Kiryat Anavim and the Cemetery of the Jerusalem Corridor

Kiryat Anavim is a kibbutz in the Jerusalem Corridor, on the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, that played a critical role in the 1948 War of Independence as one of the forward positions defending the approach to the capital. The kibbutz, founded in 1920, sits on a hilltop surrounded by the forests of the Jerusalem hills, and its military cemetery contains the graves of fighters who fell defending the road to Jerusalem during the siege of 1948.

The 1948 Siege

During the War of Independence, the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem passed through a narrow corridor between Arab-held villages, and convoys attempting to reach besieged Jerusalem were regularly ambushed. Kiryat Anavim, positioned on the high ground overlooking the road, served as a forward base for Palmach fighters defending the convoys. The battles in the Jerusalem Corridor, fought for every hilltop and every bend in the road, were among the bloodiest of the war, and the military cemetery at Kiryat Anavim holds the graves of dozens of young fighters who died in these engagements.

The Palmach Military Cemetery

The military cemetery is set among pine trees on the kibbutz grounds, with simple stone markers and a memorial wall. Many of the graves belong to fighters in their teens and early twenties, Palmach members who came from kibbutzim across the country to fight for the road to Jerusalem. The cemetery is a quieter, more intimate alternative to the large national cemeteries, and the personal scale of the memorial makes the losses feel individual rather than statistical.

The Palmach Cemetery

The cemetery at Kiryat Anavim is one of the most moving military cemeteries in Israel. It holds the graves of Palmach fighters and other soldiers who fell defending the road to Jerusalem in 1948. The Harel Brigade, commanded by Yitzhak Rabin, fought desperate battles in these hills, at the Castel, at Latrun, and along the ambush-prone road that was Jerusalem’s only lifeline. Many of those who fell in these operations are buried here, on the kibbutz that held the road. The cemetery is small, shaded by pine trees, and unbearably quiet. The names on the headstones are young, 18, 19, 20 years old, and the view from the graves looks out over the same hills where they fought.

The Kibbutz

Kiryat Anavim was founded in 1920 and was one of the first kibbutzim in the Jerusalem hills. During the 1948 war, its location on the road to Jerusalem made it a critical strongpoint. The kibbutz held out under siege and served as a base for operations to keep the road open. Today it operates a hotel and is a peaceful community, but the cemetery and the landscape ensure that the story of 1948 is never far from the surface.

Visit with Hoshen Tours

Kiryat Anavim holds the cemetery of the Jerusalem Corridor fighters of 1948. Hoshen Tours pairs it with the nature reserve at HaMasrek Nature Reserve, the the 9/11 Memorial, Kibbutz Tzuba, and the Crusader spring at Ein Hemed.