Once upon a time in Jerusalem,
And this time – Tzahal Square, 1940.
Tzahal Square is located at Jaffa and Shlomo the King Streets near the Jaffa Gate and the New Gate.
The square developed as part of the process of leaving the walls of the Old City in the middle of the 19th century during the Ottoman rule in Israel, and was a meeting place for the roads that led to Jerusalem –
The Jaffa Road (present-day Jaffa Street), the Hebron Road, the transportation axis to Jericho, the road to Nablus, and the Gaza Road, because in the end, all roads lead to Jerusalem.
At the same time as leaving the walls, the European Christian powers also began to build churches and monasteries around the old city’s walls along parts of the city walls, and the traffic of donkey carts and pedestrians flowed along the traffic axes.
Later, the Ottoman government established the post office next to the square and renamed it the Post Office Square.
It is likely that the mail in the Ottoman period arrived faster than today’s Israel mail.
With the end of the period of Turkish rule and the occupation of the country by the British under the leadership of General Edmund Allenby, the British erected the clock tower in the square in 1924, which replaced the Ottoman clock tower that was built and dismantled at the nearby Jaffa Gate.
The name of the square was changed to Allenby Square, and another foreign conqueror left his mark on the city.
In 1930, the new Jerusalem City Hall was built near the square, and the British Barclays Bank branch was located on its southern front facing the square.
It’s hard to believe but 90 years ago you could go to the bank branch in Jerusalem, approach a stern English clerk, and get an account statement in a heavy English accent with a cup of hot afternoon tea in the middle of the hot August of the Levant.
In 1934, the demolition of the new clock tower in Allenby Square began on the grounds that it was interfering with traffic in the square.
Small hotels and cheap hostels were built near the square for pilgrims who arrived in the Holy Land.
With the end of the British mandate in Israel and the outbreak of the War of Independence, the square became the border point between the new city to the west and the old city to the east and the new border line crossed the square along its length.
Mines were scattered in the square and a rounded concrete wall was erected to protect the Jewish population from Jordanian snipers who hid behind the slits in the walls of the old city.
The town hall remained intact and on the roof of the building and on other buildings in the area, IDF posts were established for observation and protection of the borderline.
The municipal employees became reluctant heroes while working in a building on the borderline and went out for a coffee break under the bullets whistling from the Jordanian side.
Because who would complain about an endless delay in getting a building permit in front of an official under fire?
Those who visit the area today can still see the bullet marks on the walls.
56 years ago the city was united in the Six Day War.
The name of the square was changed for the last time and forever to the Tzahal Square.
The concrete protective wall was dismantled, the many buildings that were erected on the Jordanian side along the walls of the old city were destroyed, and are now used as a promenade connecting the square to the Jaffa Gate, and the walls of the old city were renovated.
The square returned to being a main intersection of traffic axes and the connection point between the old city and the new city.
In 2005, a tunnel was dug under the square that connects traffic from the Nablus Gate to the Jaffa Gate.
The square was renovated and given a new look under the direction of architect Moshe Safdia who formed the infrastructure for the light rail axis that began operating there in 2011.
This is our Jerusalem.
Today the light rail passes through a square that no longer has a clock tower, no mines or Jordanian snipers, no donkey carts, and no stern British bank clerks with a heavy British accent.
Only the corks remain.
Shabbat Shalom to all, far and near, from Jerusalem.
