Mandelbaum Gate

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Mandelbaum Gate is a former checkpoint between Israeli and Jordanian sectors of Jerusalem, just north of the western edge of the Old City along the Green Line. The first checkpoint for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan/Israel Mixed Armistice Commission at the Mandelbaum Gate from the close of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War in 1949 until August 1952 and was moved from the Israeli side of the Gate to the Demilitarised Zone after the "Barrel Incident"^[1] the second checkpoint existed until the 1967 Six-Day War.

The gate was named after the Jewish merchant whose house stood on the spot where the gate was built. Its location was determined by the entrance into the city of anglo-Jordanian Arab Legion following the withdrawal of British troops in May, 1948. The Jordanians pushed Jewish defenders west and out of the Sheikh Jarrah area.

The gate became a symbol of the divided status of the city, and to the Israelis of geographic isolation.

Tourists and United Nations personnel used the gate to pass through the concrete and barbed wire barrier between the sectors, but Jordanian officials allowed only one-way passage for non-official traffic. The Jordanians permitted a once-weekly supply convoy from the Israeli sector to access Jewish property on Mount Scopus. Technically under the control of the United Nations the original site of Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital but unfortunately the "Mount Scopus agreement" did not permit the institutions to reopen.

The last person to pass through the gate was the American journalist Flora Lewis shortly before the Six Day War of June, 1967. Jordanian forces joined the war on June 5, with a massive bombardment of the Israeli sector of the city.

Israeli forces captured the city within two days and soon tore down the Mandelbaum gate. Only a historical marker remains.

[edit] See also

• The Mandelbaum Gate, a movie (1965)
• Mandelbaum