Fir'im

Fir'im () was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict that was depopulated during the 1948 Palestine war. It was first attacked during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 2, 1948, by the Palmach's First Battalion during Operation Yiftach. In 1945 the population had been 740.

Location Fir'im was located northeast of Safad. It was situated on the southeastern slope of Mount Kan'an, and overlooked land between Lake Tiberias and Lake Hula.Khalidi, 1992, p.450

History An archaeological site near Fir'im contained the ruins of buildings and rock-hewn tombs. In the late 19th century, remains of ancient structures built into the modern buildings were observed.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 222

In 1964, a resident of Afula reported the discovery of an intricately inscribed limestone lintel featuring a bilingual Aramaic/Greek funerary inscription dedicated to Yosef, son of ʿUzi (יוסף בר עוזי). He said he had found it at Fir'im years earlier. Triglyphs divide the lintel, with a rosette on the right and a Jewish script inscription on the left, presented in tabula ansata. Below the Jewish script, a Greek inscription is also in tabula ansata.

Ottoman era According to the Ottomans 1596 tax records, Fir'im belonged to the nahiya (subdistrict) of Jira, (in the Safad Sanjak), and had a 72 households and 9 bachelors, an estimated population of 446, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on various agricultural product, such as wheat, barley, olives, goats, beehives, and a press that was used for processing either olives or grapes; total of 6,222 akçe.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 179. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 450Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9 According to HaReuveni, Jews also lived in Fir'im in the 16th century, and the son of Rabbi Yom Tov Tzahalon died there.HaReuveni (1999), p. 327

The village appeared under the name of Farhan on the map that Pierre Jacotin compiled during Napoleon's invasion of 1799.Karmon, 1960, p. 165

In 1838, it was noted as Fur'am, a Muslim village, located in the el-Khait district.Robinson and Smith, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p. 136

In 1875 Victor Guérin noted that the village contained about twenty houses.Guérin, 1880, p. 453 In 1881 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Fir'im as a stone-built village, situated at the end of a ridge. The villagers, who were Muslim, numbered about 200 and cultivated olives and figs.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, pp. 197-198. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 450.

A population list from about 1887 showed Fe'ram to have about 765 Muslim inhabitants.Schumacher, 1888, p. 189

British Mandate era In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Fer'em had a population of 449; all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Safad, p. 41 increasing in the 1931 census to 527, still all Muslims, in a total of 109 houses.Mills, 1932, p. 106

Most of the stone houses in the village were densely situated in a northwest—southeast order. The village had a village council, and an elementary school for boys. The village economy was based on agriculture; fruit was the main crop, followed by grain. The village also had two olive presses.

In the 1945 statistics the population was 740 Muslims, and the total land area was 2,023 dunums. Of this, was allocated to cereal farming, while were used for plantations or were irrigated.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 118

1948, and aftermath The village was attacked by forces from the Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah on the night of 2 May 1948. The attack, called Operation Yiftach, was led by Yigal Allon. In the operation, the villages of 'Ein al Zeitun and Biriyya were conquered, while the villages of Fir'im, Qabba'a and Mughr al-Khayt were intimidated with mortar barrages, which precipitated mass evacuation.Morris, 2004, p. 249, note 693 However, the villagers soon began to return, only to find that Fir'im was torched by Palmach forces on 22 May.Morris, 2004, p. 251, note 710 During late May it was reported that hungry refugees once again began to drift back to their old villages, including Fir'im. Mainly the villagers tried to harvest their crops, and many erected temporary shelters outside their old villages from where they could reach their crops and were relatively inaccessible to Israeli troops.Morris, 2004, p. 252, note 712. The other villages mentioned are Al-Muftakhira, Al-Hamra', Al-Zuq al-Tahtani, Al-Salihiyya and Al-'Abisiyya. The Haganah acted to curb this, and on 24 May, they started the "systematic torching of the villages of the Hula [Valley]".Morris, 2004, pp. 251-2, note 713

By late June 1948, Israeli military intelligence reported (somewhat inaccurately, according to Morris), that "All the Arab villages in the Safad area as far [northwestward] as Sasa were empty".Morris, 2004, p. 252, note 714

Today the settlement of Hatzor HaGlilit (Chatzor ha-Gelilit), established in 1953, is situated about 1 kilometer southeast of where the village stood.

The Palestinian Historian Walid Khalidi described the village site in 1992: "The rubble of destroyed village houses is scattered across the site. Some terraces with olive trees remain. Olive trees and cactuses grow on the site and the surrounding lands. Some small portions of these lands are wooded but most are used for pasture."Khalidi, 1992, p. 450-451

Fir'im

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