The “Jerusalem Corridor”

The Jerusalem Corridor was an area between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv where some of the largest battles in the 1948 War of Independence took place. “Jerusalem Corridor” refers to the part of the corridor or road, that extended from Sha’ar HaGai near Beit Shemesh, all the way up to the western entrance of Jerusalem.
This road was a lifeline for the approximately 100,000 Jewish residents living in Jerusalem, since it was the only road that opened up access to Tel Aviv and central Israel. Strategic parts of the road were controlled by the Arabs who prevented food and other supplies from reaching Jerusalem. Jewish convoys carrying supplies that tried to break through the Corridor were often ambushed. (Today, there are several ways to get from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv. The road where the battles took place in the War of Independence is now being expanded into a major highway and tunnels.)

Also looming off the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road and of great strategic importance was the Latrun and “Castel” (see left). They were held by Jordanian troops and were the sites of the fiercest battles between the Jewish army and the Jordanians in the War for Independence. Its conquest by the Jewish forces was critical in breaking the Arab choke-hold on Jerusalem.

Many Holocaust survivors participated in these battles, as Ariel Sharon writes in his biography: “I watched them. Watched them strip, watched their white bodies. They tried to find fitting uniforms as their new commanders helped them get suited up. They did this in silence, as though they had made their peace with fate. Not one of them cried out: ‘Let us at least breathe the free air after the years of terrible suffering.’ It is as if they’d come to the conclusion that this is one final battle for the future of the Jewish people.”

Out of the approximately 6,000 Jewish casualties from the War of Independence (1% of the population), more than half fell fighting for Jerusalem.