Discover three moments
History is made of people.
This is the story of one of them.
Responsibility, before statehood.
A young commander, a contested hill and the road to Jerusalem. At the Kastel, Motke commanded men of the Moriah Battalion in difficult conditions. Weeks later, on 19 May, he was seriously wounded in the Jewish Quarter.
The records preserve a chapter of wartime command — and a turning point in his life.
One moment. Signing for a country.
A 1963 newsreel shows him signing for Israel as it joined the Moscow agreement, the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. A small movement of a pen at a diplomatic ceremony.
The footage is preserved in the Israel Film Archive and can be watched today.
A step towards peace.
On September 4, Gazit and Major General Herzl Shafir signed the interim agreement between Israel and Egypt. Later that month, they also initialled its implementation protocol and maps.
Full peace still lay ahead. This agreement was one stage on the way.
1 of 3 · Jerusalem, 1948
This is only a beginning. Documents, photographs and family memories reveal many more sides of the story.
Meet Motke through the original records