Be’ersheva Commemoration Service 97 years ago, on the morning of October 31, 1917, some 120,000 Australian, New Zealand and British troops participated in the Battle of Beersheba. Their victory marked a turning point in the World War I Palestine Campaign. It allowed Allied forces to outflank the Ottoman defensive line stretching from Gaza to Beersheba, opening the way for the capture of Gaza, Jerusalem, Nazareth and Tiberias. The taking of Beersheba was the first step in bringing an end to Ottoman rule in Palestine. It and subsequent battles of the Palestine Campaign are widely recognized as critical on the long road toward the establishment of Israel in 1948. The critical victory at Beersheba and those that followed came at a heavy price for both sides. 1241 Commonwealth soldiers, including 175 Australians, were buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Beersheba. On 31 October the Australian Embassy together with the City of Be’er Sheva commemorated, as it does each year, the Australian and New Zealand contribution. Despite the rain over three hundred people – including Australian, New Zealand, Turkish, German, British and Israeli diplomats and military attaches; Multinational Force Observers, UNTSO and Beersheba Municipality representatives, as well as members of Australian Zionist youth groups, an Australian delegation of Bridges for Peace and members of the Australian community in Israel gathered at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery. The municipality then held a service at the Turkish obelisk in Mustafa Kamel Ataturk Plaza and at the Park of the Australian Soldier, a Pratt Foundation project. The Australian Embassy’s Memorial Service at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery included a Catafalque Party made up of Australian and New Zealand soldiers from the Multinational Force Observers, stationed in Sinai, as well as readings of Psalm 121 by Rabbi Raymond Apple. Australian Ambassador, Dave Sharma spoke in great detail of the battle and stated that, “Most importantly, it (the charge on Be’er Sheva) helped frame the shape of the post-war settlement – which still reverberates across the Middle East even today. After Be’er Sheva, Allied troops went on to capture Jericho and Jerusalem, Damascus and Aleppo. The so-called Sykes-Picot settlement – the borders and states of the modern Middle East – is under strain elsewhere. But one element in particular of it endures. For it was on this very same day, 31 October 1917, that the British War Cabinet approved the text for what would become the Balfour Declaration, a declaration of sympathy for Zionist aspirations, setting off a chain of events that would eventually lead to the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948.” At the cemetery the Mayor of Be’er Sheva, Ruvik Danilovich, spoke of the next three years as being particularly crucial in creating a deeper awareness of the contribution of the Anzacs to his city and of his intentions, together with Australian government representatives and philanthropic organizations to establish a museum in their memory.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 09:12:44 +0000
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