Barrel incident | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
![]() | ![]() | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
![]() ![]() ![]() | ![]() | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
UN MAC Headquarters taken (returned) | 1 oil barrel seized (returned) |
The barrel incident was a 1952 incident involving the UN HJK-I-MAC, Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It involved Israel allegedly smuggling weapons through Jordanian territory, violating the General Armistice Agreement by sending soldiers into no-man's land, and taking over the UN MAC headquarters with armed force. [1] [2] [3] [4]
The Mount Scopus area runs north and includes Mount of Olives, which overlooks the city of Jerusalem. After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Jordan had control of Mount Olives with exception of land containing the Hadassah Medical Center and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which were under administration by the United Nations who allowed Israel to maintain police guards in these areas under UNTSO supervision. [1]
Every two weeks, a convoy would cross from Jerusalem into Jordanian territory through Mandelbaum Gate to provide supplies and a change of guard to the Israeli police force.[ citation needed ]
On June 4, during a regular convoy check, a UN guard dropped a test rod into an oil drum, which struck a metal object in the center, and was unable to reach the bottom. Commandant Delseries, the French UN observer in charge of the Scopus convoy checks, ordered the barrel off the truck and sent for tools to open it. The Israeli truck driver quickly sped off back into Jerusalem and left the barrel behind in no-man's land.
Before tools to open the barrel could be acquired, Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Ramati violated the General Armistice Agreement by moving with Israeli soldiers into no-man's land, demanding the return of the barrel, and ordering his soldiers roll it back to Jerusalem themselves. Firearms of the observing Jordanians were audibly cocked to which UN Guards and Observers attempted to de-escalate the situation by placing their feet on the barrel and refusing to allow the Israeli soldiers to roll it. MAC Chairman Major General Bennett L. de Ridder managed to defuse the situation by offering to bring the barrel back to UN MAC Headquarters and to hold it until a decision was made by UNTSO Chief of Staff Lieutenant General William E. Riley. [1] [5] [6]
The barrel was taken back to UN MAC Headquarters in Jerusalem. General Riley, who was in New York City, granted permission for HJK-I-MAC to open the barrel on June 20 at 1230 Israel Standard Time (IST). On June 20 at 1200 IST, three Israeli officers, armed with pistols and supported by two Israeli soldiers, armed with Thompson submachine guns, stormed UN MAC Headquarters with the soldiers stationing themselves outside the door to the room containing the barrel. They claimed the right to do so as the headquarters were within Israeli territory. General de Ridder set up a guard of his own and communications watch, and the Israeli officers started taking all incoming calls. [1] [5] [7]
US Captain John Schofield went home to get his camera. A scene was set in which Commandant Delseries attempted to reach for the lock of the door leading to the barrel room to which the Israeli guards would block him, and Schofield would take a picture of it. That was repeated to ensure good lighting. Upon hearing of that, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett issued an aide-mémoire demanding the replacement of all UN Staff involved.
The Israelis ultimately placed another lock on the barrel room door and stole the key to the UN MAC Headquarters, which was locked at night. Elmo H. Hutchison called Chairman of ISMAC Colonel Samuel Taxis, the senior United States officer present, when the Israelis refused Hutchison's request to leave the door open one night. Taxis managed to convince the Israelis to leave the door open, but they still retained the key to the headquarters. [1]
When General Riley arrived he successfully demanded the withdrawal of the aide-mémoire for the photograph and condemned Israel both for crossing into no man's land and for taking over UN Headquarters. On July 10 at 0902 IST, the Israeli officers and soldiers were withdrawn from the building. Soon, General Riley arrived along with delegates from Israel and Jordan, and they crowded into the barrel room. To the surprise of the UN Staff, Riley did not order it opened but instead requested a dipping rod. The dipping rod was dropped into the barrel and did not go within six inches of the bottom, and when slanted towards the center, it struck an unknown object. That was repeated until General Riley determined that the barrel contained matter other than fuel oil, which violated manifest as an item not part of the convoy, and he ordered it returned to Israel. [1]
The Jordanians were incensed that Riley refused to open the barrel. He stated that the barrel was not part of the convoy since its contents were not part of the manifest and so General Riley essentially gave the Israelis a free pass to smuggle as they wished. [1] [6]
UN Headquarters was moved to Mandelbaum Gate, within no-man's land, to ensure the Israelis could not take it over in the future.[ citation needed ]
The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) is an organization founded on 29 May 1948 for peacekeeping in the Middle East. Established amidst the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, its primary task was initially to provide the military command structure to the peacekeeping forces in the Middle East to enable the peacekeepers to observe and maintain the ceasefire, and in assisting the parties to the Armistice Agreements in the supervision of the application and observance of the terms of those Agreements. The organization's structure and role has evolved over time as a result of the various conflicts in the region and at times UNTSO personnel have been used to rapidly deploy to other areas of the Middle East in support of other United Nations operations. The command structure of the UNTSO was maintained to cover the later peacekeeping organisations of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to which UNTSO continues to provide military observers.
The Qibya massacre occurred during Operation Shoshana, a reprisal operation that occurred in October 1953 when Israeli troops under Ariel Sharon attacked the village of Qibya in the West Bank, which was then under Jordan's control, and killed Palestinian civilians.
The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. They formally ended the hostilities of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and also demarcated the Green Line, which separated Arab-controlled territory from Israel until the latter's victory in the 1967 Arab–Israeli War.
The Hadassah convoy massacre took place on April 13, 1948, when a convoy, escorted by Haganah militia, bringing medical and military supplies and personnel to Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, was ambushed by Arab forces. Seventy-eight Jewish doctors, nurses, students, patients, faculty members and Haganah fighters, and one British soldier were killed in the attack, including twenty three women. Dozens of unidentified bodies, burned beyond recognition, were buried in a mass grave in the Sanhedria Cemetery.
Mount Scopus is a mountain in northeast Jerusalem.
Ammunition Hill was a fortified Jordanian military post in the northern part of Jordanian-ruled East Jerusalem and the western slope of Mount Scopus. It was the site of one of the fiercest battles of the Six-Day War. Ammunition Hill is now a national memorial site.
Hadassah Medical Center is an Israeli medical organization established in 1934 that operates two university hospitals in Jerusalem – one in Ein Karem and one in Mount Scopus –, as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Its declared mission is to extend a "hand to all, without regard for race, religion or ethnic origin."
The Mandelbaum Gate is a former checkpoint between the Israeli and Jordanian sectors of Jerusalem, just north of the western edge of the Old City along the Green Line. The first checkpoint for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan/Israel Mixed Armistice Commission at the Mandelbaum Gate, from the close of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War in 1949 until August 1952, was moved from the Israeli side of the Gate to the Demilitarised Zone after the "Barrel Incident". The second checkpoint existed until the 1967 Six-Day War. The Gate became a symbol of the divided status of the city.
Anwar Bey Nuseibeh Anwar Bey Nuseibeh (1913–1986) was a leading Palestinian who held several major posts in the Jordanian Government before Israel took control of East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the 1967 war. After the Six Day War he became one of the first Palestinians involved in contacts with Israel after it captured the Eastern part of the city and later encouraged his son, Sari Nusseibeh, to make contact with the Israelis.
The Mixed Armistice Commissions (MAC) is an organisation for monitoring the ceasefire along the lines set by the General Armistice Agreements. It was composed of United Nations Military Observers and was part of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization peacekeeping force in the Middle East. The MAC comprised on four sections to monitor each of the four truce agreements, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan/Israel MAC, the Israel/Syrian MAC, the Israel/Lebanon MAC and the Egypt/Israel MAC. The various MACs were located on the cease fire lines and, through close liaison with headquarters in Jerusalem, were charged with supervising the truce, investigating border incidents, and taking remedial action to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan/Israel Mixed Armistice Commission was the United Nations organisation of observers which dealt with complaints from Jordan and Israel to maintain the fragile cease fire along the demarcation line between Israel and Jordan. At the closing of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, on 3 April 1949, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan signed a truce with Israel called the 1949 Armistice Agreements. The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization posted Military Observers as part of the Mixed Armistice Commissions (MACs) to Observe the truce on the Cease fire line and to liaise with the Israeli and Jordanian local area commanders. While the 1948 war was concluded with the 1949 Armistice Agreements it has not marked the end of the Arab–Israeli conflict. The HKJ/IMAC was the organisation which monitored the Jordan/Israel truce agreement, the HJK/IMAC Headquarters was located in Jerusalem close to the Green Line and, through close liaison with the UNTSO headquarters in Government House, Jerusalem, was charged with supervising the truce, investigating border incidents, and taking remedial action to prevent the recurrence of such incidents along the Jordan/Israel Green Line.
The Israel–Syria Mixed Armistice Commission (ISMAC) was the United Nations commission for observing the armistice between Israel and Syria after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as part of the Mixed Armistice Commissions (MAC). The fourth and last truce agreement, the 1949 armistice agreement, was signed between Israel and Syria on 20 July 1949 on Hill 232 near Mahanayim, ending the formal conflict in the former Mandatory Palestine. The Israeli side was represented by Lieutenant Colonel Mordechai Maklef, Yehoshua Penman and Shabtai Rosenne, while the Syrian side was represented by Colonel Fawzi Selo, Lieutenant Colonel Mohamed Nasser and Captain Afif Sizri. While the armistice agreements with Syria concluded the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, they did not mark the end of the Arab–Israeli conflict.
The 1952 raid on Beit Jala was a part of the reprisal operations that were carried out by Israel in response to Arab fedayeen attacks from across the Green Line. It involved an Israeli incursion into Beit Jala, a town in the Jordanian-annexed West Bank, on 6 January 1952, after which three houses were rigged with explosives and subsequently blown up; the attack killed seven civilian residents. After the attack, the perpetrators left leaflets at the site that were written in Arabic and explained the nature of the killings as a "penalty" for the earlier rape and murder of an Israeli Jewish girl by Palestinian Arab infiltrators, who were supposedly locals of Beit Jala, in the neighbourhood of Bayit VeGan in Jerusalem.
The 1949–1956 Palestinian expulsions were a continuation of the 1948 expulsion and flight of Palestinian Arabs from Israeli-controlled territory that occurred after the signing of the ceasefire agreements. This period of the exodus was characterised predominantly by forced expulsion during the consolidation of the state of Israel and ever increasing tension along the ceasefire lines ultimately leading to the 1956 Suez Crisis.
The Ma'ale Akrabim massacre, known in English as the Scorpions Pass Massacre, was an attack on an Israeli passenger bus, carried out on 17 March 1954, in the middle of the day. Eleven passengers were shot dead by the attackers who ambushed and boarded the bus. One passenger died 32 years later of his injuries, in a state of paralysis and partial consciousness. Four passengers survived, two of whom had been injured by the gunmen.
Sheikh Jarrah is a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, two kilometres north of the Old City, on the road to Mount Scopus. It received its name from the 13th-century tomb of Hussam al-Din al-Jarrahi, a physician of Saladin, located within its vicinity. The modern neighborhood was founded in 1865 and gradually became a residential center of Jerusalem's Muslim elite, particularly the al-Husayni family. After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, it became under Jordanian-held East Jerusalem, bordering the no-man's land area with Israeli-held West Jerusalem until Israel occupied the neighborhood in the 1967 Six-Day War. Most of its present Palestinian population is said to come from refugees expelled from Jerusalem's Talbiya neighbourhood in 1948.
Shmuel HaNavi is a neighborhood in north-central Jerusalem. It is bordered by the Sanhedria Cemetery to the north, Maalot Dafna to the east, Arzei HaBira to the south, and the Bukharan Quarter to the west. It is named after Shmuel HaNavi Street, which runs along its western border and is the main road leading to the tomb of Samuel the prophet just outside Jerusalem's city limits.
City Line is the name given to a segment of the Green Line that divided the city of Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967. It was 7 km in length, and constituted a temporary boundary line in accordance with Israel's Armistice Agreement with Jordan, which divided the city between East Jerusalem which was part of the Kingdom of Jordan, and West Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel. The Old City bordered the City line on the east side, and thus had been part of the "Jordanian Jerusalem". On both sides of the City line fortifications and obstacles were deployed, and different buildings in the city along the line were used as military posts.
National Botanic Garden of Israel Hebrew: הגן הבוטני לצמחי ארץ ישראל ע"ש מונטג'יו למפורט), is a botanical garden located on the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Its herbarium and Institution Code is HUJ. It covers an area of 25 dunams and contains 950 varieties of plants, 40% of them wild.