December 11 1917 – 26 Kislev 5678
General Edmund Allenby read out a text accepting the surrender of Jerusalem and declaring British martial law in the city from the steps of David’s Tower. Allenby, a devout Christian, carefully coordinated the character of his entry into Jerusalem with British prime minister David Lloyd George, who’d asked him to deliver Jerusalem to the embattled Allies as a Christmas present, in time for December 25. The Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s Forces entered Jerusalem on foot, like a simple pilgrim, in stark contrast to Kaiser Wilhelm’s entry on horseback (followed by his family in a horse-drawn carriage – for which a gap had had to be blasted in the wall surrounding the Old City) nineteen years earlier. The conquest of Jerusalem and with it the Holy Land marked the beginning of the turning of the tide against that same Kaiser Wilhelm’s German army, which would only be defeated finally almost a year later in November 1918.
The Turkish forces in Jerusalem had actually surrendered on December 9, after the British had won a series of fierce battles for the approaches to Jerusalem in November, and then succeeded in repulsing Ottoman counter-attacks and bringing in reinforcements to entrench their new line of defense around the city. The Ottoman army retreated after the capture of Solomon’s Pools near Bethlehem, leaving Jerusalem undefended. It was left to the mayor, waving a white flag of surrender supplied by Anna Stafford of the American Colony in Jerusalem, to hand over the city to the British.
The irony is that this Ottoman official was forced to surrender time after time – first to two sergeants, who refused to accept the governor’s letter relinquishing the city, as they lacked proper authority to do so, then to other army personnel until it was eventually accepted by Brigadier General C.F. Watson – and then again by his superior, Major General John Shea. Even then, he had to repeat the experience once again in an official capacity after General Allenby had time to make his way from Jaffa to Jerusalem to proclaim the beginning of martial law.
The Tower of David Museum of the History of Jerusalem Post card showing General Allenby entering Jerusalem through Jaffa Gate