Gissin, Avshalom
Son of Esther and Moshe. He was born in 1896 in Petah Tikva to a family of farmers, and he studied at the elementary school in Rishon Letzion and when he completed his studies in Petah Tikva, After graduating from the seventh grade, he decided to devote himself to the subject of security and went to study military sciences at the Military Academy in Constantinople, Turkey, where he completed his studies with honors, received the rank of officer, and when Turkey entered the war he remained a teacher At the same military academy, after the war and the entry of the British into Palestine, Abschel returned He began to organize and prepare the young people to defend the Yishuv in the event of a confrontation with the Arabs, and he founded the Maccabi Association in a place called Maccabi Avshalom and the Scouts, and later moved to the south of Israel and Jerusalem, In 1921, when the riots of 1921 broke out and preparations were made for an Arab attack on the various settlements, Avshalom immediately returned to Petah Tikva. His experience and knowledge acquired at the military school made him the first command post. On the 28th of Nisan 5721 (May 5, 1921), the great attack on Petach-Tikva was carried out by the Arabs of the Abu Kishk tribe. When he went to the front, Avshalom separated from his family by saying: “You will not take my head with me and to the colony to abuse us.” The defenders of the settlement fortified themselves in the orchards in the Mevo’ot, while the Arabs conquered a nearby eucalyptus grove and organized it. Absalom emerged from among the orchards to attack the Arabs from a more comfortable position and was hit by bullets in the head and chest. The enemy was repulsed but Avshalom was killed on the spot and was buried the next day in the Petah Tikva cemetery. With him were killed three more defenders. Articles about Avshalom Gissin and a description of the battle in which he fell in the books “Dreamers and Warriors,” “Petach Tikva Am Hamoshavot”, “Jubilee Book” for Petah Tikva, and “Encyclopedia of Pioneers and Builders.”
