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Welcome To Umm Burj, Khirbat - خربة أم برج (ח'ירבת אום בורג')

District of Hebron
Ethnically cleansed days ago
العربية

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Picture for Umm Burj, Khirbat Village - Palestine: : منظر عام لانقاض القرية #4
 Gallery (81)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date October 28, 1948
Distance From District 31 (km) Northwest of Hebron
Elevation 425 (meters)
Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Detailswhat's new
Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction
Map Location See location #12 on the map

View from satellite
Military Operation Third stage of Operation Yo'av (commanded by the ethnic cleansing champion Yigal Allon)
Attacking Units Har'el Brigade
Defenders Egyptian Army
Exodus Cause Expulsion by Zionist troops
Village Temains Umm al-Burg was completely destroyed, and only house walls and rubble left behind.
Ethnically Cleansing Umm al-Burg was completely ethnically cleansed between November and April, 1949 (see Zakariyya for more details).
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 13,079
Jewish 0
Public 4
**Total 13,083
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation 28
Olive Groves 33
Planted W/ Cereal 3,546
Built up 15
Arable 3,574
Non-Arable 9,494
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
1945 140
1948 162
Est. Refugees 1998 997
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses In (1931): 26
Near By Townswhat's new
'Ajjur
          ↖
Bayt Nattif
↑
(N)
Surif
↗        
Kudna  ←
Umm Burj, Khirbat
→   Kharas
            ↙
Dayr Nakhkhas
↓
Idna
↘           
Tarqumiya
Town's Name Through History Umm al-Burg may have been named after the tower which was built in its center during the Roman period.
Water Supply The villagers used to obtain drinking water from three wells on the northern parts of the village.
Archeological Sites Umm al-Burg contains at least twenty khirbas in its lands, many of which dates to the Romans period.
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands		 Nechusha
Featured Video

Village Before Nakba

The village stood on a hilltop, overlooking a broad expanse of land in all four directions. Its name was probably derived from a tower that had been erected in the center of the site. Khirbat Umm Burj was described in the late nineteenth century as a ruined village with a central tower that was (erroneously?) thought to be recently built. Its earlier name, which has not been preserved, may originally have contained the Greek word pyrgos ('tower'); Burj is an Arabization of this word. Two dirt paths gave the village access to a highway between Bayt Jibrin and Hebron and to another highway that ran from Bayt Jibrin northeast to the Jaffa-Jerusalem highway. Additional mountainous tracks linked it to the area's other villages, including Dayr Nakhkhas, Surif, and Nuba.

Khirbat Umm Burj, classified as a hamlet in the Mandate-era Palestine Index Gazetteer, stretched out in an east-west direction, and its houses were made of stone. Its residents, who were Muslims, obtained their drinking water from three wells on the northern tip of the site. Their chief economic activities were rainfed agriculture and animal husbandry. They cultivated grain and fruits such as olives and grapes. In 1944/45 a total of 3,546 dunums was allocated to cereals 28 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The village was originally an uninhabited khirba that contained walls, cisterns, caves, and rock carvings. There were at least twenty khirbas on village land, including Jamrura, perhaps to be identified with Gemmruris in Roman times. The ancient history of the site remains to be determined, but the presence of cisterns and a columbarium suggests a Roman habitation.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

Khirbat Umm Burj was probably entered by Israeli forces in the third stage of Operation Yoav , on 28-29 October 1948. This stage was marked by 'panic flight' and 'some expulsions,' according to Israeli historian Benny Morris; there were also atrocities, notably at nearby al-Dawayima on 29 October. Despite these circumstances, some villagers apparently remained in their homes, for on 6 November, an Israeli unit was sent to 'expel refugees' in the area and found 150 villagers in Khirbat Umm Burj. Morris writes that the unit, a platoon from the Har'el Brigade (which had just occupied positions to the north), 'expelled about l00, apparently injuring some of them.' This raid, and others like it carried out between November 1948 and April 1949, aimed at 'clearing' areas along the front lines between Israeli- and Jordanian-held territory. The village eventually fell in close proximity to the armistice lines.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

Nechusha, founded in 1982, is west of the site, on village lands.

Village Today

The crumbled houses that remain are attached to each other. Their windows and doors are clearly visible, although the roofs and sections of the walls are gone . A large arch stands amidst these remnants of houses. A large deserted structure (which formerly housed an irrigation pump) stands at the foot of the hill, on the western side of the village. It has an entrance on its eastern side. A carob tree grows inside it, and a pool and a well are located nearby. One can see caves that had formerly been habitations on the northern and northeastern periphery of the site cactuses grow on its southern edge.

Source

Dr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains.
Related Maps Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
خرائط للقضاء توضح حدود القرى والاودية
Town's map on MapQuest
View from satellite
Help us map this town at WikiMapia
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