Anzac Memorial, Be'eri Forest (Yad Anzac)

Yad Anzac stands in Be'eri Forest in southern Israel, near Kibbutz Be'eri and close to the Gaza Strip border.[2] The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies identifies it among the principal sites in Israel associated with Australian military involvement in the region, alongside ANZAC war cemeteries and the ANZAC Garden in Tel Aviv.[2] Its position was described in planning correspondence as being on "a beautiful hill overlooking Gaza," with views south and west toward the Mediterranean.[3]

By the 1970s, the ANZAC Forest had been incorporated into the broader Be'eri Forest, where historical markers were erected about ANZAC forces and their legacy in the area.[3] Following Israel's 2005 disengagement from Gaza, the site became part of the region colloquially known as the "Gaza Envelope."[3] The 126-acre (512-dunam) Christian Embassy Nature Park was later established on the western edge of Be'eri Forest, between the historic ANZAC Memorial and the Gaza security barrier, and replanted and restored in partnership with KKL-JNF.[7]

The memorial commemorates ANZAC participation in the First World War campaigns in Ottoman Palestine. Two British and ANZAC frontal assaults on Ottoman-held Gaza in early 1917 failed, with more than 16,000 British and ANZAC soldiers killed or wounded in the battles for the city.[8] The unsuccessful March 1917 battle for Gaza took place near Ali-Muntar Hill, south of the planned memorial site.[3]

General Edmund Allenby subsequently devised a strategy to deceive the Turks into expecting another attack on Gaza while directing the main assault at Beersheba. The deception, known as the Haversack Ruse, involved an intelligence officer dropping a haversack containing false plans; it had to be attempted three times and achieved only partial effect, though Beersheba was nonetheless lightly garrisoned on the day of the attack.[8]

On October 31, 1917, approximately 10,000 cavalrymen under Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel executed a wide flanking movement of roughly 100 kilometers.[5] That evening, some 800 Australian and New Zealand cavalrymen — including the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade — charged toward Beersheba and captured the city, a victory characterized as a turning point in the broader Palestine campaign.[4][5] The Central Zionist Archives also records ANZAC participation in the capture as a major part of the forces' contribution to the imperial war effort in the region.[3]

The idea for the ANZAC Memorial and Forest originated in March 1961, when Jewish National Fund delegates in Sydney proposed establishing a monument and forest near the Gaza Strip border.[3] The project was also conceived as a replacement for a monument in Port Said that had been destroyed by the Egyptians after the 1956 Suez War.[3]

Architect Yedidia Eisenstadt — previously known for designing watchtowers in JNF forests — was commissioned to design the structure. His design combined a watchtower with a memorial structure shaped like the letter A, the initial of ANZAC, with a torch-shaped vantage point at the northern end offering views of the surrounding landscape.[3] Plans were sent to Sydney and formally approved in 1965.[3]

The proposed site was a hill near Kibbutz Be'eri, with the planned forest extending west and south of the kibbutz toward the Gaza Strip border, south of the Simchoni Forest planted in 1958 near Kibbutz Kfar Aza in memory of Major General Asaf Simchoni and soldiers killed in the 1956 campaign.[3] Kibbutz Nahal Oz petitioned against the forest, arguing it would impede agricultural development, but the objection was unsuccessful.[3]

Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt decided to sponsor the project in December 1966, and work on the project accelerated through the end of that year.[3] A February 1967 Australian press release announced a fundraising campaign targeting 100,000 eucalyptus trees across 2,500 acres, with a goal of $200,000 at $2 per tree.[3] The choice of eucalyptus carried an evident Australian connection, and JNF Australia saw the project as an opportunity to raise the foundation's profile.[3]

A planned dedication ceremony in May 1967 was canceled on orders from the Israeli Army, which deemed the proximity of the site to the Gaza border too dangerous amid the tense situation immediately before the Six-Day War.[3] The inauguration was rescheduled for April 1968.[3]

The memorial was inaugurated on April 24, 1968 — one day before ANZAC Day.[3] Rain delayed the opening: guests waited at Kibbutz Be'eri until the rain stopped at noon, after which the ceremony proceeded in the mud.[3] Attendees included delegations from Australia and New Zealand, JNF officials, and dignitaries from nearby towns and kibbutzim; the Israeli government was represented by Yosef Sapir, a minister without portfolio.[3] Notably, ANZAC veterans had already made the site a pilgrimage destination in the period before its official inauguration.[3]

The project was undertaken by Jewish communities in Australia and New Zealand together with KKL-JNF, and construction began during the fiftieth-anniversary year of the Gaza and Beersheba battles.[9][5]

The memorial stands within Be'eri Forest along a KKL-prepared ANZAC Trail developed with Australian assistance.[5] Historical markers throughout the forest explain the ANZAC campaign and the significance of the surrounding terrain to the battles of 1917.[3] A total of 730 ANZAC soldiers killed in the First World War are buried in Commonwealth war cemeteries across Israel: 544 Australians and 186 New Zealanders.[5]

A second, distinct commemorative site stands beside the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Beersheba, near the city's Old Town. The Beersheba War Cemetery — also known as the CWGC British WWI Military Cemetery — was established immediately after Beersheba fell in 1917 and remained in use until July 1918, when it held 139 burials.[4] After the Armistice, graves were brought in from scattered sites, and the cemetery was officially inaugurated on March 22, 1923.[5] Published totals differ slightly: Ynet reports 1,239 soldiers and Globes reports 1,240.[5][10] JewishGen lists 1,241 Commonwealth First World War burials, including 67 unidentified soldiers, while Ynet identifies 174 Australians and 31 New Zealanders among those buried there.[4][5] Among the graves is that of Captain Seymour Van den Berg of the Middlesex Hussars, a British Jew killed five days before Beersheba was captured, whose headstone bears a Magen David.[4]

For the centenary of the battle in 2017, a purpose-built memorial center was inaugurated adjacent to the cemetery. Designed by Meizlitz-Kasif Architects — with Udi Kasif as lead architect — the building covers approximately 560 square meters and is composed of two masses set at right angles, constructed principally of white exposed concrete.[6] The architects related the material and angled walls to desert stone, the local landscape, and wartime fortifications.[6] The project was initiated by the Beersheba municipality, with funding from KKL, JNF Australia, and the municipality; the reported budget was approximately US$3 million.[6] The Commonwealth War Graves Commission leased a small area at the cemetery's perimeter for the building and took approximately a year and a half to approve it — reportedly the first memorial center built on the grounds of a British military cemetery.[6]

The center's exhibition follows the ANZAC campaign chronologically, from recruitment in Australia and the voyage to the Middle East through Gallipoli, Sinai, and the final campaign for Beersheba.[5] It presents the story of Randolph Edward Cleaver, a cavalryman killed in the charge and buried in Beersheba, alongside battlefield artifacts, soldiers' personal belongings, and a company trumpet used to signal the famous charge.[5] The visitor sequence culminates in a bunker-like audiovisual installation housed inside a freight elevator that rises at approximately one centimeter per second — slowly enough that visitors may not feel the movement.[6] Passengers emerge onto a balcony overlooking the cemetery, with the graves revealed at the moment the presentation ends.[6]

In July 1969, a bomb exploded inside the Yad Anzac memorial, injuring two JNF employees and damaging the structure.[3]

On September 23, 2023, an incendiary balloon launched from Gaza started a fire in Be'eri Forest, reaching the vicinity of the memorial.[3] In August 2024, the Israeli Army imposed a closed military zone covering areas near the Gaza border; the activist group Nahala announced plans to hold a reading of Lamentations at the ANZAC Monument and simultaneously called for renewed Jewish settlement in Gaza, drawing attention to the memorial's charged proximity to the border.[11]