The events of the Battle of Katamon took place in the neighborhood west of Jerusalem, which was at the heart of the Zionist plans to occupy the western part of the city, due to its strategic location. Palestinian and Arab resistance fighters participated in the battle, most notably the martyr Ibrahim Abu Dayyeh, who formed a group of 130 fighters, of whom in the end only 15 remained.
The neighborhood’s location and importance
The Qatamon neighborhood is located in the western part of Jerusalem. Its area is about 157 dunums (a dunum is equivalent to a thousand square metres). It dates back to the middle of the last decade of the 19th century. Before the Nakba, it included about 200 families from Jerusalem.
The location of the neighborhood is strategic, due to its presence on a plateau overlooking large areas of the city, as it is based on a hillock overlooking the neighborhoods of Al-Baqaa Al-Tahta and Al-Fawqa and the plains between them, and on the hillock is an old monastery known as the Qatamon Monastery, which made it the focus of the ambitions of Israeli plans, because whoever occupies it controls The western and southern sectors of the city.
The course of the battle
The Qatamon neighborhood was at the heart of the Zionist gangs’ plans to occupy western Jerusalem due to its location, and the Arab forces knew that its fall would mean their defeat in western Jerusalem.
The Zionist forces prepared for their attack on Qatamon with violent artillery shelling that lasted for weeks. On January 5, 1948, Haganah gangs blew up the building of the Semiramis Hotel in the neighborhood, and three days before that, they blew up 3 Arab homes, which prompted the neighborhood’s wealthy people to flee in order to protect their lives.
The people of the poor and middle classes took over the defense, in conjunction with a team of people from the neighboring neighborhoods and villages, and the Holy Defense Army, led by the Mujahid Ibrahim Abu Dayyeh, participated in the fighting.
The number of fighters in the neighborhood, before the hotel was blown up, was 46, and it decreased after the bombing to 18, all of them Palestinians. They were not equipped with sufficient weapons, nor did they have the money necessary to buy them.
In March 1948, Zionist gangs blew up a number of buildings in the neighborhood and cut off electricity. They also attacked most of the Arab consulates that were located there, and took control of all Arab means of transportation.
On April 22 of the same year, the Palestinian National Committee for Jerusalem ordered its local branches to deport women, children, and the elderly from the suburbs in preparation for the great battle.
Bahjat Abu Gharbiyeh, one of the leaders of the Holy Jihad Army, narrates in his memoirs that the attack by the “Palmach” gangs on Katamon began to escalate on April 27, 1948, and continued in successive waves to the neighborhood between April 27 and 29, as battles took place during those days. A severe attack in which 35 mujahideen were martyred, forcing the rest of the mujahideen to withdraw.
After that, Arab fighters came to the Qatamon neighborhood from other fronts, but they only stayed in the neighborhood for one night, due to the intensity of the fire and their ignorance of the nature of the area.
Between April 29 and May 1, 1948, battles took place specifically around a monastery located on the outskirts of Katamon called “Deir San Simon,” or Monastery of Saint Simeon, which the Palestinians had relinquished control of in order to preserve its sanctity, according to Abu Gharbiyeh. .
On the night of April 29, the gangs succeeded in occupying the monastery building. At that time, the fighters led by Abu Dayyeh – during the next three nights – continued the siege of the monastery and prevented more Palmach forces from advancing. However, this siege did not last long with the small number of fighters and the weak experience of the rescue services that arrived there, and with the advance of more forces. Zionist gangs to the Qatamon neighborhood command center.
In early May 1948, Zionist gangs attacked the Qatamon neighborhood in unprecedentedly large numbers, blowing up a number of its homes and killing many resistance men.
The sources indicate that the valor of the resistance men delayed the occupation of the neighborhood for a full month, despite the lack of equipment, and in the end only 15 fighters remained, “who defended their land with the defense of heroes and did not allow the enemy to pass except over their corpses,” as stated in Abu Gharbiyeh’s memoirs.
Abdullah Al-Tall, one of the participants in the battle, wrote in his memoirs titled “The Palestine Disaster,” saying, “To support the Arab fighters, I agreed with the commander of a company in the Arab Army in the El Alamein camp in Jerusalem, President Suleiman Masoud, to exploit the presence of Arab Army guards in the camp.” The Iraqi Consulate in Qatamon, increasing their number and sending 3 armored vehicles to protect the consulate on the one hand, and to strengthen the fighters’ defense of Qatamon on the other hand.”
Abdullah Al-Tall added, “We implemented the plan, and the armored vehicles were sent under my responsibility, and violent battles broke out in which these armored vehicles participated with the soldiers whom we dressed in overalls.”
According to Al-Tall, the British, who were considered allies of the Arabs, “felt that our forces were sharing with the militants, which delayed the Jews’ occupation of Katamon. Brigadier Johnson issued an order, which a British officer conveyed to me, which said: ‘If you do not withdraw your armored vehicles and soldiers from Katamon immediately, I will be forced to strike the armored vehicles.’ And the consulate with heavy bombs.”
He continues, “I realized then that this British commander had sold Qatamon to the Jews, as he followed his order to close the roads leading to Qatamon, which prevented our soldiers from obtaining ammunition and prevented the leader of the fighters, Abu Dayyeh, from entering Qatamon when he was returning from Rawda, and then the fighters became… Without a leader.”
Looting property
The occupation of Qatamon was accompanied by widespread looting of Arab homes in the neighborhood, and many Palestinians who were displaced from west Jerusalem lost all of their property. As UN mediator Count Falke Bernadotte wrote, “While those who fled in the early days of the conflict were able to take some of their valuables and personal possessions with them, many who stayed behind were deprived of everything except the clothes they were wearing, and in addition to their homes, many of which were destroyed, they lost their furniture and belongings.” And even their work kit.”
An eyewitness account of the looting of the neighborhood said: “I remember the looting of Katamon very well. I was a first-aid nurse in Beit Hevra Etzion, a military convalescent center in Katamon. The center was located in two large Arab buildings. One night I went out with one of the soldiers and we walked around the neighborhood. I was amazed.” The beauty of the houses, I entered one of them, it was beautiful, it had a piano, carpets and wonderful chandeliers.”
She added, “At that time, my family was living in Rehavia on a street located on the road from Katamon to the other Jewish neighborhoods. People could be seen day after day passing by carrying looted items. I would look through the window of our apartment, and see dozens of people passing by with their stolen loads.” This was related to the visit I made with the soldier to the house in Qatamon because I knew what treasures were in those houses. I saw them passing day after day, but also civilians who were looting like crazy and even carrying away food tables in broad daylight “Everyone can see them.”
The end of the battle
On May 2, the neighborhood became under the control of Zionist gangs, and following the occupation of the neighborhood, a doctor affiliated with the International Committee of the Red Cross discovered the bodies of a number of Arab martyrs in one of the caves. According to the doctor, “There were a group of bodies stacked on top of each other, including the bodies of soldiers, women, and even the carcass of a mule.”
When the occupation authorities took over the neighborhood, they rented its houses to settlers at low prices, and later the houses became the property of those settlers.
Abdullah Al-Tall’s letter to the king
On May 1, 1948, Abdullah Al-Tall telegraphed a message to King Abdullah I in which he said, “The British commander of the area prevented me from protecting the Iraqi consulate and providing help and assistance to our soldiers in that area, and threatened to use his artillery against us if I did not withdraw the armored vehicles and soldiers and evacuate the area. I ask for mercy.” Your Majesty intervened to allow us to defend ourselves, and if Katamon falls, Jerusalem will fall into the hands of the Jews.”
When the telegram reached Amman, a call took place between the king and the High Commissioner in Jerusalem, which concluded that the king had ordered the implementation of the orders of the British area commander, given that all Arab Army units in Palestine were there by order of the British and under their full supervision.
Abdullah Al-Tall learned from Amman that the High Commissioner had promised to impose a truce in the battle area, which meant that Qatamon had become under the control of the Jews. Al-Tall wrote, “We made every effort while withdrawing the Jordanian forces to protect the backs of the fighters when they withdrew with their equipment and weapons. Commander Abu Dayyeh resorted to my leadership in Al-Nahda to reorganize his forces and join a new front, after the British conspired with the Jews to lose Qatamon.”