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).Said and Hitchens, 2001, p. 217; notes 28, 29, on p. 232 The sale of land to Jewish organizations meant that tenant farmers were displaced.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.Barbara Jean Smith, The Roots of Separatism in Palestine: British Economic Policy, 1920–1929, Syracuse University Press, 1993 pp.96–97;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.'Huneidi and Khalidi, 2001, p. 223Palestine 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.'Henry Laurens, La Question de Palestine, vol.2 (Une mission sacrée de civilisation), Fayard, Paris, 2002 pp.143–148.

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 al-Mutila, 1896 (Metula) Land, 12,800 dunams, sold under Ottoman law by landlord, a Christian from Sidon named Jabur Bey, to Baron de Rothschild's chief officer Joshua Ossovetski. Druze villagers displaced.Benny Morris, Righteous Victims. First Vintage 2001 edition, p55.Avneri, 1984, pp. 96-98 Difna, 1939 (Dafna) al-Manara, unknown date (Manara) 2538 dunams of land purchased by the Jewish National Fund from the landlord, Asa'ad Bey Khuri of Beirut.Avneri, 1984, p. 203 Najmat as-Subah, unknown date (Ayelet HaShahar)

Acre district Ja'atoun, unknown date (Ga'aton) Khirbat Jiddin, 1946, other sources says 1948 (Yehiam)

Tiberias district Um al-Junah, unknown date (Degania Bet)Karmon, 1960, p. 167 Malhamiyah, 1902 According to Edward Said, the Jewish farming village of Menahemia) was established in 1902 on land purchased by the Jewish Colonization Association in 1901; 3,000 dunams were purchased directly from local fellahim, 700 dunhams from local landlords, and over 60,000 dunams from landlords in Beirut; the Sursuq, Tuenis, and Mudawwar families. The Arab tenant farmers were evicted by Ottoman authorities. Sha'arah, 1926–1927 (Omer Sha’ara, today Shadmot Dvora) Sarona, 1910 (Sharona) Sarjuna, unknown date (Shorshim, today HaZor'im) Yammah, 1901 (Yavniel)

Nazareth district Jabata, 1926 (Gvat)Moshe Dayan, cited in Rogan and Shlaim, 2001, p. 207 Khunaifis, 1926 (Sarid) Ganigar, Jinjar, Jenjar, Junjar, 1922, Ginegar,Grootkerk, 2000, pp. 280-1 Rab an-Nasrah, unknown date (Mazra) Tal al-’Adas, unknown date (Tel Adashim)Stein, 1987, p. 60 al-'Afoulah, 1925 (Afula) al-Foulah, 1910 (Merhavia) Mashah, 1902 (Kfar Tavor) Samouniyah, unknown date (Shimron nature reserve, Timrat)Karmon, 1960, p. 163 Umm Kubei, unknown dateKhalidi, 1992, p. xix Beisan district Khirbat Bayt Ilfa, unknown date (Beit Alpha) Shatah, unknown date (Beit HaShita) Tall al-Fir, 1922 (none) Jaloud, 1922 (Ein Harod) Zarra'a, Jewish National Fund bought the land in the 1930s, Tirat Tzvi established on the site in 1938Khalidi, 1992, pp. XIX-XX Jisr MajamiBarron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Baisan, p. 31Mills, 1932, p. 79 Haifa district Jadroun, 1925 (Kfar Bialik) Kurdani, unknown date (Afek)Pringle, 1997, p. 62 Kafr Ata, 1925 (Kfar Ata – today Kiryat Ata) al-Majdal, 1925 (none) al-Harbaj, 1924 (Kfar Hasidim)Avneri, 1984, pp. 156-7 al-Harithiyah, 1924 (Sha'ar HaAmakim) Tab’oun, unknown date (Tivon, today Kiryat Tivon) Qusqous, unknown date (Alonim) Jida, 1925 (Ramat Yishai)Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 14Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 49 Tal ash-Shamam, 1925 (Kfar Yehoshua) Qamoun, 1925 (Yokneam) Ja’ara, unknown date (Ein HaShofet)Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 13Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 47 Um ad-Dafouf, unknown date (Dalia)Avneri, 1984, p. 210, note #87, on p. 297Khalidi, 1992, p. 158 Um at-Tout, unknown date (none) Shifiyah, unknown date (Meir Shfeya)Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. 34 Zamarin (Zikhron Ya'akov), 1948 – Following Jewish settlement in 1882, Arabs continued to live and work in the community alongside Jews. Um al-’Alaq, unknown date, (Ramat HaNadiv)Sandra Marlene Sufian and Mark LeVine (2007) Reapproaching Borders: New Perspectives on the Study of Israel–Palestine Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 32 ash-Shounah, unknown date (none), maybe identical to Khirbat al-Shuna destroyed in 1948 Zarghaniyah, unknown date (Binyamina) al-Buraij, unknown date (Binyamina) Natalah, unknown date (No data) Nazlah, unknown date (none) Safsaf, unknown date (none) Hadidun, unknown date (none) Karkour, unknown date (Ein Shemer, Gan HaShomron, Karkur, Tel Shalom) Bidous, unknown date (Maanit) Shaikh Hilw, unknown date (Nahliel, now part from Hadera) Zardarah, unknown date (Gan Shmuel) Baika, unknown date (Hadera) al-Marah, 1903 (Givat Ada) ’Aabiyah, 1929 (Pardes Hanna) Sheikh Bureik Sold during the early 1920s, by the Sursuk family to the Jewish National Fund.Avneri, 1984, p. 122 The Arab tenants were evicted and in 1925 an agricultural settlement also named Sheikh Abreik was established there by the Hapoel HaMizrachi, a Zionist political party.Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol 6, entry "Colonies, Agricultural", p. 287.

Tulkarm district Shaikh Muhammad, unknown date (Elyashiv)

Jerusalem district Beit Jimal

Ramla district Kafr Wariyah, unknown date (Kfar Uria) Jindas (Ginaton)

Jewish villages

1929 Palestine riots During the 1929 Palestine riots:

Bat Yam Be'er Tuvia Giv'on HaHadashah HartuvKark and Oren-Nordheim, 2001, p.319

Kfar Uria Kiryat Ata Motza Ramat Rachel Hebron

1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine:

Kfar Shiloah Silwan Jewish population removed by the Kehillah Welfare Bureau and later the British authorities during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in PalestineSylva M. Gelber, No Balm in Gilead: A Personal Retrospective of Mandate Days in Palestine, Carleton University/McGill University Press 1989 p.88.Palestine Post, August 15, 1938, p. 2 Kfar Etzion Hebron

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. 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 30–40 km2 of land was owned by Jews in the areas which became the West Bank and Gaza Strip (approximately 6,000 km2); some of this land was uninhabited.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.]"

In areas that became the West Bank North Jerusalem bloc (Atarot and Neve Yaakov) Dead Sea block (Kalia and Beit HaArava) Jewish Quarter (Jerusalem) Gush Etzion blocHistory of the Etzion Bloc: The Siege and Fall Page 8 of 11 near Jerusalem (Ein Tzurim, Kfar Etzion, Masuot Yitzhak, Revadim)

In areas that became Gaza Strip (All-Palestine protectorate) Kfar Darom (resettled but evacuated as part of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in 2005)

In Transjordan Tel Or

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.

Hebron/Bethlehem areaUN Doc A/8389 of 5 October 1971 Surit Beit Awwa Beit Mirsem Shuyoukh

Jordan Valley al-Jiftlik (depopulated but soon repopulated) Agarith Huseirat

Jerusalem area Nabi Samwil

In the Negev/Sinai Desert Auja al-Hafir – A demilitarized zone

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 Israel Defense Forces and expulsion after the ceasefire.Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories (UN Doc A/8089) 5 October 1970 During the following months, more than a hundred Syrian villages were destroyed by Israel."The Fate of Abandoned Arab Villages, 1965–1969" by Aron Shai (History & Memory - Volume 18, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2006, pp. 86–106)

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. Avshalom DiklaGorenberg, Gershom. Accidental Empire, p. 197–198 Netiv HaAsara, Sinai Ofira Pri'el Sadot Sufa Talmei Yosef Yamit

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): Bedolah Bnei Atzmon (Atzmona) Dahaniyya (Bedouin)Collaborators fear for their lives as Palestinians prepare to reclaim Gaza 11 August 2005 www.theguardian.com accessed 17 July 2021 Dugit Elei Sinai Gadid Gan Or Ganei Tal Katif Kfar Darom Kfar Yam Kerem Atzmona Morag Neveh Dekalim Netzarim Netzer Hazani Nisanit Pe'at Sade Rafiah Yam Slav Shirat Hayam Tel KatifaIn the West Bank (4 settlements): Kadim Ganim Homesh Sa-Nur

Since 2005