dkatzWritten by Haim Gouri, composed by Shmuel Farshko and performed by Yaffa Yarkoni, this moving song commemorates the battles of Bab El Wad / Sha’ar Hagai during the War of Independence. A strategic site on the road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Bab El Wad saw fierce fighting between Arab forces and Jewish convoys trying to bring food and supplies to the besieged city of Jerusalem during the war. The remains of armoured cars destroyed along the way still line the route as a memorial to those who sacrificed their lives for Jerusalem and her citizens. An English translation of the lyrics are provided on screen and below.
Bab El Wad
Here I am passing, standing by the stone.
An asphalt road, rocks and ridges.
Day goes down slowly, sea-wind blows
Light of a first star, over Beit Maschir.
Bab-el-wad,
Do remember our names forever,
Convoys broke through, on the way to the City.
Our dead lay on the road edges.
The iron skeleton is silent like my comrade.
Here pitch and lead fumed under the sun,
Here nights passed with fire and knives.
Here sorrow and glory live together
With a burnt armoured car and the name of an unknown.
Bab-el-wad
And I walk, passing here silently,
And I remember them, one by one.
Here we fought together on cliffs and boulders
Here we were one family.
Bab-el-wad
A spring day will come, the cyclamens will bloom,
Red of anemone on the mountain and on the slope.
He, who will go on the road we went,
He will not forget us, Bab-el-wad.