The myth turned out to be true • Experts estimate that the tunnel was excavated by the city's Arabs in 1948 • "They could enter the Jewish Quarter from there and destroy them all"

• The tunnel that was exposed in Safed

  Photo: 

  Eyal Margolin / Ginny

Work that has begun in recent weeks to develop tourism and upgrade the entrance to the Old City of Safed, has led to the exposure of a tunnel that experts estimate with high certainty excavated by Safed Arabs during the War of Independence. 

This was with the aim of blowing up the Eshtam commercial center, which was the most important and central weapons depot and outpost that protected the entrance to the city's Jewish quarter, whose residents were in a severe minority compared to the Arab residents who lived in Safed's Muslim quarter. 

"This is the only offensive tunnel known since the War of Independence (apart from the sewers used by the defense forces in Jerusalem), which is also the first offensive tunnel in the history of the State of Israel at this time," said Adv. Dr. Nissan Sharifi, who is researching the history of Safed. 

A few years after the War of Independence, the area near the Eshtam building was prepared for a bus parking lot for tourists who came to visit the Old City. The period of the Golden Age of Safed, from the 19th century, a unique cistern from the Ottoman period and as mentioned the tunnel that was closed again at the end of the war and later also buried under the bus parking lot.With its rediscovery, officials from the Antiquities Authority and many Safed residents feared the municipality would cover The tunnel was stopped a few meters from the Ashtam building, in order to continue promoting the tourism development work at the site.

"If the Arabs had succeeded in blowing up the Ashtam building, it would have been our end. "The tunnel was the most serious strategic threat to this outpost that was most important to our defense, and if it fell then from there they would enter the Jewish Quarter and exterminate all the Jews," said Benjamin Geiger, 96, who was commander of Safed during the War of Independence. Her and I am very afraid they will cover her again. It must be preserved for future generations. "

Offensive tunnel

The plots of the tunnel, which later became a myth among the residents of Safed, were documented in books published by the commanders of the Safed defenders during the War of Independence, including Geiger himself. "One night, as I was patrolling between the positions, I was urgently called to the center position. The regular position man, Musa Srur, exclaimed to me with great excitement: Benjamin, come listen, put your ear by the window, I hear noise from the Arab market," wrote Benjamin Geiger who was one One of the senior commanders of the Safed defenders, in his memoir "One of the Elders of Safed". "I listened carefully, the area was dark and the shots were heard from all sides and continued all the time. Regardless of the shots, I also heard a kind of noise similar to the sound of digging in a hoe, as if it had come from a distance." Geiger informed the commander of the defense in the city, Meir Meiber, and it sent him to try and neutralize what is suspected to be an offensive tunnel.

When Geiger came out the sources of noise were silenced and only after Safed was liberated did the fighters find the offensive tunnel dug by the Arabs. "Later we will know that the heavy torrential rains that fell that winter collapsed the ground over part of the tunnel," wrote Meir Meiber, the commander of the Safed defense during the War of Independence, in his book "In the Shadow of the Citadel." "The Arabs thought we had discovered it and disrupted it and stopped digging it. After the city was liberated, we discovered the tunnel with its collapsed ceiling about ten meters away from the wall of the Eshtam building," he wrote. 

After public pressure, including an appeal by Israel Today, the municipality decided to freeze. Tourism development works on site. 

The Safed Municipality stated: "The municipality considers the development of tourism in the city important, promotes projects together with the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Housing, the Ministry of Housing and all relevant bodies. Upon learning of the find, Mayor Shuki Ohana ordered a professional examination of its significance through archaeologists and at the same time promoted a plan to preserve it and turn it into another tourist attraction in the Galilee capital. From the moment of discovery, the municipality has hired the services of architects, consultants and archaeologists to carry out an architectural plan, mapping and in-depth and thorough research. We will publish the findings when they are received. "

Prof. Yinon Shevatiel, a cave researcher and senior lecturer at the Safed Academic College, believes that "the tunnel research is still in its infancy and everything must be done to preserve the site.