Davidka Square

Davidka Square (Hebrew: כיכר הדוידקה‎‎, Kikar HaDavidka) is a public square at the intersection of Jaffa Road, Street of the Prophets, and Kiach Street in Jerusalem, Israel. Its official name is Kikar Haherut (Hebrew: כיכר החירות‎‎, Freedom Square). It features a small memorial to the Davidka, a homemade Israeli mortar used in the defense of Jerusalem and other cities during the 1948 War of Independence.

In the early stages of the War of Independence, the Israeli army had no artillery other than a primitive, homemade mortar that was not accurate but that made a thunderous explosion. The noise from this weapon – called the Davidka ("Little David") after its inventor, engineer David Leibovitch – often sent the enemy fleeing in panic. Mistaking the Davidka's explosion for an atomic bomb, the Arabs abandoned the northern town of Safed. The mortar was also used by the Harel Brigade in its defense of Jerusalem. The Israeli army used the Davidka exclusively until July 1948, when it was able to acquire conventional artillery such as mountain howitzers, cannons and field guns.

In 1956 the Jerusalem municipality commissioned a memorial to the Davidka designed by architect Asher Hiram. A Davidka used by the Harel Brigade was mounted on a stone platform engraved with part of the verse from the Book of Kings: "I will defend this city, to save it" (2 Kings 19:34). Two small, rounded projections on one side of the memorial and one larger protection on the other evoke the shape of the cap worn by Palmach soldiers. On Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day, city representatives lay wreaths on the Davidka in memory of the soldiers who died in defense of the city.

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Wikipedia