Castel (קסטל‎, القسطل‎)

The hill of Maoz rising above Highway 1 as it nears Jerusalem has become a symbol of the struggle to break through to the city from the coastal plain during the War of Independence. Castel has been a strategic lookout on that route since ancient times, being the highest point in the area (as can be seen from the 360-degree panoramic shot above). Some identify it with Mount Efron, on the border of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which is mentioned geographically in Joshua 15:9 as being between Nephtoah, which is modern Lifta, and "Baalah, which is Kirjath-jearim," which is Tel Kiryat Yearim, also known as Deir el-Azar, near Abu Ghosh.

The name, Castel, comes from the Latin, castellum (fortress), and remains from the Roman period have indeed been found at the site. In those days, the road from Emmaus in the Ayalon Valley to Jerusalem also passed by Castel. In the 12th century, the Crusaders built a fortress on the hill, which they called Castellum Belvoir (Beautiful View fortress). The fortress was part of a chain of fortifications constructed in the Jerusalem hills. It is listed among the castles destroyed by Sultan al-Adil I around 1192 CE. The fortress is mentioned in a letter from Eraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, dated September 1187, in which he describes the slaughter of Christians "by the sword of Mafumetus the Unbeliever and his evil worshipper Saladin," and the Arab conquest of the town, which was renamed al-Qastal (القسطل‎). Little trace remains today of the fortress, upon which the Mukhtar's House was built in the centre of the small Arab village.

In 1863, Victor Guérin found modern buildings on ancient ruins at al-Qastal, and noted that the village belonged to the Abu Ghosh clan. An Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that al-Qastal had a population of ten men living in five houses. By 1896 the population had risen to 39 persons, and by the War of Independence in 1948 there were around 90 Muslims living there.

On 29 November 1947, the Partition Plan for the Land of Israel was passed by the General Assembly of the United Nations, but was immediately rejected by the Arabs. The ensuing War of Independence was initially a civilian war in which the Arabs focused on cutting off the roads to the Jewish settlements, and the Jews tried to break through the siege with convoys of trucks and reinforced buses, known as "sandwiches".

Al-Qastal in 1948, before Operation Nachshon [Credit: Palmach archive Harel 4th Battalion, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

By March 1948 1,200 Jews had been killed, half of them civilians. The Jews understood that they had to change their strategy and, on 3 April 1948, a Jewish force embarked on the first attack of Operation Nahshon. A divisional force of 1,500 soldiers captured territories on the road to Jerusalem, and the battle of the Castel belongs to this campaign, which eventually broke the siege of Jerusalem.

The Castel remained in Arab hands until 3 April 1948, when a Palmach force under the command of Eliyahu Sela ("Raanana") set out from Kiryat Anavim and captured the village almost without resistance. After its capture the village was handed over to the soldiers of the Moriah battalion, but hundreds of Arabs maintained a never-ending attack on the Castel. At dawn on 8 April, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, commander of the Arab front, approached but was spotted by a guard who killed him, without knowing who he was. At 10 am, the Arabs launched a wide-scale attack against the exhausted soldiers of the Moriah battalion; at noon, reinforcements set out from Kiryat Anavim under the command of Nahum Arieli, but when they arrived the Castel had already been taken back by the Arabs, and they could only organize the retreat. Shimon Alfasi, Arieli's second-in-command, gave the famous order: "The commanders will remain to cover the retreat of the privates". All the Palmach fighters who remained to cover the retreat of their comrades, and all the reinforcements who came to the hill, were killed. Of those who retreated, only four were left alive.

The following day, a Palmach force led by Sela went up to the Castel and found it empty of Arab soldiers, most of whom were attending the funeral of their revered commander. The Castel remained in the hands of the Jewish soldiers.

Palestinian irregulars, under the command of Abd al-Qadir al-Husseini, moving to counter-attack the Haganah occupiers of Castel, on the night of 7-8 April 1948 [Credit: Walid Khalidi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

The Castel was the first Arab village captured in the War of Independence. In the battles for the Castel, eighteen members of the Palmah and 31 Hish (Field Corps) soldiers were killed. Dozens were wounded. Capture of the hill ensured control of the eastern part of the road to Jerusalem, and also symbolized a change in strategy in the struggle of the Jewish settlement from attempts to break through by means of convoys to proactive attack and capture of territory in order to establish control of the road to Jerusalem.

Even today the strategic importance of Castel is obvious, as the views above show. Left: looking north-east towards Mevaseret Zion; right: Maoz through the slit of a bunker

Today Castel is a small national park on the edge of Jerusalem, overlooking Mevaseret Zion and Maoz. It was declared as such in 1980, commemorating the battle over the road to Jerusalem, besieged during the War of Independence It also serves as a memorial to the soldiers of the Har'el Brigade and the Moria battalion of the Etsyoni Brigade. In an ancient well beneath the Mukhtar's house and the ruins of the fortress a film is screened for visitors, depicting the history of the Castel.

Castel today: atop the ruins of the Crusader fortress sits the village Mukhtar's house of the former Arab village of al-Qastal

On the western and northern slopes of the Castel are the remains of Mediterranean woodland, associated with the Jerusalem hills, including a few specimens of Palestine oak, Quercus calliprinos, known as the common oak in Hebrew (אלון מצוי); medicinal styrax, Styrax officinalis (לבנה רפואי); Mediterranean Buckthorn, Rhamnus lycioides (אשחר ארצישראלי), carob, Ceratonia siliqua (חרוב), and Mt Atlas mastic tree,also known as the Persian turpentine tree, Pistacia atlantica (אלה אטלנטית). Associated with the abandoned Arab settlements are sumac bushes, Rhus coriaria (אוג הבורסקאים), whose flowers are a component of the za'atar seasoning. In winter and spring, many flowers can be seen.