Ammunition Hill

Every time I take the #34 bus I pass Ammunition Hill. Whenever I take the light rail I pass Ammunition Hill.  The other day, I realized it was more than a scheduled stop, the name of a neighborhood or a street.  Ammunition Hill is an historic location with a museum open to the public, and it’s in the neighborhood, so, I decided to visit last Friday. It seems that Ammunition Hill played a pivotal role the “Six Day War” as did Mt Scopus and the Hebrew University where I am living. 

Much like the Golan Heights (although visiting the heights is not generally recommended and there is no formal museum) the battle ground that is Ammunition Hill has been preserved as a living museum.  The bunkers and connecting communications tunnels have been preserved so that all can see the precarious yet advantageous location from which the battle was fought.  Standing on the top of the hill, the panorama is breathtaking and while you can no longer see Mt Scopus, it is possible to imagine the scenes that took place here not so long ago

For 12 shekels the museum offers an incredible 20 minute video that captures with photo, film, narration, audio clips and an interactive, computer assisted diorama, a trip back to the fight, complete with drawn battle lines and troop movements.  As the video plays. the battle rages before you, the troops move, the land is divided, redivided, captured and secured. The virtual tour lacks the emotion that comes with walking beside the tunnels, but it does good job capturing the scenes than my camera. 
http://www.g-h.org.il/en/tours/virtual

I've heard it said that the “Six Day War” is likely the most poorly named war in history.  The battle took six days, but the war continues. 

Like so much of history, if we forget it, if we ignore it, if we choose to blithely move on, it will repeat.   This is why we have museums like the one on Ammunition Hill.