List of villages depopulated during the Arab–Israeli conflict explained

See also: List of towns and villages depopulated during the 1947–1949 Palestine war.

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.

Safed district

Acre district

Tiberias district

Nazareth district

Beisan district

Haifa district

Tulkarm district

Jerusalem district

Ramla district

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

See main article: Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel. 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. 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

See main article: Syrian towns and villages depopulated in the Arab–Israeli conflict. 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

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. 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. Karmon, 1960, p. 167
  12. [Moshe Dayan]
  13. Grootkerk, 2000, pp. 280-1
  14. Stein, 1987, p. 60
  15. Karmon, 1960, p. 163
  16. 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. 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. The Palestinian Exodus in 1948 . Journal of Palestine Studies . 9 . 4 . Summer 1980 . Glazer . Steven . 10.2307/2536126 . 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. Book: Hadar . Alizia Rachel . Kaufman . Aubrey . The Princess Elnasari . 1963 . Heinemann . 146 .
  31. Book: Shafir, Gershon . Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 1882-1914 . Cambridge University Press.
  32. Book: Segev, Tom . Tom Segev

    . Tom Segev . . A State at Any Cost. The Life of David Ben-Gurion . 12 November 2020 . Apollo . 9-781789-544633 . 78.

  33. Web site: History and heritage . Visit Zichron Yaakov . . 2023-10-27.
  34. Sandra Marlene Sufian and Mark LeVine (2007) Reapproaching Borders: New Perspectives on the Study of Israel–Palestine Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 32
  35. Avneri, 1984, p. 122
  36. Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol 6, entry "Colonies, Agricultural", p. 287.
  37. News: (List of villages destroyed before 1948)רשימת הכפרים שנהרסו לפני 1948 . 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. Book: Friedland. Roger. Hecht. Roger. To Rule Jerusalem. 2000. University of California Press. 978-0-520-22092-8. 436.
  41. News: 11 Jewish families move into J'lem neighborhood of Silwan. Shragai. Nadav. January 4, 2004. 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. http://www.kfar-etzion.co.il/HistoryoftheEtzionBloc/tabid/228/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/9/PageID/59/History-of-the-Etzion-Bloc1.aspx History of the Etzion Bloc: The Siege and Fall
  45. Book: Oren, M.B. . Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East . Random House Publishing Group . 2017 . 978-0-345-46431-6 . 2024-02-02. 307.
  46. https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/858C88EB973847F4802564B5003D1083 UN Doc A/8389
  47. http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/bc776349eaee6f28852563e6005edf08 Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories
  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. Gorenberg, Gershom. Accidental Empire, p. 197–198
  50. News: The Last Class in Sinai. Haaretz.
  51. Book: Trans-Colonial Urban Space in Palestine: Politics and Development. 9781136668852. Samman. Maha. 26 June 2013. Routledge .
  52. News: Amira Hass. Amira Hass. From Yamit to the Jordan Valley, the IDF continues to force Arabs from their homes. Haaretz. 16 April 2012. 2021-07-17.
  53. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/aug/12/israel1 Collaborators fear for their lives as Palestinians prepare to reclaim Gaza
  54. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-05/israel-demolishes-palestinian-bedouin-village-in-west-bank/12854418 Israel demolishes most of Palestinian Bedouin village in West Bank
  55. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-begins-razing-palestinian-bedouin-village-second-time-n1256684 Israel begins razing Palestinian Bedouin village for second time
  56. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-again-tears-down-contested-palestinian-hamlet-in-jordan-valley/ Israel again tears down contested Palestinian hamlet in Jordan Valley
  57. Web site: Palestinian community forced to evacuate Ein Samia - UNOCHA . The Jerusalem Post . 2023-05-26 . 2023-05-26.

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