One war, ten days, three stories: the Old City of Jerusalem, at the dawn of a new Middle East. For the Brits, it’s the | dG1fLXRsTDVrcXdvR00
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00:30Jerusalem, a vision of serenity, but the war goes on, and in between the battles, walls
00:41of hostility.
00:45Two peoples with a different story to tell, Palestinians and Israelis, each fortified
00:50in its own memories, each with its own images.
00:55How important are the photos to the survival of one story?
00:58How do they determine a way an event is remembered?
01:02Everyone's taking photos today.
01:04If there's no photo, it didn't happen.
01:11Sixty years ago, there were few to witness and take photos of the battle for Jerusalem.
01:17Five days after the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, the battle for the Jewish
01:21Quarter escalated.
01:24Inside the walls, the Israelis had the upper hand.
01:29Within the walls, the Israelis were fighting large Jordanian forces.
01:33The battle lasted ten days and nights, with heavy Jordanian artillery fire.
01:38The Israelis surrendered, and the old city passed into the hands of the Jordanians.
01:46In 1967, there was another battle, and today the old city is under Israeli rule.
01:55The only photographs of the battle, published in 1948, were by war photographer John Phillips.
02:02He documented the Israeli defeat in the old city, stage by stage, right up to the evacuation
02:07of 3,000 Jewish residents to the Israeli zone of Jerusalem.
02:13At the same time, tens of thousands of Palestinians living outside the walls became refugees.
02:22Each side with its losses, it's dead.
02:27Readers of the World Press saw John Phillips' photographs of Palestinians looting Jewish
02:31property.
02:34This is how Israelis still remember the battle of Jerusalem in 1948, the Jews turned refugees,
02:41the Palestinians looting their possessions.
02:46This photo of the little Jewish girl was seen all over the world.
02:51There were other little girls, and there must have been other photographs.
03:05No Jewish photographer could have shot the pictures I did.
03:08Being a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant was no help either.
03:12Conditions were such that anyone with a camera was considered a Jewish spy and promptly set
03:17upon.
03:23I managed to get the pictures only because I was in the uniform of the Arab Legion on
03:28the 14th of May, 1948, when I joined the Legion on the way to Jerusalem.
03:35A pink bromeliad bloomed in an old gasoline can on the window ledge.
03:48From behind it, two Arab irregulars fired away.
03:51A third jammed a fresh clip into his rifle.
03:55The Jews must have at least 50 synagogues, and every one is a fortress, one of them said.
04:03It must have been May the 19th that I became aware of the Arab Legion in full battle dress
04:08streaming into the old city.
04:11The Georgianians were highly trained and fully equipped.
04:15For ten days and nights, the battle raged.
04:21On May the 28th, the Israelis surrendered.