Khirbat Al-Lawz
خربة اللوز
Map of Khirbat Al-Lawz-area, 1870s
Map of Khirbat Al-Lawz-area, 1870s
Etymology: the ruin of the almond[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Khirbat Al-Lawz (click the buttons)
Khirbat Al-Lawz is located in Mandatory Palestine
Khirbat Al-Lawz
Khirbat Al-Lawz
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°46′04″N 35°06′41″E / 31.76778°N 35.11139°E / 31.76778; 35.11139
Palestine grid160/130
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictJerusalem
Date of depopulationJuly 13, 1948
Area
 • Total4,502 dunams (4.502 km2 or 1.738 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total450[2][3]

Khirbat Al-Lawz was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on July 13, 1948, by the Har'el Brigade of Operation Dani. It was located 11 km west of Jerusalem, situated north of Wadi al-Sarar.

History

Ottoman era

In 1838, Khirbet el-Lauz was noted as a Muslim village, part of Beni Hasan area, located west of Jerusalem.[4]

In 1863, Victor Guérin found it to be a hamlet of eighty inhabitants, most of them shepherds.[5]

Socin found from an official Ottoman village list from about 1870 that chirbet el-loz had a population of 83, with a total of 38 houses, though the population count included men, only.[6] Hartmann found that chirbet el-loz had 30 houses.[7]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Khurbet el Loz as "a village of moderate size on the slope of a high ridge near the summit. It has a sort of terrace below it, and stands some 800 feet (240 meters) above the southern valley. There are rock-cut tombs at the place."[8]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kherbet al-Ley had a population of 234 Muslims,[9] increasing in the 1931 census to 315 Muslims, in 67 houses.[10]

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 450 Muslims,[2] while the total land area was 4,502 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[3] Of this, 728 were used for plantations and irrigable land, 693 for cereals,[11] while 13 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[12]

Khirbat al-Lawz had a shrine dedicated to a local sage known as al-Shaykh Salama.[13]

1948 and after

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the village held out against Jewish attack until mid-1948, when the inhabitants left after observing the fall of nearby Suba.[14] In May 1950, the village site was settled by a group of Yemenite Jews, but they moved to Even Sapir in the following year.[14]

In 1992 the village site was described: "Grass and thorns grow among the stone rubble and terraces all across the site, as well as almond, fig, and carob trees. A thick forest of cypress and fir trees has been planted around the site. South of it, in the forest, is a well surrounded by several almond and fig trees. The forest is dedicated to the memory of Moshe Dayan, the Israeli general."[13]

References

  1. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 308
  2. 1 2 Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 25
  3. 1 2 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 57
  4. ↑ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 123
  5. ↑ Guérin, 1869, pp. 4-5
  6. ↑ Socin, 1879, p. 150
  7. ↑ Hartmann, 1883, p. 122
  8. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, p. 21
  9. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p. 14
  10. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 41
  11. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 103
  12. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 153
  13. 1 2 Khalidi, 1992, p. 300
  14. 1 2 Nir Hasson (23 June 2023). "This Murder Was Pinned on Palestinian Terrorists. Intelligence Docs Suggest They Were Jews". Haaretz.

Bibliography

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