Israeli occupation date: 10^th May 1948. The village was completely destroyed with the exception of two houses. According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, the village remaining structures on the village land are:
“Two houses remain standing. One of them is in a citrus grove and has a concrete frame and cinder block walls. On the top of its flat roof there is an ‘iliyya.”

‘Arab Suqrir inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed. The Canaanites referred to‘Arab Suqrir by Shakrun. Israeli settlements on town lands: Nir Gallirn and Bene Darom.

Land ownership before occupation

Land usage in 1945

Population before occupation

Source: Palestineremembered.com

Israeli occupation date: July 23rd-24th, 1948. ‘Ajjur was mostly destroyed with the exception of three houses. According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, the village remaining structures on the village land are: “Only three houses remain; two are deserted and one has been turned into a warehouse. One of the deserted houses is a two-story stone structure that has a large, triple-arched front porch.”
‘Ajjur inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed. In 1931 the number of houses were 566.

The village had two schools: the 1st was a private school known by Abu al-Hasan school, and the 2nd was founded in 1934. ‘Ajjur had two mosques: the 1st was an old mosque which was built during the Fatimid period, and the 2nd was built during the British Mandate period.

Israeli settlements on town lands: ‘Agur, Tzafririm, Giv’at Yesh’ayahu, Li-‘On, & Tirosh.

Land ownership before occupation

Land usage in 1945

Population before occupation

Source: Palestineremembered.com

Israeli occupation date: May 15, 1948 . No traces of Arab houses are left behind. ‘Atlit inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed. According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, the village remaining structures on the village land are:
“No traces of Arab houses are left. A railroad station that used to serve the village is still in use. A prison in the vicinity was used by Israel in 1989 for holding Lebanese and Palestinian detainees.”

During the Hellenistic period, ‘Atlit was known by Adarus. In 1296, descendants of the ‘Uwayrat tribe (a Tatar tribe) settled in ‘Atlit and its vicinity. Wadi al-Tabun, wadi al-Sukhul, and Wadi Falah are bordering the village. ‘Atlit contained a Crusades Castle called Castle Peregrinorum (castle of the pilgrims), and a Muslim cemetery east of the Crusader castle which has an Arabic inscription dating to 1800s.

Israeli settlements on town lands: ‘Atlit and Newe Yam. The number of houses in 1931 were 193.

Land ownership before occupation

Land usage in 1945

Population before occupation

Source: Palestineremembered.com

Israeli occupation date: July 15, 1948. It was located at 6 km South West of Nazareth. About 1,200 refugees from al-Mujaydil had reportedly reached Nazareth by the end of July, 1948. It was mostly destroyed with the exception of the monastery and a partially destroyed church. Al-Mujaydil inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.

According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, the village remaining structures on the village land are: “Most of the site is covered with a pine forest that serves as an Israeli park. The monastery and parts of the ( destroyed) church are the only remaining buildings on the site; monks still live in the monastery. Remnants of destroyed houses and the walls of a cemetery are visible. Cactuses and pomegranate, olive, and fig trees grow around the site, which is dotted with Wells.”

The number of houses in 1931 were 293. There were two elementary schools in al-Mujaydil, one for boys and the other for girls. The village had a Roman Catholic Church and a monastery. The village is situated on the southern slopes of Wadi al-Mujaydil.

Several springs flowed in the vicinity of the Wadi al-Mujaydil.Traces of a Roman road were found close to the village. Israeli settlements on town lands: Migdal ha-‘Emeq (founded by Iranian Jews in in 1952) and Yifat.

Land ownership before occupation

Land usage in 1945

Population before occupation

Source: palestineremembered.com

This post was published in 2000.

Arab Abukishk, with its eighteen thousand donums (one donum equals 1000 sq. meters) landscape, was considered before 1948 the largest village in the coastal city of Jafa district Arabs were the proprietors of 1715 donums, Jews owned 901 donums and 448 donums were state-owned land. (PalestineIndex Gazetteerprepared by Land Registry Office of Palestine Government, 1945, Census of Palestine, 1931,and Village Statistics 1945). 2487 donums of the village spacious land were allotted for citrus and banana, 14018 donums for wheat and 226 irrigated donums for orchards. Besides husbandry, the well-to-do residents raised cattle.

1900 Arabs comprised Abukishk’s population in 1944/1945, an indication that at least 2000 citizens fled their homes in 1948. Arab Abukishk, was located, in the middle Palestinian coast, two kilometers west of Palestine’s major river, Al-Ouja, known also as Yarkoon, and linked with Jafa-Haifa main coastal road along with half dozen of adjacent Arab villages.

In 1925, an elementary mixed school was built in Abukishk, when schooling was unaffordable luxury in major cities in the region. Official figures show that 108 pupils, among them nine girls, registered in the school in mid forties.

In Abukishk, the residents used to live in stone-built houses large enough to accommodate all members of each family together, a tradition that characterized Palestinians’ norm of living before the Diaspora but was shattered in the aftermath of 1948 war due to their dispersal. When the land was lost, every one went on his own depending on the refugee camp assigned to him or the nearest Arab country to his or her then-gone homeland.

Zionist gangs shortly before the end of the British Mandate captured Arab Abukishk in May 15, 1948. The Israeli historian Benny Morris, author of The Birth of the Palestine Refugee Problem 1947-1949, indicates, “The evacuation of the area, north of Tel Aviv, was undertaken by the Irgun Gang”. Irgun and Stern Gang, notorious for the massacre they committed April 9, 1948, in Deir Yassin, abducted five local leaders from nearby villages, shelled regularly the civilian population with heavy artillery as an act of intimidation which triggered the evacuation of Abukishk and other villages in the area, north of Tel Aviv.

Arab Abukishk spearheaded, in 1921, one of the earliest clashes with Zionists by attacking, alongside Arab volunteers from the middle coast, Petah Tekva, the first Zionist colony established in Palestine in 1878. The attack was organized in the wake of Jafa uprising against Zionist colonization of Palestine under guidance and protection of the British Mandate’s authorities. The uprising of Jafa inflicted heavy casualties among the Zionist colonizers of Jafa and its environs including Petah Tekva. As a result, all Arab villages bordering Tel Aviv were the first to be depopulated in 1948, especially after Jafa’s surrender to the new invaders.

Bibliography:

–The Birth of the Palestine Refugee Problem 1947-1949 by Benny Morris

– All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948 by Dr.Khalidi, Walid

–Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine by Hadawi, Sami 

Der Rafat was situated on the western slope of a medium high mountain, 26 kilometer west of Jerusalem. The village was the site of a big monastery that belonged to the Latin Patriarchy. There was one mosque, Haj Hasan mosque, in the village. Der Rafat was at the end of the nineteenth century a small plantation on a top of a mountain as well as a spring at its western side.

On 1945, Der Rafat’s population was estimated 400 strong; one hundred of them were Christians, and the rest were Muslims.

Some 10,563 Donums (one Donum= 1000 sq. m) of the village’s land were cultivated and allocated for wheat’s growing mainly. Other 216 irrigatedDonums were cultivated as orchards. Three natural springs used to supply the village with water. Like most Palestinian villages, Der Rafat was rich in its archeological sites.

Der Rafat’s Occupation and Depopulation:

The village was stormed on July17-18, 1948 by Hariel’s Brigade during the second stage of the Israeli military operation coded Danny. According to “History of Independence” the village was occupied at the end of the operation when Israeli forces expanded Jerusalem’s passage toward the south.

Benny Morris, the Israeli historian, has indicated that the majority of the Arabs who remained in the vicinity of the village left the place as columns of Hariel’s brigade were approaching and the mortars’ shelling started. Those who remained were forced to leave, he added, but without elaborating on the happenings inside the village or the residents’ fate of the adjacent monastery.

The village was destroyed after the passage of three weeks, i.e. during the second truce of the war. Morris has come through his comment on the subject of destroying Arab villages at that period, saying: “ The army embarked gradually throughout the second truce, which lasted three months starting July 19 till mid-October, on the demolition of the deserted villages for military motives as usually described. Most of the villages in the middle of the country e.g. … were dynamited mid-September.”

The colony of Geva’at Shemish was built 1954 on the land of the village, exactly toward its western location.

A pile of ruins and some porches, which remained intact while the others were destroyed and mixed with the houses’ debris, today covers the site of the village. Cactus can be seen at the northern tip of the village. A statue of Mary the Virgin is rising above the façade of the monastery, two kilometers far from the village westward.

Bibliography:

– All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948 byKhalidi, Walid

– Palestine Remembered.com

Occupation date; 14th of July 1948. The village has been mostly destroyed with the exception of the two village churches and the village mosque.

According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, the village remaining structures on the village land are:  “The village site is now covered with a pine forest planted by the Jewish National Fimd and dedicated to the memory of prorninent Jews and some non-Jewish Americans and Europeans. A military base is also on the site. The mosque and two churches still stand, and are used intermittently as cow sheds by the residents of Kibbutz Kefar ha-Choresh. Overlooking Wadi al-Halabi, between the village site and the site of al-Mujaydil, is an Israeli plastics factory. Cactus, olive trees, and fig trees grow on the site, which is strewn with piles of stones. A few tombs in the Muslim cemetery across from the mosque can be seen. The main village site also contains the remains of houses.”

The Crusaders referred to the village by Maula. The village had a magnificent Roman mausoleum sometimes called Qasr al-Dayr. Migdal ha-‘Emeq, Kefar ha-Choresh, Timrat, and an Israeli military base.

Ma’lul inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.

Land ownership before occupation

Land usage in 1945

Population before occupation

Bibliography:

– History of Palestine – The Last Two Thousand Years by Jacob De Haas

– All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 194 by Dr.Khalidi, Walid