Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Rabin led his former troops into Jerusalem today to celebrate a reunion of the old Harel Brigade, the Haganah force that battled its way into a besieged Jerusalem under Gen. Rabin’s command during Israel’s War for Independence in 1948.
Gen. Rabin, former Chief of Staff of Israel’s armed forces and now Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, flew in from Washington yesterday to attend the reunion which marked the 20th anniversary of the lifting of the Jerusalem siege. He and his men entered the city in jeeps and buses to the cheers of a festive crowd, a sharp contrast to the scene two decades ago when they arrived in tanks and armored cars to relieve a city that had been cut off and under enemy barrage for 100 days. Speaking at the reunion gathering. Minister of Information Israel Galili said the siege of Jerusalem in 1948 proved that Israel must have secure frontiers. Gen Rabin will return to Washington next week.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
