THE PLANNING OF THE BRITISH WAR CEMETERIES IN MANDATORY PALESTINE / תולדות התכנון של בתי-הקברות הבריטיים בארץ-ישראל

The hundreds of war cemeteries erected by the British Imperial War Graves Commission for the dead of World War I include six major cemeteries (and a number of minor ones) near the battlefields of the Palestine campaigns — in Deir el-Balah, Gaza, Beer-Sheba, Ramleh, Jerusalem, and Haifa. The 12,641 soldiers buried in them, together with the 3,362 names on the memorial to the missing in the Jerusalem War Cemetery, represent almost all sections of Allenby's occupying forces: British units, troops from Australia, New Zealand, and India, the Egyptian Labor Corps, and a small number of French and Italian soldiers. Several cemeteries include separate Indian (Hindu and Muslim) and Egyptian sections. Some enemy soldiers — German and Turkish — were also buried in the British war cemeteries. An additional 3,500 deceased were interred there between 1921 and 1948. The design of the British war cemeteries in Palestine follows the lines set by the Imperial War Graves Commission, and includes uniform headstones. However the cemetery on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem incorporates additional elements. The memorial chapel serves as an official memorial to the missing whose graves are unknown; it is also a special memorial to the New Zealand and Australian missing, a national memorial of the New Zealand Government, and a 'battle exploits memorial' of Allenby's Egyptian Expeditionary Force. A monument erected by the Australian government stands opposite the cemetery gate. But the chief impact of the Jerusalem war cemetery results from its majestic view over the Old City of Jerusalem, which endows it with unparalleled meaning and symbolism.