Ammunition Hill made over as adventure destination
Memorial site hopes to draw younger people with its extreme activities, intended to help understand the bravery of Israeli soldiers nearly 50 years ago.
The battle that took place at Jerusalem's Ammunition Hill during the Six Day War made history largely thanks to the famous song that documents the heroism of the paratroopers in the bitter battle.
Nearly half a century had passed, but Israelis not longer visit the hill en masse. A new project attempts to change this situation.
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The memorial site opened in the 1970s was advanced and innovative at the time, but in the eyes of the younger generation today, it is outdated. Thursay saw the opening of a series of extreme facilities, including zip lines, bungee jumping, a climbing wall and a rope ladder, designed to connect the younger generation with the battle's heritage.
"The idea is to bring people that would not otherwise come to Ammunition Hill and have them engage in stimulating activity that combines ropes with the ideological content that this place has," explains Ya'akov Guri, owner of the company Ikvot Bashetach that operates the facilities. He proudly displays the 80 meter zip-line that runs parallel to the tunnels between the bunkers on the hill.
According to Guri, the story of Eitan Naveh, who received the Medal of Valor for his actions, will serve as inspiration. "Eitan felt he had to overcome the fear and run first in the trenches," he said. "When you go on the zip-line right above the tunnels we are talking about the courage it takes to jump and thus you connect to the story from 50 years ago."
Establishing a park in such a sorrowful place is not an obvious move. Immediately after the Six Day War 182 parents of the fallen soldiers fought against demolition of the hill and demanded to preserve it as a memorial. But according to Alon Wald, among the site's managers who initiated the construction of the facilities, the changes are being welcomed.
Wald is the son of the late Captain Rami Wald, and joined the site’s management along with two other sons of the fallen. "We represent the younger generation," he said. "The guys who created Ammunition Hill and its heritage are people who are over the age of 70 and 80. They asked us, who heard all the stories of this campaign, to take the place and rejuvenate it. We ran in the trenches before we understood big words like war, heroism, friendship, and we understand that you cannot inundate children with the values of death and war, but should rather present to them the site’s story. "
On the other hand, Moshe Ziv, a paratrooper who fought in the Yom Kippur War, argued that the move desecrates the heritage. "This is the site of very hard and cruel combat," he said. "It's a dignified site that should be preserved as it is and tell the story as it is. Why become a theme park? It is totally inappropriate and disrespectable. It distorts the past."
Wald insists that "it will never be an amusement park. It is an attraction, but anyone who gets on the zip-line is a person, a group, a family, a child who has already walked in the trenches and got the initial message that there was a heroic, tough battle. From this position they get on the zip-line, which takes courage, or together hurl a friend on the bungee via teamwork. It grabs the attention of the children and their teachers, who in recent years have stayed away from places that spoke only the language of militancy and death. We made the changes with lots of caution, and the bereaved families involved in this year realized that is what brings the children and grandchildren here. "
The park opened on Thursday with an event providing free access to all the facilities.
