The Kirya

HaKirya, or The Kirya (Hebrew: הַקִּרְיָה‎, lit. The Campus), is an area in central Tel Aviv, containing the Tel-Aviv District government center and the major Israel Defense Forces base, Camp Rabin (Hebrew: מַחֲנֶה רַבִּין‎, Machaneh Rabin), named for Yitzhak Rabin. It was one of the first IDF bases and has served as the IDF headquarters since its founding in 1948.

Much of the Kirya today is located on the lands of Sarona, a Templer settlement founded in the 19th Century. Sarona was an agricultural colony, and kept this nature despite the expansion of Tel Aviv and attempts by the city to buy some of Sarona's lands. In World War II, the British forces took control of Sarona and converted it into a prison camp for Germans. After the war, the German prisoners were deported, mostly to Australia, and Sarona became a British military and police base. The base was the site of the first ever unconcealed Haganah attack on a British installation.

The base was taken over by the Haganah on December 16, 1947, and renamed to Camp Yehoshu'a, after Yehoshu'a Globerman, who was killed near Latrun while returning from a mission to Jerusalem. It was the first independent Jewish military base in modern history. The base was dubbed HaKirya because it contained the government offices in Tel Aviv, the provisional capital of Israel at the time, until Jerusalem was secured and declared the capital. The Haganah and then Israel Defense Forces also used the Templer buildings as their first headquarters, including the headquarters of the Sherut Avir (later Israeli Air Force) and the Kiryati Brigade. The Givati Brigade was also founded at the base.

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