1957 IDF History Department 'Training Aid' Maps, 1948 Arab-Israeli War

A fascinating 1957 set of Hebrew-language folding maps prepared by the History Department of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Together, they provide a military history of the 1948 First Arab-Israeli War (War of Independence).

A Closer Look

The map set consists of nine maps, two indexes, and a cover folder. The maps are arranged chronologically and divided into stages, following the general chronology of the conflict, divided up by three truces: in late June through early July, mid-July through mid-October 1948, and a final truce on October 22, which nominally halted the conflict, though fighting with both irregular (such as the Arab Liberation Army) and regular Arab forces continued for months afterward. The maps included are:

1. Boundaries of the division (גבולות החלוקה) proposed by the United Nations in the partition plan of November 29, 1947.
2. The formation of IDF brigades (מערך חטיבות צה'ל); that is, when the IDF was formed out of preexisting Haganah and other paramilitary militia units.
3. Road map on the eve of the War of Independence (מפת הדרכים ערב מלחמת העצמאות).
4. Battles from the invasion until the first truce (הקרבות מהפלישה ועד ההפוגה הראשונה).
5. The 'Ten Days' Battles (קרבות 'עשרת הימים') between the two truces, July 8 - 18.
6. Operation 'Yoav' (מבצע יואב), a successful Israeli offensive in the northern Negev designed to secure the road between Beersheba, Hebron, and Jerusalem and drive Egyptian forces out of the northern Negev.
7. Operation 'Hiram' (מבצע חירם), a successful Israeli offensive targeting the Arab Liberation Army that captured the Upper Galilee and part of southern Lebanon.
8. Operation 'Horev' (מבצע חורב), an Israeli offensive against the Egyptians in western Negev in late December 1948 to early January 1949, designed to trap Egyptian forces in Gaza (עַזָה). Though achieving initial success militarily, the operation was halted when the United Nations ordered a ceasefire, and the British government threatened to declare war on Israel to maintain Egyptian sovereignty.
9. Operation 'Uvda' (מבצע עובדה), an Israeli offensive between March 5 - 10, 1949 that successfully captured the southern Negev. This territory had originally been planned as part of a Jewish state in the 1947 U.N. partition plan but was claimed by the Kingdom of Jordan in the ensuing conflict.

The First Arab-Israeli War

The founding of the nation of Israel resulted from decades-long processes but culminated dramatically in 1947 - 1949 with widespread communal violence along with more conventional warfare between armies. An attempt by the United Nations to negotiate a peaceful devolution of the British Mandate of Palestine failed, and violence between Jews and Palestinians increased in 1947 - 1948, with Jewish militias gaining the upper hand and many Palestinians fleeing from their lands. As the British left in May 1948, Israel declared its independence, after which it was invaded by surrounding Arab states. After months of fierce fighting, Israeli forces pushed back the Arab armies, and a series of armistice agreements ended the conflict.

For Palestinians, the conflict was the opening phase of the Nakba or 'Catastrophe,' in which roughly 80% of the Palestinian population was forced into exile. By the end of the conflict, Israel had expanded its territory beyond the U.N.'s partition, with a significant portion of the Palestinian Arab population made stateless or forced into exile. The events of 1948 laid the foundation for the ongoing ethnic and religious conflict in Israel-Palestine and broader regional destabilization.

Publication History and Census

This set of maps was prepared by the History Department (ענף היסטוריה), seemingly with input from the Information Branch (ענף הסברה) of the IDF in 1957. The maps were printed by Photo Offset United Artists Ltd. ( פוטו אופסט אמנים מאוחדים בע''מ) in Tel Aviv. We note examples among the holdings of Harvard University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the OCLC (a third listing, OCLC 233288037, appears to consist entirely of digital examples). The National Library of Israel also catalogs an example.