Al-Mukhayzin was a Palestinian village in the Ramle Subdistrict. It was ethnically cleansed during the Nakba on April 20, 1948, by the Givati Brigade of Operation Har'el. It was located southwest of Ramla.
History Al-Mukhayzin was a Bedouin settlement established in the 19th century.Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 379
During the Ottoman period, it was inhabited by the 'Arab al-Wahidat (عرب الوحيدات). These nomadic people depended on livestock, transportation, and basic agriculture for survival. Due to their transient lifestyle and modest material possessions, their presence has left only faint marks in the archaeological record.
In 1838, el-Mukhaizin was noted as a Muslim village in the Gaza district.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 118
Al-Mukhayzin is mentioned as the southern limit reached by the displaced al-Wuḥaydī after mid-nineteenth-century pacification campaigns led by the fellāḥīn of Bani Malik and Abu Ghosh. These efforts marked the stabilization of the frontier west of Jerusalem and the reassertion of settled agriculture in the region.Orit Peleg-Barkat, Roy Marom, Gregg E. Gardner, Michael Chernin, and Saleh Kharanbeh, "Rural adaptation and settlement change in the late Islamic Jabal al-Khalīl (Judean Foothills)," Journal of Historical Geography 90 (2025): 87–98.
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine noted at Khurbet el Mukheizin: "A large well and birkeh (=artificial pool), of masonry. Several ruined cisterns and a few scattered stones."Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 425
British Mandate era In the 1931 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, El Mukheizin had 79 Muslim inhabitants, in a total of 19 houses.Mills, 1932, p. 21
In 1944, Chafetz Chayyim was built on what traditionally was village land.
In 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 200 Muslims and 110 Jews, with a land area of 10,942 dunums. Of this, Palestinians used 10,936 dunums for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 116 while 6 dunams were classified as non-cultivable areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 166
1948, aftermath Al-Mukhayzin was ethnically cleansed by an Israeli military assault on April 20, 1948.
Afterwards, Revadim, Yad Binyamin and Beyt Chilqiyya have all been built on village land.
In 1992 the village site was described: "The village has been completely leveled so that only flat, cultivated fields can be seen. There is a mound of stone and debris, about 2.5 m high, at the southern edge of the site. An orange grove has been planted next the mound, also at the southern edge."Khalidi, 1992, pp. 398–399
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Bibliography
See also Welcome to al-Mukhayzin al-Mukhayzin, Zochrot Survey of Western Palestine, Map 16: IAA, Wikimedia commons al-Mukhayzin, from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center