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"Generations did not win": the rare visit to the Crusader fortress that was forbidden to travelers

Atlit Fortress, home of Squadron 13, has been defined as a closed military area since the establishment of the state.

During the week, members of the Hof HaCarmel Council plenum visit it for the first time, as part of the cooperation that is forged between the flotilla and the community.

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• fortress

• Atlit

Yoav Itiel

Friday, 04 September 2020, 21:31

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Photo: Yoav Itiel, Walla! NEWS, Edited by Amit Simcha

The entrance to Atlit Fortress, which is located within the military base located there, has not been free to the public for about 70 years, from the beginning of the country's days.

Last week, however, he was paid a rare visit by members of the Hof Hacarmel Council plenum, in whose area the fortress is located.

Atlit Fortress is home to Squadron 13, the IDF Naval Commando Unit, which reports directly to the Navy Commander. Over the years, the IDF has allowed entry to such and such visitors, including members of archeological expeditions who have even carried out excavations at the site, but in general, residents and even elected officials can not enter it.

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The home of Squadron 13. Members of the Hof Hacarmel Council visiting a fortress in Atlit

Atlit Fortress was built in 1218, and was the seat of the last Crusaders who lived in Israel, before abandoning their kingdom and sailing overseas.

It is one of the largest Crusader fortresses in the area.

In the centuries since its abandonment, parts of the building were eroded and destroyed, partly as a result of earthquakes.

Additional damage was caused by the secondary use of the fortress stones in Ottoman construction plants in Acre and Haifa - a process that lasted until the end of the 19th century.

Beginning in the 1950s, the fortress served as part of the naval commando base.

Until the site's gates are opened to the public, there is still a long way to go, if at all.

However, now, as part of a growing collaboration between the flotilla and the regional council, council members and headquarters, Col. D., met inside the base. During the visit, council members toured some of the base complexes and the memorial room and reached the fortress itself, where the Antiquities Authority performs various works. These days, too. "This is a day that symbolizes a change in our discourse on military-community-society relations," the head of the council, Asif Isaac, welcomed the meeting.

The joint journey

Former Navy and Navy Commander Maj. Gen. (Res.) Ram Rotberg, himself a resident of Hof Hacarmel, is leading the cooperation with the council.

Among other things, joint projects are being forged in the fields of education and youth, society and community, heritage and commemoration and more.

One of the topics on the agenda concerns educational activities for youth in cooperation with the "Bat Association" of the unit's graduates.

This week, with the start of the school year, there was a joint field trip for the 13th Squadron fighters and twelfth grade students of the Regional Council. , Right at the beginning of the year, a youth leadership program will soon begin, which will also include preparation for the IDF and a year of service, lectures, workshops, field series around the country and more.

According to the plans, the Hof Hacarmel Regional Council will allocate land near the flotilla base, and the hangar structure left by the British army and designated for preservation will be restored at a cost of more than NIS 20 million from the association's funds, and will serve as a flotilla museum and heritage center.

In addition, a dedicated division for the development of a center for leadership and education will be established, in close cooperation with the divisions of the Hof Hacarmel Regional Council, which will serve, among other things, the youth in the council, and will also be open to youth from all over the country.

The project is also partnered with the director of the Bat Association, Rani Gil, and Rotberg emphasizes that the association will lead the project in the spirit of the fleet, while doing public social work for the residents of the council and for civic leadership and better society.

Former Navy Commander with the head of the Hof Hacarmel Council with the fighters and students on a journey to the flotilla base

"As someone who knows the flotilla and its people well, and of course as a resident of the council whose home is Carmel Beach, I am happy and excited about the opportunity that lies in strengthening the connection and connection between the unit and the council," Rotberg said.

"I have no doubt that all parties will not only benefit from this connection, but that all of us - members of the unit, the council and the community - will become better citizens of the State of Israel."

Council Chairman Isaac explains that the visit follows a year of contact that was being built with the 13th Squadron as more and more joint projects for the two bodies came to fruition.

"I personally see great importance in the fact that the fleet, as a military unit, will open up to the community in which it is located, get to know it and cooperate with it - and vice versa," Isaac told Walla!

NEWS, "This is exactly the practical meaning of 'a people builds an army builds a people'".

Another person who knows the fort well is a resident of Moshav Kerem from the nearby Maharal: a Knesset member, head of the Shin Bet and the commander of the navy and the former cruiser himself, Ami Ayalon.

He also welcomes the development.

"This is one of the most important Crusader sites in the country," he said.

"This is the last point to which they finally drained before leaving the Land of Israel. Even when I was commander of the navy and tried to promote the opening of the fortress, I thought it was a national and global historical asset. The State of Israel was not mature in the past, and today such a move is much more open. "Of course preparations, in order to allow the cruiser to carry out its activities, which are at least discreet, and at the same time to release the entire north of the bay and the fortress area itself to the general public."

"Sees great importance in the flotilla being opened to the community."

The warriors and students on a journey to the flotilla base

Ayalon added that "there is also a need for investments, perhaps even private ones, for the reconstruction of the crumbling fortress. These are things that the State of Israel through the Israel Antiquities Authority knew and knows how to do in Acre and Caesarea and there is no reason not to do so in Atlit." On what was hidden there from the public he said: "It is an amazing beach, the old Phoenician port north of the fortress is one of the most naturally protected beaches along the shores of Israel, a bay that protects from southwest winds bringing the worst storms in Israel's winter. "An amazing site. Every visit to the fortress itself is an experience, it is one of the most beautiful places in the country. There are much larger halls there than in Caesarea. Some are built and some are underground."

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