Jerusalem in Brief (No. 8)
The surrender of Jerusalem during World War I and a book on Jerusalem at the time of Jesus
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Jerusalem visualized
Ottoman and German troops abandoned Jerusalem on December 8, 1917 in the middle of World War I, leaving it for the British to capture without a fight. The following morning, the mayor of Jerusalem Hussein al-Husseini, left the city with a white flag and notice of surrender. Roberto Mazza describes a series of three separate attempts by al-Husseini to hand over the city to British forces (2009:134-135). He first encountered two privates who were said to have gotten lost looking for eggs. He then came upon two sergeants, and lastly, two majors. The majors contacted their superior officer Lieut.-Colonel Bayley, who in turn contacted his superior officer, Major-General Shea. Shea was later ordered to take over the city. Separately, Brigadier General Watson also accepted the surrender of Jerusalem.
Lewis Larsson’s famous photo shown above details the scene at al-Husseini’s second attempt to surrender Jerusalem. The mayor stands center right with Sergeants Hurcomb and Sedgewick in their summer uniforms to his right. The white flag of surrender can be seen in the back. James McBey, an artist accompanying the British Army on their campaign, created a drawing inspired by this episode and later published it as part of a collection in 1920 (Goodman in Levine 1983:282). His drawing shows two British soldiers awaiting the mayor and his entourage with Jerusalem in the background.
McBey made other drawings during the British conquest of Jerusalem in December 1917. Bertha Spafford Vester relates that, while attending General Allenby’s entrance ceremony at Jaffa Gate two days later, she was asked to cede her spot to McBey so he could have a better angle from which to view the event (1950:261). She had been standing on the balcony of the Imperial Hotel, which surely provided a nice vantage point. She begrudgingly agreed, electing to watch Allenby’s entrance over his shoulder.
Spafford Vester also writes that the flag shown in the photo above was part of a bedsheet removed from the American Colony’s hospital and given to the mayor that morning (1950:255). Interestingly, the Palestinian Christian Oudist Wasif Jawhariyyeh claims that he personally handed the flag to the mayor’s driver, who holds it in the photo (2014:100). Whether this was the same flag taken from the American Colony or a separate one is not clear. It is worth noting that McBey’s drawing seems to show two flags of surrender being carried by the mayor’s entourage, although this may have been an artistic embellishment.
Three pieces of the flag are known today, including a small fragment kept at the Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem and a piece measuring ca. 34” x 23.5” in the Imperial War Museum of London. The largest fragment of the flag, measuring 35” x 37”, ended up—of all places—at the Garst Museum in Greenville, Ohio.
Details of the events surrounding Jerusalem’s surrender to the British on December 9, 1917 vary in the sources due to an order to destroy all material evidence that was not associated with General Allenby. Wasif Jawhariyyeh kept a copy of the American Colony photo in his collection. He wrote doubtfully in his memoirs of the “official” British account of the city’s surrender which excluded or explained away al-Husseini’s various attempts to hand over Jerusalem to British forces:
"This photograph of the surrender of Jerusalem to the British army is genuine. However, the British Empire refused to acknowledge it, since their habit has always been to lie, deceive, and spread propaganda for the benefit of the empire. So I was told that Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in his book, proposed the following: The two British soldiers who appear in this photograph were in fact looking to buy eggs from the farmers of the village of Lifta and happened to come across Hussein Effendi al-Husseini and his company, so this photograph was taken. And that is all there is to it.
Behold, dear reader, the hypocrisy! First you should know that the weather was rainy and biting cold, particularly that year. This was the end of December, so if Churchill's story was true, what made a delicate person like Hussein Effendi stand in Sheikh Badr at such an early hour and in such cold and rainy weather? And would British soldiers drop their responsibilities in the middle of a heated battle over the city of Jerusalem, to go looking for eggs? Is it possible that a British soldier would suffer from hunger? Perish the thought." (2014:101-102)
Roberto Mazza explores correspondence of British officials in November 1917, prior to Allenby’s push toward Jerusalem. They laid out some sensitive gestures toward the city’s religious communities, along with details for a carefully orchestrated entrance ceremony should Allenby find success (2009:126-129). The gravity associated with the conquest of the Holy City, ending 400 years of Ottoman rule in Jerusalem, provided an opportunity to capture the imagination of the British Empire (including a video of the event). Mazza elaborates on the moment’s value:
“Once Jerusalem had been occupied, its surrender became an ideological tool in British hands and, not surprisingly, this is reflected in the different accounts of the occupation of the city. The narrative of the surrender of Jerusalem was to be exploited as propaganda, and it was necessary for this narrative to be dramatic and glorious: Jerusalemites simply disappeared, merely becoming secondary characters in what was an entirely British theatrical production. The ceremonial entrance staged by Sykes was meant to underline British humility: they had respect for the Holy City, and Jerusalem was being liberated rather than occupied. It is therefore not a surprise that the narratives reporting the actual events of the numerous surrenders of the city vanished; these were not worthy accounts of the liberation of the Holy City.” (2009:132)
The memory that is still associated with Allenby’s entrance into Jerusalem is a testament to its effectiveness.
Turn back the clock
Recent anniversaries of notable events in Jerusalem’s history:
November 27, 1901: The renovations of Jerusalem’s Lower Aqueduct were completed, including a branch leading to a newly built public water fountain (sabil) at Jaffa Gate. They were funded by the Ottoman government and celebrated in a city-wide inauguration (Lemire 2017:98-100).
December 11, 1917: General Allenby dismounted from his horse and entered Jaffa Gate on foot. His a proclamation was read from the steps of the Citadel in a variety of languages.
Recent arrivals
I regularly find books on Jerusalem that I have never heard of before. I experienced this most recently while perusing a used book display at the ASOR Annual Meeting and noticed Jerusalem City of Jesus by Richard M. Mackowski. Mackowski was a Catholic priest and scholar from the American Midwest who served as a professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem from 1968-73. The book was published by Eerdmans in 1980.
Blurbs on the dust jacket and reviews suggest the book was generally well received. The archaeological discussions in a publication that appeared almost 45 years ago are bound to be out of date. But like other older literature on Jerusalem, I value it for the window it provides into the atmosphere of scholarship at the time it was published.
As the title suggests, it explores landmarks of Jerusalem during the Early Roman Period (1st century BCE-1st century CE), such as walls, gates, the Herodian Temple Mount complex, tomb of Jesus, etc. Its initial chapters also explore the geology and topography of Jerusalem, along with routes leading to the city. Some sections include detailed discussions of sites that are not always easy to locate in literature on Jerusalem, such as the Pool of Bethesda (79-83) and the Cenacle (139-147). There are also some unique diagrams illustrating the historical development of the Holy Sepulcher (154) and the Cenacle (146), along with rare photographs that include:
aerial photography of Jerusalem during the 1970s
Bargil Pixner standing at the site of his Essene Gate (62)
Michael Avi-Yonah’s first-century CE model of Jerusalem when it was still located at the Holy Land Hotel, both before (25) and after (132) updates
Late Roman Period fragments of an Asclepius relief from the Pool of Bethesda, currently still unavailable for public viewing (82)
The book is out of print, but some used copies are available on secondhand websites. Or you can read it online for free.
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