by Haggai Huberman, State of Israel historian, translated by Hillel Fendel.
Taking quick advantage of the overthrow of Syrian dictator Assad two weeks ago, Israeli military forces captured what some refer to as the Syrian Hermon, the highest of three very strategic peaks in the Hermon range. Israel is currently in the midst of a rushed and complex logistical operation to build army camps on the summit before the first snowstorm hits. The plan is to remain there until at least the end of the winter, if not for the foreseeable future. State of Israel historian Haggai Huberman, providing a historic overview, explains that the time has come to decide how to refer to this historic and important mountain – but certainly not as "the Syrian Hermon."
On June 11, 1967, a few days into the Six Day War, the headline of
the HaTzofeh newspaper blared out: "Syrian Heights in the Hands of
IDF Forces." The paper, and others, apparently found it hard to break the
Israeli habit of the previous 19 years, since Israel's War of Independence, of
referring to the area by the name of the ruling entity.
But within a very short time, the original name – the Golan
Heights – made its way back into our lexicon. On June 12, the left-wing Al
HaMishmar featured an article that referred to the area as the Golan
Heights, noting that it had been called "the Syrian Heights."
Just a few days later, another story referred to the Golan
Heights, and by 1981, when Israel extended its sovereignty over the area, the
name of the legislation was "the Golan Law" – certainly not "the
Syrian Heights law."
I was reminded of this nomenclature change this week with the
reports of our capture of the Syrian Hermon (pronounced
Hĕrmone). Many people, quietly but
insistently, are demanding that the Hebrew term be used, and that
"Syria" be taken out of the "Syrian Heights."
Hebrew linguist Dr. Avshalom Kor has proposed that our new Hermon
be termed "the Hermon Crown" – a phrase taken from a poem written by
none other than Ze'ev Jabotinsky. He wrote it when he was in the British Akko
prison with his Haganah comrades for their role in protecting the Jewish
community in the Old City of Jerusalem during the pogroms of 1920. The poem
ends: "We are in captivity, but our hearts are directed towards Tel Chai
in the north; we will yet have the Crown of the Hermon."
This of course referred to the entire Hermon range, for no one
then dreamed that it would ever be divided between a Syrian entity and a Jewish
entity less than 30 years later. The term "Hermon Crown" came into
popular use in the Hebrew language. On April 23, 1925, Jewish National Fund
leader Yosef Weitz, whose views were much to the left of Jabotinsky even as he
engaged in the purchase of lands for Jews up through the first years of the
State, wrote:
"I walked after the plow through a long
furrow, back and forth. To my north, the crown of Mt. Hermon gleamed, and to my
south, the mountain tops were tinged with blue and red..."
Another Land of Israel lover and expert, Ze'ev Vilnai, later came
up with another name for the Hermon: Sion. It was taken directly from
Deuteronomy 4,48, which states that the border of the Promised Land ran from "Aro'er
on the Arnon bank, up to Mt. Sion, that is Hermon." In his work
"Love Your Land as Yourself," Vilnai wrote about one of several tours
he led on the mountain:
"At sunset – and the sunsets are amazing
from the heights of the Hermon – we reached the sion, the highest summit
of the Hermon range. Though it was summertime, we still found fields of snow
and ice, especially on the northern side. We had a great time throwing
snowballs; for some of the hikers, it was the first time they had ever seen
snow. On the sion [summit] is a small cave, where we spent the night… As
a memento of the occasion of our visit, we planted a national flag on the
summit before we left. We then steeply descended from the sion to the village
of Hatzbia [now in southeastern Lebanon]…"
What could be more appropriate than to call the highest point of
the Hermon range Sion, a Biblical word related to the Hebrew si, meaning
climax and top?
During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Syrians briefly captured the
one Hermon peak that had been in Israeli hands. However, the IDF soon
recaptured it, and also the other two peaks, including what was known as the
Syrian Hermon. [Israel withdrew from them after the war ended.]
An article in Al HaMishmar related the events: "The
IDF Golani Brigade troops took upon themselves a very difficult mission. While
the Paratroopers were flown to the Syrian Hermon in helicopters, some four
kilometers from the Israeli Hermon, the Golani fighters had to break through
frontally against well-prepared Syrian commando units… Israel's recapture of
the Israeli Hermon, as well as its taking of the Si HaHermon and the Syrian
Hermon, crowned an amazing IDF operation, which included heroism on the part of
every single IDF soldier who took part."
On June 24, 1974, when Israel and Syria carried out the Separation
of Forces agreement that ended the Yom Kippur War – and which came to an end
after over 50 years two weeks ago – the Maariv newspaper reported:
"Tomorrow at 3 PM the IDF will hand over to the United Nations the
northernmost area, termed the Syrian Hermon, as well as the Kuneitra
area…"
Now, with the return of the IDF to the Hermon summit, it would be
appropriate to erase the name "Syrian Hermon," and return to use one
of the Hebrew names – either Sion or Keter (Crown) HaHermon.