Tel Hai ( , "Hill of Life") is a name of the former Jewish settlement in northern

Galilee Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ). ''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...

, the site of an early battle between Jews and Arabs heralding the growing civil conflict, and of a monument, tourist attraction, and a college. It is currently part of

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

Kfar Giladi. The

Battle of Tel Hai The Battle of Tel Hai was fought on 1 March 1920 between Arab and Jewish forces at the village of Tel Hai in Northern Galilee. In the course of the event, a Shiite Arab militia, accompanied by Bedouin from a nearby village, entered a Jewish a ...

on 1 March 1920, which gave Tel Hai its fame, was significant, from a Jewish perspective, far beyond the small number of civil combatants on either side – mainly due to its influence on

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i culture, both inspiring an enduring

national myth A national myth is an inspiring narrative or anecdote about a nation's past. Such myths often serve as important national symbols and affirm a set of national values. A myth is entirely ficticious but it is often mixture with aspects of histori ...

and profoundly influencing the military of the

Yishuv The Yishuv (), HaYishuv Ha'ivri (), or HaYishuv HaYehudi Be'Eretz Yisra'el () was the community of Jews residing in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The term came into use in the 1880s, when there were about 2 ...

and political strategies over several decades. In retrospect, it can be regarded as the first military engagement between Jews and Arabs, though at the time neither combatant side recognized it as such.

History

Tel Hai, initially named Talha (), was first settled in 1905 as an agricultural courtyard for six workers from a northern colony El Mutallah ( Metula). The land for the outpost was purchased by Haim Kalvarisky, a clerk of the

Jewish Colonization Association The Jewish Colonisation Association (JCA or ICA; ) was an organisation created on September 11, 1891, by Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Its aim was to facilitate the mass emigration of Jews from Russia and other Eastern European countries, by settling ...

. In 1918, following the defeat of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, Tel Hai was given its Hebrew name, and became a border outpost. The area was subsequently subject to intermittent border adjustments among the British and French colonial powers. In 1919, the British relinquished the northern section of

Upper Galilee The Upper Galilee (, ''HaGalil Ha'Elyon''; , ''Al Jaleel Al A'alaa'') is a geographical region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Part of the larger Galilee region, it is characterized by its higher elevations and mountainous terra ...

containing Tel Hai, Metulla, Hamrah, and Kfar Giladi to French jurisdiction. The Zionist movement was greatly displeased with this, since it would have left the sources of the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

outside the borders of British

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

, where the Zionist state they envisaged was to be established. Therefore, the few isolated settlements in this territory assumed a strategic value from the Zionist point of view. Still, there was a fierce debate among factions and leaders of the Yishuv, some of whom advocated letting Tel Hai and the other outposts hang on at all costs, while others regarded their situation as untenable and advocated withdrawing from them. Arabs in this area at the time were not primarily involved in activities against the early Jewish militias, but rather in strongly opposing the imposition of the

French Mandate of Syria The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (; , also referred to as the Levant States; 1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate founded in the aftermath of the First World War and the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, concerning the territories ...

, which they regarded as betrayal of the

McMahon–Hussein Correspondence The McMahon–Hussein correspondence is a series of letters that were exchanged during World War I, in which the government of the United Kingdom agreed to recognize Arab independence in a large region after the war Quid pro quo, in exchange ...

made during the

Arab Revolt The Arab Revolt ( ), also known as the Great Arab Revolt ( ), was an armed uprising by the Hashemite-led Arabs of the Hejaz against the Ottoman Empire amidst the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On the basis of the McMahon–Hussein Co ...

against Ottoman rule. In a letter dated 24 October 1915, Sir Henry McMahon, then His Majesty's High Commissioner in Egypt, promises the Sharif of Mecca, Husayn ibn Ali, to "recognize and support the independence of the Arabs within the territories proposed by him (Sharif of Mecca), the exact extent of which became a matter of dispute." The Zionist militias in Tel Hai, headed by the Russian-born Jewish commander

Joseph Trumpeldor Joseph Vladimirovich (Volfovich) Trumpeldor (, ; , ; November 21, 1880 – March 1, 1920) was a Russian Zionist activist who helped organize the Zion Mule Corps and bring Jewish immigrants to Palestine. He was killed while defending the settlem ...

wanted the area to be restored to British control which they hoped would eventually lead to its becoming part of a future Jewish state. However, as newcomers to the area recently arrived from Europe, they were suspected of being pro-French, which ultimately led to armed clashes. In one notable exchange, on March 1, 1920, Shi'ite Arabs from

Jabal Amil Jabal Amil (; also spelled Jabal Amel and historically known as Jabal Amila) is a cultural and geographic region in Southern Lebanon largely associated with its long-established, predominantly Twelver Shia Muslim inhabitants. Its precise bounda ...

in southern Lebanon sought to search Tel Hai, however the Jews called for reinforcements from the kibbutz Kfar Giladi. Joseph Trumpeldor and ten men attempted to drive the Shi'ite militias away. At the end of a verbal dispute, an armed confrontation did break out, in which six of the Tel Hai Jews were killed and the remaining Jews retreated, whereupon the place was burned. The total number of killed was 13 (5 Muslims and 8 Jews). The British and the French, at the behest of the Zionists, ultimately agreed this area of Upper Galilee was to be included in

. It was thus possible for Tel Hai to be resettled in 1921, though it did not become a viable independent community and in 1926 it was absorbed into the

of Kfar Giladi.Gilbert, p.269

Tel Hai monument

A Jewish

national monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

commemorates the deaths of eight Jews (six men and two women), among them the Russian-born Jewish commander

, who fell in the above-detailed engagement on 1 March 1920.Wasserstein, 1991, p. 62;"These attacks were not directed specifically or mainly against Jews" citing Zionist report, Galilee, 13 May 1920 CZA L4/276 III. The resolute actions of Trumpeldor and his colleagues against a much larger Arab force inspired the Jews of Jerusalem. The memorial is known for a statue of a defiant lion representing Trumpeldor and his comrades. The city of

Kiryat Shmona Kiryat Shmona () is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel on the western slopes of the Hula Valley near the Lebanon, Lebanese border. In it had a population of . Located near the Blue Line (withdrawal line), Israel ...

, literally ''Town of the Eight'' was named after them.

Gallery

File:El Mutallah, Talhah.png, Talhah in 1878 File:Tel Hai.jpg, Tel Hai in 1946 File:Tel Hai ii.jpg, Members from

Yiftach Brigade The 11th Brigade (also known as the Yiftach Brigade) is a reserves unit in the Israel Defense Forces, composed mainly of fighters that completed their compulsory service in the Egoz Unit, Unit 621 – 'Egoz'. History In the 1948 Arab–Israeli ...

assembling at Tel Hai prior to the attack on

Al-Nabi Yusha' Al-Nabi Yusha' () was a small Palestinian village in the Galilee situated 17 kilometers to the northeast of Safad, with an elevation of 375 meters above sea level. It became part of the Palestine Mandate under British control from 1923 unti ...

in 1948 File:בול יובל להגנת תל חי.jpg, A commemorative stamp for 50th anniversary of the defense of Tel Hai with a Trumpeldor picture

References

Bibliography

* Goldstein, Amir and Zerubavel, Yae
'Tel Hai, 1920-2020: A new look at overlooked perspectives,'
Journal of Israeli History January 2022 * Wasserstein, Bernard (1991). ''The British in Palestine: The Mandatory Government and the Arab-Jewish Conflict 1917-1929''. Blackwell. * Zerubavel, Yael (1991). The Politics of Interpretation: Tel Hai in Israeli Collective Memory, ''AJS (Association for Jewish Studies) Review'' 16 (1991): 133-160. * Abbasi, Mustafa
Aleppo to Tel Hai: The events of Tel Hai and the new order in Greater Syria in 1919-1920,'
Journal of Israeli History January 2022

External links