Tel Hai, 1920-2020: A new look at overlooked perspectives

Abstract

On March 1, 1920, a brief battle broke out in a settlement in northern Palestine, Tel Hai, which might have sunk into oblivion, like many other shooting incidents that have occurred since then. However, the Tel Hai event was soon to become a transformative affair in the culture and memory of the Yishuv and the Zionist movement alike. The death of eight settler-defenders, young men and women, in that battle and during the days leading up to it – among them Joseph Trumpeldor, who was well known for his military past and a prominent public figure in the Yishuv and the Zionist movement – came as a shock to the Yishuv in Eretz Israel. The Tel Hai event became a symbol, a myth, and a paradigmatic text in the new Hebrew culture, most notably during the Yishuv period and in the early years of the state. The setting of an annual memorial day for Tel Hai on Adar 11 (the Hebrew date of the historical battle), the creation of an impressive memorial site near Tel Hai, with the Roaring Lion monument at its center, and the public ceremonies commemorating the fallen, especially of Joseph Trumpeldor, became a cornerstone of the new national memory culture. Trumpeldor’s last words, “It is good to die for our country,” emerged as an important component in the commemoration of the event and as a patriotic and educational imperative, frequently cited in Hebrew culture. And yet, over the years the Tel Hai affair has also become a frequent subject of public critique and political controversies. The different ways in which the Tel Hai myth has been interpreted have affected its status within Israeli culture. The Tel Hai affair became a key event in the history of the Zionist Yishuv by virtue of its timing. As four hundred years of Ottoman hegemony in the Middle East had come to an end and the major colonial powers were in the process of negotiating its fate, the region suffered from a lack of stability and political unrest. The Zionist movement was at a turning point too; its followers responded enthusiastically to the Balfour Declaration, yet harbored lingering fear that their expectations might be shattered. The Tel Hai incident occurred at a time of transition and a shifting reality in Palestine-Eretz-Israel, in the wake of World War I and before the exact contours of the country’s northern border were agreed upon by Britain and France. National awakening among the Palestinian Arabs led to a growing, and at times violent, opposition to the development of the Yishuv. British occupation forces were still