on the situation in Israel – well for me, as Bible believing Christian, my starting point is(and will always be the “His Story” of the Word of God). No matter what anybody in the world might argue – the land of Israel belongs to the Jews whether you like it or not. For this fact there are many historical evidences apart from the Bible and so called “Arab” nations can stand on their heads and play the British Anthem on an upside down piano with their toes – fact is fact! Why would the whole of the Muslim world and most of the world governments be so concerned about a piece of land 1/6 of 1% of all the land occupied by Muslims – WHY?- because the Bible says so, and its all part of the scenarios spelled out in the pages of Scripture, for anyone to read with an open mind. The Bible is a book of Prophecy of which more than 80% has been fulfilled – no other book of any religion can make that claim – there is NO other religious book ever written that can make such a claim. So, people of the world, make your plans and cut your deals – the final answer, to me lies very much in the words of an old African American man when asked while reading the book of Revelation if he understood what he was reading – “of course I understand – JESUS WINS”!