This post was published in 2000.

The village of Kawkab el-Hawa was located eleven km. north of Beisan in the Jordan Valleyoverlooking River Jordan from the east, and Lake Tabariya [Tibries] from northeast direction. This strategic position accorded it a historic significance.

Some scientists of Archeology have figured that Kawkab el-Hawa is the site of  “Yermota” as indicated by a thirteen century (BC)-old Egyptian monument found close to Beisan [Albright 1952: 28, n. 14]. The Bedouin Al Habero Tribes inhabited then that area (it should not be mixed between Yarmouta and the famous Canaanites royal city known as Yermok).

Presumably, the Roman Tower of Agrippina for sending signals was built at Kawkab el-Hawa. In this area, the Crusaders built Belvoir, one of their most famous castles, which was overlooking Jordan Valley and Lake Tabariya [Tibries].  Kawkab el-Hawa was the ground for a series of battles between Saladin and the Crusaders.

Historian Yaqout Hamawi (died 1229) says that Kawakab el-Hawa was a castle on a hill  close to Tabariya, and became ruins after Saladin. In 1596, Kawkab el-Hawa was a village of 50 strong in Lajoun’s District. Its population paid taxes [to the Ottomans] on many crops such as wheat, peas, beans, watermelon and grapes.

Since the village was built within the frontiers of Belvoir, its enlargement was slow, and it had in 1859 a population of 110. As time elapsed, houses were built encircling the castle, and the Moslem population cultivated their agricultural fields outside it. They cultivated in 1944/45 about 5839 dunams (four dunams equal one acre) for wheat, and 170 irrigated dunams for groves and orchards.

Its Occupation and Depopulation

According to the Israeli historian Benny Morris, a military attack was launched against Kawakab el-Hawa on May 16, 1948 in the aftermath of Beisan’s occupation. However, the History of the Hagana tells that the village was occupied on May 21, and the 3rd battalion in Golani Brigade carried out the operation. Moreover, the position of the village was ideal for the concentration of artillery’s battery for shelling the valley, which the village was overlooking, by the time of Iraqi forces appearance on May 15.

A platoon of Iraqi troops while attempting climbing to Kawkab el-Hawa became easy target to Israeli fires coming from the village. According to the Hagana’s story that its forces attacked the Iraqis from 50 meters high range. And when the Iraqis withdrew, their casualties numbered 30 men, and only three Israelis were wounded, according to that story.

But the Palestinian historian Aref El-Aref, has different story about what happened in the village. He says that the Iraqi force succeeded in dashing into the village, staying there for two days.Meanwhile the Israelis encircled it at the time the Iraqi forces were entering the country [Palestine] on May 15. The Iraqi garrison resisted for two days before its withdrawal. When the Israeli forces were ready to enter the village, the Iraqis arrived and seized the village till May 17. The AP reported from Baghdad on May 18, that the Iraqi forces occupied the village described as “ well-fortified and reinforced concrete site”. But  Aref says that the Israelis escalated their attacks on May 18, to relieve adjoining Gesher  settlement. And by sunset, the Iraqi decided to withdraw after sustaining 23 casualties.

Next day, the Israeli military high command proclaimed that its forces didn’t loose the village, but repulsed an Arab attack on Kawkab el-Hawa. The New York Times reported the Israeli statement, claiming that the Arabs had sustained 30 casualties.

On September 1948 a Kibbutz chief asked the Israeli authorities its permission and backing to destroy the village and three other villages in the region. Benny Morris said nothing on whether the permission was granted or not [M: 168].

The village has been wiped out. But archeological excavations have been conducted at the site of Belvoir. The slopes of once-was Kawkab el-Hawa, overlooking Beisan and Al Baireh’s Valley are used by the Israelis for grazing cattle.
Bibliography:

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

http://www.palestineremembered.com/Baysan/Kawkab-al-Hawa/index.html