Welcome To Dayr 'Amr - دير عمرو (דיר עמר)

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Statistic & Fact

Value

Occupation Date

July 17, 1948

Distance From District

12.5 (km) West of Jerusalem

Elevation

750 (meters)

Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Details

Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction

Map Location

See location #19 on the map

View from satellite

Military Operation

Second stage of Operation Dani

Attacking Units

Fourth Battalion of the Har'el Brigade

Exodus Cause

Expulsion by Zionist troops

Village Temains

Dayr 'Amr has mostly survived destruction (one of the miracle in the area?), most of the its houses are currently occupied and being renovated by Israeli Jewish settlers.

Ethnically Cleansing

Dayr 'Amr inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.

Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership

Ethnic Group	Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab	3,072
Jewish	0
Public	0
**Total	3,072

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps

Land Usage
As of 1945

Land Usage	Arab (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation	18
Olive Groves	5
Planted W/ Cereal	650
Arable	668
Non-Arable	2,404

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Population

Year	Population*
1931	434
1945	10
1948	719
Est. Refugees 1998	4,800

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Number of Houses

In (1931): 110 (includes Suba)

Near By Towns

Saris ↖	al-'Umur, Khirbat ↑ (N)	'Ayn Naquba ↗
Bayt Umm al-Mays ←	Dayr 'Amr
↙ 'Aqqur		↘ al-Lawz, Khirbat

Town's Name Through History

Dayr 'Amr was named after a local sage known by al-Sa'i 'Amr.

Schools

In 1942, the General Arab Orphans' Committee (a private body based in Jerusalem) established in Dayr 'Amr a model Boys' Farm. In 1946, the farm had about 60 students. The school remain standing which is currently being used as a hospital by Israelis.

Shrines / Maqams

A shrine for a local sage known by al-Sa'i 'Amr, whom the village was named after.

Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands

The Boys' Farm were transformed into an Israeli mental hospital, Eytanim and Bezek telephone and television company has established a large facility with radar equipment at the southern edge of the site.

Village Before Nakba

The village was located on a flat mountain peak, oriented in an east−west direction. A secondary road linked it to the Jerusalem−Jaffa highway, and dirt paths led to nearby villages. Dayr 'Amr, a very small village that included only a few stone houses, had an irregular layout. The villagers were Muslims; they maintained a shrine for a saint called al-Sa'i ('the messenger') 'Amr, who was the namesake of the village. His historical identity has not been determined.

The village was the site of an interesting Palestinian educational and social venture. In 1942, the General Arab Orphans' Committee―a private body based in Jerusalem―established in Dayr 'Amr a model Boys' Farm, the curriculum of which combined a regular high school syllabus with agricultural training. Students were chosen exclusively from rural families whose breadwinners had died in the resistance during the 1936−39 rebellion against the pro-Zionist policy of the British Mandatory government. The idea was to encourage the Farm's graduates to return to their villages and help in their development.

In 1946, the Farm had about 60 boarders. The following year construction of a building began for an adjacent Girls' Farm, to be run along similar lines. The Committee's funds were largely drawn from a countrywide network of contributors who made small but regular donations, thus ensuring the national prominence of Dayr 'Amr. The president of the Committee was the Palestinian educator Ahmad Samih al-Khalidi, whose book is frequently cited in this volume. After 1948, the Palestinian leader Musa 'Alami revived the concepts underlying the Dayr 'Amr Farm when he established the Boys' Farm in Jericho, which continues to operate to this day.

A spring located south of the village provided potable water. Grain was planted in the bottom of valleys and in the lowlands, while olive trees and vineyards were located on the slopes. Wild trees, grass, and herbs covered the mountain tops around the village. Rainfed agriculture was the main source of livelihood. In 1944/45 a total of 650 dunums was allocated to cereals; 18 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. In addition to agriculture, villagers engaged in livestock breeding. The village was built on an archaeological site sometime early in this century.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

The village was 'cleansed' by the Fourth Battalion of the Har'el Brigade on 16 July 1948, according to the History of the War of Independence; Israeli historian Benny Morris states that it was conquered on 17−18 July. These two dates may actually refer to two different stages in the conquest of the village; the New York Times correspondent filed a story on 16 July to the effect that the 'strategic heights' of this village were taken by Palmach fighters. Perhaps the village itself was not seized until the following day. Dayr 'Amr was captured as part of the second stage of Operation Dani (see Abu al-Fadl, Ramla sub-district) along with other villages on a side road leading to Jerusalem. The inhabitants of these villages were displaced in one of three ways: they may have evacuated their homes some time before the operation (perhaps in reaction to the nearby Deir Yasin massacre), or been driven out by the mortaring and attacks that preceded the operation, and some were expelled by the invading Israeli troops. This was the fate of the principal of the Boys' Farm and his deputy, who were sent on their way by shots fired behind them. [Interview with the principal of the Boys' Farm]

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

The main buildings of the Boys' Farm were transformed into an Israeli mental hospital, Eytanim (159131), in 1952.

Village Today

The site is surrounded with a fence and a guarded gate. All the houses still stand and new extensions have been added to some of them. Large cypress and carob trees grow among the houses. There is an olive grove on the southern edge of the village. The Bezek telephone and television company has established a large facility, with radar equipment, at the southern edge of the site. The psychiatric hospital of Eytanim is nearby.

Source

Dr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains.

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Clan/Hamolah

Country of Residence

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