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The Israel Travel Centre
The ANZAC Day & Beersheba Commemoration
Israel Tour
24 April – 4 May 2008
MISSION STATEMENT
To provide the optimum Israel travel
experience to the Australasian market, that
will have a lasting impact on each individual
as an unforgettable and inspiring journey
The Israel Travel Centre – A Division of Jetset Rose Bay 514 Old South Head Road Rose Bay NSW 2029 T: 61 2 9371 8166 E: [email protected] W: www.israeltravelcentre.com.au Proposed Itinerary for ANZAC Day & Beersheba 90th
Anniversary Light Horse Tour - 2008
Day 1 – Thursday 24 April 2008
Arrival
Arrive Ben Gurion Airport with meeting assistance
Overnight: Jerusalem

Day 2 – Friday 25 April 2008
ANZAC Day in Jerusalem
Includes the Dawn Service for the Anzac Day commemorations at the Commonwealth War cemetery at Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem and a private tour with Kelvin Crombie, ANZAC Historian & Guide + join in with the Australian Embassy commemorations. Overnight: Jerusalem

Day 3 – Saturday 26 April 2008
Jerusalem - Old City - Christian & Muslim Quarters
Walk through one of the Gates to the walled Old City: the renewed Jewish Quarter;
the Western Wall, the Temple area; the colourful bazaars; Via Dolorosa, and the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Continue to Bethlehem (subject to security clearance)
to visit Rachel’s Tomb and the Church of the Nativity and return to Jerusalem for
overnight.
Overnight: Jerusalem
Day 4 – Sunday 27 April 2008
Jerusalem – Old & New City - Jewish Sites
Enjoy a tour of the new city of Jerusalem today. See the original Dead Sea Scrolls at the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book. Experience a moving visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. On to the Garden of Gethsemane and Church of the Agony. Drive to Mt. Zion for a visit to the tomb of King David, and the Room of the Last Supper. Drive to Beersheva
Overnight: Beersheva
Day 5 – Monday 28 April 2008
Beersheba
Tour the battlefields of Beersheba where the ANZAC soldiers defeated the entrenched
Turkish Army in the Charge of the Light brigade in October 1917 - See the ancient biblical site at Tel Sheva and visit the memorial to the Negev Brigade which
distinguished itself in the 1948 War of Independence - Enjoy an authentic local lunch in a Bedouin tent - Experience a moving unveiling ceremony of the new Beersheba
ANZAC memorial along with many Australian VIP’s. Transfer to the Dead Sea for
overnight at a kibbutz hotel. Time permitting; enjoy a swim in the Dead Sea.
Overnight: Dead Sea
Day 6 – Tuesday 29 April 2008
Masada and The Dead Sea Experience
Spend the day at the lowest point of the world – The Dead Sea. Ascend by cable car
to the top of the Mountain Fortress of Masada - the last stronghold of the Jewish Zealots in their war against the Romans. Enjoy the day at the Dead Sea including a float, mud treatment and the sulphur baths. Overnight: Dead Sea
The Israel Travel Centre – A Division of Jetset Rose Bay 514 Old South Head Road Rose Bay NSW 2029 T: 61 2 9371 8166 E: [email protected] W: www.israeltravelcentre.com.au
Day 7 – Wednesday 30 April
Lower Galilee
Drive north via Jericho - the oldest city in the world, then via the Jordan Val ey and
the new settlements to Beit Shean. Visit the excavations of this beautiful Roman City.
Proceed to Tiberias, the old centre of Jewish learning. Drive along the shores of the
Sea of Galilee to Capernaum to visit the ruins of the ancient synagogue. Continue to a
Kibbutz hotel for overnight.
Overnight: Kibbutz Hotel

Day 8 – Thursday 1 May 2008
Upper Galilee
Drive to the Golan Heights. Visit the former Syrian fortifications, Birkat Ram, and the
Druze villages, Via Banias, source of the Jordan River. Proceed via Kiryat Shmone and
the Hula Valley to Safed, city of the Kabala, to visit synagogue and the artists’ colony
and then to Nazareth to visit the Christian Holy Sites. Return to the Kibbutz hotel for
Overnight: Kibbutz Hotel

Day 9 – Friday 2 May
Coastal Plain
After Breakfast drive west to Acre for a visit of the old, famous Crusader stronghold
and medieval fortifications. Continue to Haifa, sightseeing tour of Haifa, including the
Bahai Shrine, Persian Garden and Mount Carmel for a panoramic view of the city.
Proceed southwards to Caesarea to visit the Roman theatre and the Crusader fortress.
Continue south for a short city tour of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. Transfer to TLV airport for
departure or continue on the flight to Eilat and then on Jordan and Petra (optional) Overnight: Eilat

Day 10 – Saturday 3 May 2008
Petra
Leave Eilat in the morning, cross the Arava border and drive through the scenic Jordanian desert, past the Wadi Rum area, where Lawrence of Arabia once lived and
fought with the Bedouin.

Enter the Rose City of Petra through the Siq, a narrow passage through the mountains
which has inspired awe for centuries - up to the treasury which suddenly appears at
the end of the gorge, leaving the visitors breath-taken by its size, colour and beauty. Continue into the heart of this ancient city carved into the mountains, passing hundreds of tombs and monuments and a spectacular Amphitheatre which once
Afterwards, stop for a sit-down lunch fol owed by a visit to Moses Spring before leaving
Wadi Moussa. We drive to Aqaba for a short city tour, return to the Arava border and
back to Eilat.
Overnight: Eilat

Day 11 – Sunday 4 May 2008
Departure
Depart Eilat on flight back to Tel Aviv Airport The Israel Travel Centre – A Division of Jetset Rose Bay 514 Old South Head Road Rose Bay NSW 2029 T: 61 2 9371 8166 E: [email protected] W: www.israeltravelcentre.com.au The ANZAC–ISRAEL CONNECTION
The arrival of the Anzacs in World War I was the beginning of Israel's Aussie connection. Israeli backpackers and tourists may be making their presence known Down Under, but there are growing signs that Australian culture is boomeranging back into Israeli society. Take for instance Australian television soap operas such as Home & Away and Neighbors (for those who care - the soap that launched the career of international pop star Kylie Minogue), which are giving their South American competitors a run for their money on Israeli prime time. Tim Tams, the quintessential Australian cookie, are now kosher and available at local supermarkets. And the country's most recognizable mascots, the kangaroo and koala, have taken up permanent residence at a park for Australian wildlife near Beit She'an. The list goes on. But this Aussie invasion isn't a recent phenomenon. It actual y started wel before the State of Israel was established, with the arrival of the ANZACS. Not Aztecs - the ancient Mesoamerican tribe known for their solar calendar and human sacrifices, but ANZACS - the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps that traveled from the ends of the earth to help Allied forces take on the Ottoman Empire in World War I. They also came back to this region to fight in World War II, and are fondly remembered for their victory at El Alamein in Egypt, where they stopped the German thrust toward Jerusalem in 1942. The front page of The Palestine Post (forerunner of The Jerusalem Post) on February 13, 1940 summed up their return in a simple headline that read - "ANZACS BACK AGAIN." Even today, Australians continue to play a role in this region, serving as UN peacekeepers in Sinai and Lebanon. There are also 2,000 Australian troops with the coalition in Iraq. ANZACS initial y became synonymous with the Gal ipoli campaign in Turkey in 1915 (an event popularized in the 1981 award-winning Mel Gibson film entitled Gallipoli), in which more than 8,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers died fighting the Turks. Jewish soldiers also lost their lives at Gallipoli, including some from the Zion Mule Corps - the all-Jewish transport unit set up under the auspices of the British army by Joseph Trumpeldor in March 1915. Another regiment, the Jewish Legion - the first Jewish regiment to see action in Eretz Yisrael - was created by Vladimir Jabotinsky in August 1917, and included the likes of David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (Israel's second president). But it was in campaigns after Gallipoli, in Turkish Palestine and on the Western front (in France the entire corps was commanded by an Australian Jewish officer, Lieut. General Sir John Monash), that the ANZACS really started making a name for themselves. From defending the Suez Canal to their victorious charge of the Light Horse at Beersheba the ANZACS were there. In many ways, they still "The Holy Land is full of ANZAC war sites and memorials, many forgotten or merely overshadowed by the focus on Gallipoli," said Kelvin Crombie, an Australian historian who has specialized in ANZAC study tours in Israel since 1988. "The tours I give connect Australians and New Zealanders to their roots by highlighting the contributions our soldiers made here in both World Wars," he added. Crombie's ANZAC tour starts from the Jaffa Gate in the Old City - the very gate where British General Edmund Allenby made his historic entrance on foot December 11, 1917 and heads south to the Negev to pick up the trail of the infamous Australian Light Horse brigade, which took part in one of the more daring and celebrated battles of the Middle East campaign, the Battle of The Israel Travel Centre – A Division of Jetset Rose Bay 514 Old South Head Road Rose Bay NSW 2029 T: 61 2 9371 8166 E: [email protected] W: www.israeltravelcentre.com.au Testimony to the ANZAC's ultimate contribution in liberating the area from the Ottoman Empire is evident by the thousands of Australian and New Zealand soldiers, as well as British, South African, Welsh, and soldiers from other Commonwealth nations, who are buried in war cemeteries throughout Israel, including Ramla, Beersheba, Jerusalem, and Haifa. There are also two prominent war cemeteries in Gaza - one in Dir El-Balah and the other in Gaza City. According to the Australian War Museum in Canberra, out of 300,000 Australian soldiers who enlisted, over 60,000 died in World War I. Of that number, some 1,500 Aussies, as wel as 500 New Zealanders, died in the Palestine campaign. "Gaza was the site of some of the heaviest fighting during the First World War, with many ANZACS losing their lives, particularly in the battles that raged here in March and April 1917," Crombie said. It is for this reason that a permanent ANZAC war memorial was built at Kibbutz Be'eri in the northwest Negev, just meters from the Gaza Strip. The memorial is set appropriately in a eucalyptus forest (the eucalyptus is Australia's most distinctive and widespread tree), which after the spring rains is dotted coincidental y with wild red poppies (perog in Hebrew); the official Anzac Day flower of remembrance. But despite the bucolic setting, this part of the country is still rife with conflict. It was only last December that the army stopped three Palestinian terrorists from trying to infiltrate the kibbutz with grenades and other weapons. "I don't spend as much time here as I used to when giving lectures," said Crombie, who was at the ANZAC Memorial with a group the day the incident occurred. "It's getting a bit too dangerous." So, after a quick stop at Be'eri the tour continues inland toward safer ground at Levi Eshkol National Park. Stretching along the banks of Wadi Besor some 30 km. west of Beersheba, the park is an oasis of palm trees and natural springs. For the same reason that it is today a popular weekend picnic site, not to mention having one of the largest public swimming pools in the country, it also served as a staging area for ANZAC and British horsemen and troops before their advance on Beersheba. Picking up the same route the soldiers took through the Besor Val ey - passing remnants of a railway bridge built by ANZAC engineers and ancient wells used by the Light Horse brigades - the tour picks up Route 25 West into downtown Beersheba. "This highway is pretty much the exact route the Australian Mounted Division took when it attacked the city," Crombie said. "And just over there," he said, pointing out the window to the right, "is where the Kiwis [New Zealanders] captured Tel Sheva - the ancient site associated with the patriarch Abraham - in a 'spirited' bayonet attack." On October 31, 1917, a combined British and ANZAC force of some 58,500 conquered Beersheba in a day of heavy fighting. "Beersheba had to be captured with its water wel s intact before nightfal ," Crombie explained before parking in front of the visitor center that allegedly houses the city's original wel s "Otherwise, they would have lost the element of surprise and the water resources they desperately needed." Today, Beersheba is a rapidly growing city with a population of 200,000. But nestled near the ever- expanding commercial center stands a powerful reminder of the city's past - the well-preserved Beersheba Commonwealth war cemetery. This is the final resting place of some 1,250 soldiers, many of them Australian, who died in the Battle of Beersheba and the outlying area. The Israel Travel Centre – A Division of Jetset Rose Bay 514 Old South Head Road Rose Bay NSW 2029 T: 61 2 9371 8166 E: [email protected] W: www.israeltravelcentre.com.au It was this victory, and others that fol owed, that ultimately led to the Al ies winning the war against the Turks. "I believe the contributions ANZACS made at Beersheba and elsewhere played a significant role in the restoration of the Jewish homeland," Crombie said after paying his respects at the cemetery. "It is no coincidence that Beersheba was captured the very day the British War Cabinet agreed to the Balfour Declaration." Prophetic words coming from a man who grew up in the "bush" (Australian English for the rural countryside) on a sheep farm in Western Australia; about the furthest one can be from Israel, with "My initial interest in ANZACS and Israel came when I was young," Crombie said in a later interview from his office at Christ Church's Heritage Center in Jerusalem's Old City (established in 1849, Christ Church is the oldest Protestant church in the Middle East). "It was a combination of having two uncles serving in the Middle East during World War I , reading books on the war and the Holocaust, my friendship with an Israeli family that lived down the road from us for several years, and the impact of Israel's miraculous victory in the Six-Day War." Since coming to Israel in 1979, Crombie has spent years pursuing the ANZAC-Israel connection by writing a comprehensive book on the subject, and through the unique private tours he gives. "I try to honor the legacy of the ANZACS in the Holy Land as much as I can," he said. Every year on April 25, millions of Australians and New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day. Similar to Israel's Yom Ha'Zikaron, it is a national memorial day to honor the country's fallen soldiers, and is often marked by dawn services and wreath-laying ceremonies. In Israel, Anzac Day commemorations traditionally take place at the Commonwealth War cemetery at Mt. Scopus in The soldiers who fought and died here will still be remembered, whether in private ceremonies, group prayers, or by taking interested tourists into the field to see for themselves how important a role the ANZACS played in the establishment of Israel. The Israel Travel Centre – A Division of Jetset Rose Bay 514 Old South Head Road Rose Bay NSW 2029 T: 61 2 9371 8166 E: [email protected] W: www.israeltravelcentre.com.au

Source: http://www.dra.org.au/files/8JIPWIQVBX/ANZAC%20Day%20&%20Beersheba%2090th%20Anniversary%20Tour%20Itinerary.pdf