Nearly sixty years after the Six-Day War, certain moments are etched into history: paratroopers at the Western Wall, soldiers swimming in the Suez, and Naomi Shemer’s “Jerusalem of Gold,” rewritten to celebrate reclaimed access to the Old City.

But beyond the iconic imagery lies a tangle of overlooked truths — small, strange, deeply human episodes that still shape how we understand the war that redrew the map of the Middle East and altered Jewish identity worldwide.

Here are six surprising stories from the Six-Day War you probably haven’t heard.

1. Jews in East Jerusalem paid power bills to a Palestinian company — for 20 years

After Israel took East Jerusalem, Mayor Teddy Kollek faced a thorny question: how to electrify Jewish neighborhoods without sparking global backlash.

His answer? Let the Palestinian-run Jerusalem District Electric Company (JDEC) keep supplying power.

Until 1987, Jews in East Jerusalem got electric bills with Arabic headers — and Israel quietly purchased power from a Palestinian company led by nationalist icon Anwar Nusseibeh.

It was, as one insider book put it, a high-wire act: maintaining a Jewish capital without erasing a Palestinian symbol of independence.

The JDEC still operates today — though only in Palestinian areas.

2. King Hussein longed for peace — and liked Israeli hardware

Jordan’s King Hussein saw his grandfather assassinated for seeking peace with Israel. In 1967, pressured by Nasser and stung by a prior Israeli strike, Hussein reluctantly joined the war.

But his sympathies ran deeper. Years later, Israelis learned the king had long admired Israeli military craftsmanship.

In 1994, after signing a peace treaty with Israel, Maariv published a full-page image of Hussein from 1965 — smiling while holding an Israeli Uzi.

No caption. Just a quiet nod to a secret history of backchannel diplomacy and conflicted loyalties.

3. Israel “united” Jerusalem — but didn’t call it that for decades

Jerusalem was “reunified” in June 1967 — but legally, that process was ambiguous for decades.

Days after the war, Israel extended municipal services into the Old City and 28 Arab neighborhoods. Officials avoided using the word “annexation,” framing it as administrative, not political.

Only in 1980 did the Knesset declare Jerusalem the capital. But the law didn’t define its borders. That clarity came in 2000 — more than 30 years after the war.

Even then, critics said the move was symbolic, not legally binding. The city’s status, like its boundaries, remains contested.

4. The first postwar settlement wasn’t in the West Bank — it was in the Golan Heights

The first Israeli settlement after the war wasn’t in Hebron or Shiloh — it was a kibbutz in the Golan.

Merom Golan was established quietly in July 1967 by Galilee residents sick of Syrian shelling. The goal wasn’t messianic return — it was tactical security.

Today, the kibbutz has a resort. But back then, it was the start of a broader shift: not just reclaiming biblical land, but redefining Israel’s sense of its own borders.

5. A Gaza “church” turned out to be a synagogue mosaic of King David

In 1966, Egypt announced the discovery of a Byzantine-era church in Gaza. But Israeli archaeologists, analyzing published photos, spotted something surprising: Hebrew inscriptions and a mosaic of King David playing a harp.

When Israeli teams reached the site postwar, some of the mosaic was damaged — perhaps deliberately.

Excavations revealed one of the largest ancient synagogues ever found in the region, with inscriptions noting the donors: Menahem and Yeshua, sons of Jesse.

Proof, once again, that history is often a battleground.

6. Some Jewish families quietly reunited — and no one kept count

Officially, East Jerusalem was “Judenrein” from 1949 to 1967. But in reality, a few Jews had stayed — often women who had married Palestinian Muslims.

After the war, some reconnected with long-lost family members.

One Israeli recalls calling a subcontractor in Silwan. A woman answered in flawless Hebrew — rare for Palestinians at the time. She was Jewish, born in pre-state Jerusalem, and had remained after marrying a Muslim man.

She said she reunited with her family right after the war. But she offered no details.

There was no shame — but no celebration either. Just another unresolved thread in a war full of them.