List of villages depopulated during the Arab–Israeli conflict

Below is a list of villages depopulated or destroyed during the Arab–Israeli conflict.

1880–1946

Arab villages

A number of these villages, those in the Jezreel Valley, were inhabited by tenants of land which was sold by a variety of owners, some local and others absentee landlord families, such as the Karkabi, Tueini, Farah and Khuri families and Sursock family of Lebanon. In some cases land was sold directly by local fellahim (peasant owners).[1] The sale of land to Jewish organizations meant that tenant farmers were displaced.[2][3][4][5][6][7]

List of Palestinian villages from which tenant farmers were uprooted before 1948, with the cause of the uprooting (i.e., sale by landlord or some other cause) given along with the name of Jewish settlements on newly acquired land (in parentheses) can be seen below.

Jewish villages

1929 Palestine riots

During the 1929 Palestine riots:

1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine

During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine:

1948 Arab–Israeli War

Arab villages

Palestinian Arab residents were expelled from hundreds of towns and villages by the Israel Defense Forces, or fled in fear as the Israeli army advanced.[citation needed] Around 400 Arab towns and villages were depopulated.

Jewish villages

The main Jewish areas depopulated in 1948 were the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and the Gush Etzion. Approximately 30-40km2 of land was owned by Jews in the areas which became the West Bank and Gaza Strip (approximately 6,000km2); some of this land was uninhabited.[43]

In areas that became the West Bank
In areas that became Gaza Strip (All-Palestine protectorate)
Israel-Syria border
In Transjordan

Many of these areas were repopulated after the Six-Day War.

Six-Day War

West Bank

Three Arab villages, Bayt Nuba, Imwas and Yalo, located in the Latrun Corridor were destroyed on the orders of Yitzhak Rabin due to the corridor's strategic location and route to Jerusalem and because of the residents' alleged aiding of Egyptian commandos in their attack on the city of Lod. The residents of the three villages were offered compensation but were not allowed to return.[45]

Hebron/Bethlehem area[46]

Jordan Valley[46]

Jerusalem area[46]

In the Negev/Sinai Desert

Golan Heights

Over 100,000 Golan Heights residents were evacuated from about 25 villages whether on orders of the Syrian government or through fear of an attack by the Israeli Defense Forces and expulsion after the ceasefire.[47] During the following months, more than a hundred Syrian villages were destroyed by Israel.[48]

1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty

Israeli settlements

Israeli settlements in the Sinai Peninsula were evacuated as a result of the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty.

Israel's unilateral disengagement plan

As a part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, 21 civilian Israeli settlements were forcibly evacuated, as well as an area in the northern West Bank containing four Israeli villages. The residential buildings were razed by Israel but public structures were left intact. The religious structures not removed by Israel were later destroyed by Palestinians.

Israeli settlements

In the Gaza Strip (all 21 settlements, as well as 1 Bedouin village):
In the West Bank (4 settlements):

Since 2005

On 5 November 2020, Israeli bulldozers demolished most of the village of Khirbet Humsa al-Fawqa and forced 73 of its Palestinian residents, including 41 children to leave in what was the largest demolition in years.[54] On 4 February 2021, Israel razed for the second time because of what it claimed was an illegal settlement next to a military firing range.[55] On 7 July 2021, it was demolished by Israel again for at least the third time.[56]

In May 2023, the Israeli army destroyed the village of Ein Samiya, forcibly expelling 170 people.[57]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Said and Hitchens, 2001, p. 217; notes 28, 29, on p. 232
  2. ^ Kenneth W. Stein, The Land Question in Palestine, 1917–1939, UNC Press Books, 1987 p.60. The Sursocks sold Jinujar, Tall al-Adas, Jabata, Khuneifis, Jeida, Harbaj, Harithiya, Affula, Shuna, Jidru, Majdal.
  3. ^ Barbara Jean Smith, The Roots of Separatism in Palestine: British Economic Policy, 1920–1929, Syracuse University Press, 1993 pp.96–97;
  4. ^ Mark A. Tessler, A History of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict, Indiana University Press, 1994 p.177, writes 'The Sursock deal is known to have involved the eviction of about 8000 tenants "compensated" at three pounds ten shillings [about $17] a head.'
  5. ^ Huneidi and Khalidi, 2001, p. 223
  6. ^ Palestine Commission on the Disturbances of August 1929, H.M.S.O., 1930, vol.1 p.437:'The Sursock titles should have been looked into as was acknowledged by the government officials themselves.The transfer became an irregular one, if not an illegal one, because the peasants' claims were not satisfied.'
  7. ^ Henry Laurens, La Question de Palestine, vol.2 (Une mission sacrée de civilisation), Fayard, Paris, 2002 pp.143–148.
  8. ^ Benny Morris, Righteous Victims. First Vintage 2001 edition, p55.
  9. ^ Avneri, 1984, pp. 96-98
  10. ^ Avneri, 1984, p. 203
  11. ^ a b c Karmon, 1960, p. 167
  12. ^ a b c Moshe Dayan, cited in Rogan and Shlaim, 2001, p. 207
  13. ^ Grootkerk, 2000, pp. 280-1
  14. ^ Stein, 1987, p. 60
  15. ^ Karmon, 1960, p. 163
  16. ^ a b Khalidi, 1992, p. xix
  17. ^ Khalidi, 1992, pp. XIX-XX
  18. ^ Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Baisan, p. 31
  19. ^ Mills, 1932, p. 79
  20. ^ Pringle, 1997, p. 62
  21. ^ a b c d Avneri, 1984, pp. 156-7
  22. ^ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 14
  23. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 49
  24. ^ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 13
  25. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 47
  26. ^ Avneri, 1984, p. 210, note #87, on p. 297
  27. ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 158
  28. ^ Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. 34
  29. ^ Glazer, Steven (Summer 1980). "The Palestinian Exodus in 1948". Journal of Palestine Studies. 9 (4). doi:10.2307/2536126. JSTOR 2536126. Zionist efforts to convince the Arab population of Haifa and Zichron Ya'akov to stay were also made, in this case because Arab labour was seen as vital to maintaining the economies of these places.
  30. ^ Hadar, Alizia Rachel; Kaufman, Aubrey (1963). The Princess Elnasari. Heinemann. p. 146.
  31. ^ Shafir, Gershon. Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 1882-1914. Cambridge University Press.
  32. ^ Segev, Tom (12 November 2020). A State at Any Cost. The Life of David Ben-Gurion. Translated by Haim Watzman. Apollo. p. 78. ISBN 9-781789-544633.
  33. ^ "History and heritage". Visit Zichron Yaakov. Zichron Yaakov local council. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
  34. ^ Sandra Marlene Sufian and Mark LeVine (2007) Reapproaching Borders: New Perspectives on the Study of Israel–Palestine Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 0-7425-4639-X pp. 32
  35. ^ Avneri, 1984, p. 122
  36. ^ Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol 6, entry "Colonies, Agricultural", p. 287.
  37. ^ "(List of villages destroyed before 1948)רשימת הכפרים שנהרסו לפני 1948". Retrieved December 4, 2012.
  38. ^ Kark and Oren-Nordheim, 2001, p.319
  39. ^ Sylva M. Gelber, No Balm in Gilead: A Personal Retrospective of Mandate Days in Palestine, Carleton University/McGill University Press 1989 p.88.
  40. ^ Friedland, Roger; Hecht, Roger (2000). To Rule Jerusalem. University of California Press. p. 436. ISBN 978-0-520-22092-8.
  41. ^ Shragai, Nadav (January 4, 2004). "11 Jewish families move into J'lem neighborhood of Silwan". Haaretz.
  42. ^ Palestine Post, August 15, 1938, p. 2
  43. ^ Eyal Benvenisti and Eyal Zamir. “Private Claims to Property Rights in the Future Israeli-Palestinian Settlement” The American Journal of International Law, vol. 89, no. 2, 1995, pp. 298: "All in all, between thirty and forty square kilometers of land and several hundred buildings (primarily in the West Bank) owned by Israelis were located in the territories occupied by Jordan and Egypt. [Footnote: Some of the Jewish-owned lands in these areas were not inhabited, but most were. Some of the inhabitants had been forced to leave their property during the turbulence of the 1920s and 1930s, and most of them (several thousand, mainly from the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem and the Gush Etzion settlements south of Jerusalem) were displaced in the 1948 war. Yet, unlike the Palestinian refugees, these Jewish refugees were rehabilitated and resettled with the help of the Israeli authorities, which prevented the creation of a permanent problem.]"
  44. ^ History of the Etzion Bloc: The Siege and Fall Archived 2011-07-20 at the Wayback Machine Page 8 of 11
  45. ^ Oren, M.B. (2017). Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. Random House Publishing Group. p. 307. ISBN 978-0-345-46431-6. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
  46. ^ a b c UN Doc A/8389 Archived 2014-02-03 at the Wayback Machine of 5 October 1971
  47. ^ Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories Archived 2015-02-23 at the Wayback Machine (UN Doc A/8089) 5 October 1970
  48. ^ "The Fate of Abandoned Arab Villages, 1965–1969" by Aron Shai (History & Memory - Volume 18, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2006, pp. 86–106)
  49. ^ a b c d e Samman, Maha (26 June 2013). Trans-Colonial Urban Space in Palestine: Politics and Development. Routledge. ISBN 9781136668852.
  50. ^ Gorenberg, Gershom. Accidental Empire, p. 197–198
  51. ^ "The Last Class in Sinai". Haaretz.
  52. ^ Amira Hass (16 April 2012). "From Yamit to the Jordan Valley, the IDF continues to force Arabs from their homes". Haaretz. Retrieved 2021-07-17.
  53. ^ Collaborators fear for their lives as Palestinians prepare to reclaim Gaza 11 August 2005 www.theguardian.com accessed 17 July 2021
  54. ^ Israel demolishes most of Palestinian Bedouin village in West Bank 5 November 2020 www.abc.net.au accessed 18 April 2021
  55. ^ Israel begins razing Palestinian Bedouin village for second time 4 February 2021 www.nbc.com accessed 18 April 2021
  56. ^ Israel again tears down contested Palestinian hamlet in Jordan Valley 7 July 2021 www.timesofisrael.com accessed 14 July 2021
  57. ^ "Palestinian community forced to evacuate Ein Samia - UNOCHA". The Jerusalem Post. 2023-05-26. Retrieved 2023-05-26.

Bibliography