Latrun
Coordinates: 31 ° 50 ′ 8 ″ N , 34 ° 58 ′ 49 ″ E
The place Latrun ( Arabic اللطرون al-Latrūn , DMG al-Laṭrūn , Hebrew לטרון) is located about 15 kilometers west of Jerusalem in the Shefela in the Ajalon Valley, which has often been of strategic importance throughout history.
At Latrun, the road that comes from Tel Aviv splits into two directions, both of which lead to Jerusalem: One leads via Sha′ar HaGai (today the main route between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem), the other runs north of it via Beit Horon . Latrun is outside the Green Line , so it belongs to the West Bank .
The origin of the name is not certain. It is probably a falsification of “Le toron des chevaliers”, a crusader castle , the remains of which can still be seen nearby.
history
Biblical tradition
In the area of Latrun (near Beth Horon) in the 13th century BC The fight of Joshua Ben Nuns against five Amorite kings took place. According to biblical tradition, Joshua called the sun to stand still so that the fight could still be victorious on the Friday before the Sabbath . “Sun, stand still by Gibeon , and moon, in the valley of Ayalon. The sun stood still and the moon stood still until the people had avenged themselves on their enemies. ” Jos 10,12-13 NIV .
British mandate period
Triggered by the Arab uprising from 1936, the British set up police stations at several strategically important places in the country . The fortress-like stations, named after the developer of the Tegart forts , were heavily secured complexes with towers and numerous loopholes. The location in Latrun, west of the monastery, was chosen because of its elevated position on the strategically important road from the coast to Jerusalem; the police station was built in 1943.
In addition to the police station, the British set up internment camps in Latrun and the surrounding area, in which mainly Jewish resistance fighters against the mandate power were imprisoned. Moshe Sharet and Dov Yosef were among the many Zionists imprisoned . The camps were particularly overcrowded after Operation Agatha on June 29, 1946, which triggered the establishment of camps in Cyprus for illegal immigrants . As a result of these events, the ship San Dimitrio , which sailed from France on October 19, 1946 with 1275 illegal immigrants on board, was given the Hagana code name Latrun .
War of Independence
During the War of Independence of 1948, one of the bitterest battles between Israelis and Arabs for control of the road to besieged Jerusalem took place here. When the British Army withdrew on May 14, 1948, this station was handed over to the Arab Legion . The following day two Israeli battalions tried in vain to storm the station. The Israelis lost 74 men in this "Ben Nun" operation. On May 30, 1948, the Israelis made another attempt to take the station with Operation “Ben Nun B”, but despite artillery support they failed because of the minefields around the station, with 31 men killed on the Israeli side. After this second failure, an alternative route (south of the road through the Bab el Wad , the “gateway to the valley”, Hebrew: Scha′ar haGai) to Jerusalem was developed, which went down in Israeli history as the “ Burma Road ”. On the night of June 9, 1948, under the command of David Marcus, there was an attack on the east side of the station ("Operation Joram"), which again failed due to a misorientation by a company commander. Nineteen other Israeli soldiers were killed when two Palmach battalions attacked the police station on July 16, 1948, without result. On July 18, 1948, the Israelis made one last attempt to capture the station. They advanced with support from artillery and armored vehicles, but communication problems forced the attack to be abandoned. There was no loss of life, but at the end of the war the station was still in Jordanian hands.
Six Day War
According to the ceasefire agreement of 1948 had the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem , which was controlled by the station are open to Israeli traffic. Jordan ignored the agreement in this respect and so a detour via the Burma Road had to be used until the Six Day War of 1967. Between 1948 and 1967, the Latrun Police Station was also involved in a number of incidents designed to prevent Israeli farmers from working their fields. During the Six Day War, the station was captured by the Israeli Harel Brigade after extensive artillery preparation. The inhabitants of the villages ʿImwās, Bait Nubā and Yālū were expelled and the villages destroyed. Years later the settlement Mewo Choron and the Canada Park were built on their land .
Attractions
Memorial and museum
Since 1982, the memorial of the armored forces of the Israeli army has been located in the former police station : Yad LaShiryon . More than 200 tanks and other military vehicles are exhibited in the affiliated military museum, and a multimedia museum educational concept provides information about the historical context. An open-air theater is available for civil and military events.
Trappist Abbey
South of the tank museum houses the 1890 by Trappist monks founded Monastery (fr. Abbaye Notre Dame des Douleurs de Latroun; lat. Abbatia Beatae Mariae Virginis Perdolentis ). The order acquired the facilities of a hostel built by Alexander Howard in 1876/1877 from the merchants Batato in Jerusalem for the foundation of the monastery, which was later abandoned, and about 200 hectares of land. During the First World War , Ottoman troops expelled the monks and used the monastery (1908–1937 priory , since then an abbey ) as an army camp. Kemal Paşa stayed in the monastery twice during this time.
As part of the conquest of Palestine by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force , Prior Stanislas Roux came to Latrun as a lieutenant in 1917 and found the building largely looted. The monks returned in 1919 and from 1927 (foundation stone 1926) rebuilt the monastery according to plans by Paul Couvreur , prior from 1925 and abbot from 1937–1952. In 1933 the crypt of the monastery church was completed. The construction was completed in 1954 with the erection of the bell tower . The monastery produces high quality wines and olive oils , which can also be purchased in the monastery shop. The monastery garden houses a small collection of archaeological finds from the area.
Jesus Brotherhood Gnadenthal
Above the Trappist monastery, on the hill of the old crusader castle, lives a small community of the Jesus Brotherhood .
Templar castle ruins
Above the Trappist monastery are the remains of the Toron des Chevaliers (Latin: Toronum Militum) castle complex. It was built in the middle of the 12th century by the Castilian nobleman Rodrigo González de Lara and then handed over to the Knights Templar (see list of Templar castles ). The fortification served to secure the pilgrimage and military route from Jaffa to Jerusalem. Saladin had the castle razed in 1191 so that the Third Crusade under Richard the Lionheart could not permanently occupy this position in 1191/92. In 1229 the Templars got the castle back as part of the Peace of Jaffa and fortified the castle again before it finally fell into the hands of the Egyptian Mamluks in 1244 .
The current place name Latrun is derived from both the Arabic form of the castle name el-Toron and Castellum Boni Latronis (Castle of the Good Thief). The latter variant refers to the repentant thief who died next to Jesus on the cross (Luke 23, 40–43).
Today, next to a tower stump, some remains of the walls and vaults of the castle are very clearly visible. The entire area is criss-crossed by trenches and positions from the wars of 1948/1967.
International Center for the Study of Bird Migration
The International Center for the Study of Bird Migration is located in Latrun with a radar observation station. Since Israel is at the interface of three continents, it is a junction on the way of the migratory birds between their summer and winter quarters. Up to a billion birds pass through the region each year, which poses a significant risk to aviation. More than half of all aircraft accidents were caused by collisions with migratory birds.
At the suggestion of the Israeli ornithologist Yossi Leshem and with the support of the Israeli Air Force , the movement and distribution of the birds was observed and evaluated for a forecast. From 1983 the radar of Ben Gurion Airport was used for this. Since this radar could not record the altitude of the birds, a special radar for bird watching was later installed in Latrun, which also evaluates the altitude. Another bird watching radar is in the Negev.
In the meantime, the registration of migratory birds is well developed. Since the neighboring countries of Israel are also affected by bird migration, there is increasing cooperation and exchange of experience, initially with Turkey and Jordan . International cooperation also exists with Germany, in this context the migration of the Prinzesschen white stork was also observed from Latrun. There is also cooperation with Palestinian organizations such as the Palestine Wildlife Society . A project involving Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian schools was funded by the US government, but came to a standstill after the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ [1] Website of the memorial and museum (Hebrew)
- ↑ a b c d e Historique . latroun.net (French); accessed on April 30, 2016.
- ↑ "Latroun - 40" , OSCO Ordre de la stricte Cistercien Observance (French); accessed on April 30, 2016.
- ↑ Jesus Brotherhood Gnadenthal: Latrun / Israel. Retrieved August 14, 2011 .
- ^ Glenn Edward Lipskey (Ed.): Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris . In: The Chronicle of Alfonso the Emperor. (1972), Book I, §48, p. 78.
- ↑ a b c Maxime Goepp: Toron des Chevaliers, le , in: Forteresses d'Orient , 2014.
- ↑ newscientist.com