Pre-State Israel in World War I

I am visiting Israel in November to continue my research into the Australian 10th Light Horse Regiment, which fought the Ottoman armies through the region, including Gaza, Beersheva, Megiddo, Sharon, the Jordan Valley, Es Salt and onto Damascus.

I would very much like to know if any kibbutzim or towns possess museums with artefacts and/or information about those campaigns. The Jewish Legion was active in some of them.

I would also like to get in touch with an historian in Israel who specialises in World War I.

Thanks everyone in advance for your time.

Anne, look here!

Beit Hagdudim Museum, Moshav Avihayil

AFAIK the Australian soldiers who liberated Beersheba from the Turks are commemorated by:
The Park of the Australian Soldier in Beersheba.
The Military cemetery in Beersheba
The Australian Light Horse monument in Beersheba.
ANZAK memorial – About 4 km. northwest of Kibbutz Be’eri
Hopefully the Negev Museum in Beersheba and others will be more knowledgeable, for the debt we owe the ANZAK troops.
There will also be further graves in Gaza at the Military cemetery, which today may prove to be inaccessible to you.

Walk/bike along the Yarkon River to three the 3 memorials marking the points where Allenby's forces crossed the river to capture the Ottoman positions. While the Australians did not lead this specific attack, it still makes for a great walk/ride.
Check out the map (disregard the suggested route as you'll be following the riverfront path):
http://goo.gl/maps/v0dZB
Hill's Collums:
A. Tel Shuni (Tel Kadadi), near the light-house.
B. Hill's Square
C. Near the corner of Abba-Hillel-Silver road and Ben-Gurion road

Many thanks, everyone, for your most useful information. I have emailed the Ben Zvi Institute and the Beit Hagdudim Museum and look forward to more information there. I will certainly visit those monuments during my visit.

Thanks again for your help, and I look forward to visiting your beautiful country once more (this will be my third visit).

Edited by: turtle-anne

Hi

Found this site
http://www.ww1-israel.org/BRPortal/br/P103.jsp?cat=36973
On this page there are some mails, try them.
http://www.ww1-israel.022.co.il/BRPortal/br/w?c=cp:forms,sx:1,p:121
Also there was an excellent group in the Great War Forum, (look into other fronts, Middle east & North Africa.
Also the classical threads include an excelent survey of the trench system suth west of Beer-Sheba with some amazing now and then photos.
It is amazing a section of the Turkish trench system can still be seen on ground and using Google-earth, (check 31deg 12'57''N34deg 44'47''E and 31deg13'20''N34deg44'42''E). There was some talk about creating ANZAC trail combining all sites around Beer-Sheva, I have no idea how far the plan went and what can be seen or visited on ground.
North of beer-sheva you can vist Mera- hill park a little north of Gedera, a battle site at the end of 17.
An inscribed stone in memory of a soldier killed on bald-hill south of Petha-Tikva disappeared when the agricultural surrounding was developed. The Municipality of Kyriat-Ono did erect a replica on Levi-Eshkol street near "Paz" gas station. (I have a gut feeling I know where the original might be).
In Tel-Aviv there are two pillars in memory of the crossing of the Auja/Yarkon. One exactly near Riding power station on the beach. The other is on Kikar Hill street, a third in near the Stadium of Rmat-Gan.
My Personal opinion is that the best sight is the train station of Zemach south of Teberias. The building as photographed in 1918 is still there, now going repair and not at its best. On the site used as a temporary grave yard in 1918, on the beech of the sea of Galilee, there is a large monument in memory of other soldiers and other wars.

If your research deals with pre-Israel, you may want to contact Palestinian historical institutes.

Catw, there won't be any relevant Palestinian historical information. The area concerned was of course not an independent entity during the First World War. Since it was part of the Ottoman Empire, any Ottoman records will be in Turkish. Not only that, being from that period they would be in Arabic script, as Turkish was not written in Latin characters until 1928. This is a problem for researchers even if they can read (modern) Turkish and even if they are native Turkish speakers. No Turkish people under the age of about 80 can read old documents unless they have made a special study of Arabic.