Here is what I found on Google
B Richler
http://www.sixdaywar.co.uk/news_articles-three-soldiers.htm

The Paratroopers...
Zion Karasenti, 64, now a director and choreographer, living in 
Afula: "At Ammunition Hill, all we could see was a hill surrounded by 
trenches and barbed wire. When we started to move, they threw 
everything they had at us. We got through one fence and found more 
wire. I threw myself on it and acted as a bridge for everyone else. I 
felt no pain. We got into the trenches, which were shallow and 
narrow. When someone was injured we passed them down the line over 
our bodies. The Jordanians couldn't get away, but they kept on 
fighting to the last man.

I was the first paratrooper to get to the Wailing Wall. I didn't know 
where I was, but I saw a female Israeli soldier, so I asked 'Where am 
I?' and she said: 'The Wailing Wall.' She gave me a postcard and told 
me to write to my parents before she disappeared. It might have been 
a dream, but then many years later I met the woman. She had been in 
the postal corps.

As more soldiers arrived, a photographer told us to stand like this 
and look in this direction. I just did it - I didn't even think about it.

When I think of all the soldiers that died to take Jerusalem, I 
wonder if they would have thought it was worth it. I think they would."

Yitzak Yifat, 64, now an obstetrics and gynaecology surgeon: "I 
developed toothache when we arrived in Jerusalem and went into battle 
with my mouth still numb from the local anaesthetic. It was 
face-to-face fighting. I fought like a tiger. My friend was shot in 
the backside and he was about to be shot again by a Jordanian. I shot 
him. Another Jordanian saw I was out of bullets and he charged at me 
with a bayonet. I don't know how I did it, but I took his gun and 
shot him with it. It was brutal, and a sad victory. I lost many 
friends. After the fighting we built a memorial to our friends - and 
one to the Jordanians, in honour of their bravery."

Haim Oshri, 63, emigrated from Yemen to Israel in 1949: "The battle 
for Ammunition Hill was the worst moment of the war. There wasn't a 
plan - we were just told to attack. The Jordanians were brave 
soldiers. Now it makes me angry to think of all the unnecessary 
casualties. If we had taken more time to plan, there would have been 
far fewer casualties.
As an Orthodox Jew it was special for me to be involved in the fight 
for Jerusalem. It doesn't matter if you're from Poland or Yemen, 
Jerusalem is our common bond. Every day we pray three times to 
Jerusalem, and I could never have imagined the magic of seeing the 
Kotel [Western Wall] for the first time."

The photographer...


Viennese born, David Rubinger had served with the British Army in the 
Second World War, emigrating to Palestine in 1939. By 1967 he was 
working for Life magazine, covering Israel's invasion of the Sinai. 
When he realised Israel planned to attack Jerusalem he rushed back, 
arriving at the Western Wall in time to take the first photos of 
Israeli soldiers at Judaism's holiest site.

"Things began to heat up in May 1967 and I went to join the Israeli 
forces in the Negev. A few days before war broke out everything 
seemed to go quiet. I had dinner in Tel Aviv with a colleague, Paul 
Schutzer from Life magazine. We bet a bottle of champagne on who 
would get the first cover photograph. The war broke out on the Monday 
and Paul was killed the same day.

I was with the Israeli forces that went into the Sinai. Just after 
the battle for El Arish, I overheard radio messages that something 
was going to happen in Jerusalem. A helicopter was taking away the 
wounded so I squeezed on. I didn't know where it was going, but it 
landed in Beersheva, where I'd parked my car.

I was exhausted. I never trust anyone to drive my car, but I picked 
up a soldier who was hitchhiking and got him to drive while I slept. 
We arrived at 6am in Jerusalem and I went straight to see my family. 
I found out that Jerusalem had been taken and I headed for the Old 
City.I didn't have any great feeling for Jerusalem, I just wanted to 
be the first with the photographs. There was still some sniping going 
on but the fighting was over. When I got there, it was very 
emotional. Everyone around me was crying."

When I developed the film, I didn't think much of the picture
"I think there was such euphoria because in the weeks before the war 
there was a sense of doom. The national stadium was prepared for 
40,000 graves and even if we thought we might win, it would be a 
costly victory. The humour before the war was very dark. 'Would the 
last person to leave please turn out the lights.'

We went from being doomed to having an empire. It was like a 
condemned man with the noose around his neck suddenly being told that 
not only was he going to live he was going to be the king. The nation 
went a little nuts. For the religious, the victory had to be 
God-given and that is how the whole Jewish messianic and settler 
movement was born.

I lay down to take the picture of the paratroopers because there was 
barely three metres between the Wailing Wall and the houses next to 
it. When I developed the film, I didn't think much of the picture. I 
gave it to the army. They passed it on to the government press office 
which then distributed it to everyone for virtually nothing. I still 
don't think it's a great picture, but often iconic pictures are 
created by the media and what people read into them."

[full article]




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