Stand for Israel

David

Since moving to Israel seven years ago, I have met many older Israelis who have generously shared their amazing stories of what it was like to live here in the early years of the Jewish state. All were witnesses to a chapter in history that must not be forgotten.

One of these people is a man named David, who I met a number of years ago in downtown Jerusalem. David was born to two Iraqi immigrants and grew up in a neighborhood adjacent to Jerusalem’s Old City, which was then under Jordanian rule.

The Jerusalem David grew up in was much different than modern Jerusalem. Back then, Jews could not enter the Old City to pray at the Western Wall, the streets were not bustling with tourists, and Jerusalem’s Jewish residents lived in constant fear of being the targets of Arab aggression.

David remembers what it was like when Jordan controlled the eastern parts of the city. “The sounds of war were all around us,” he told me. “When we heard gunfire we hid under our beds, and when we hear rounds of mortars we ran to the bomb shelter.”

David proudly recalled that his father served in an IDF combat unit which took part in numerous campaigns to protect the fledgling Jewish state. During the 1967 Six Day War, David’s father was sent to defend Israel’s northern border where his unit battled against the Syrian army. David, his mom, and two younger siblings took refuge in a bomb shelter located less than 100 yards from the Old City walls. They heard “load booms and automatic machine-gun-fire” as Israeli troops stormed the Old City and fought victoriously against the Jordanians.  

David described the immense joy they felt when they heard that Jewish forces had regained control over the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, Judaism’s most sacred site. “Our ears were glued to the radio as the broadcaster wept into the microphone, ‘Our soldiers have made it to the Temple Mount.’”

In the six years that followed, David grew from a 13-year-old boy…