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Welcome To 'Ayn al-Zaytun - عين الزيتون (עין א-זיתון)

District of Safad
Ethnically cleansed days ago

العربية

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Picture for 'Ayn al-Zaytun Village - Palestine: : That is how the
Gallery (151)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date May 2, 1948
Distance From District 1.5 (km) North East of Safad
Elevation 700 (meters)
Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Detailswhat's new
Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction
Map Location See location #61 on the map

View from satellite
Acts of Terror

During the battle the majority of the male inhabitants fled the town, and soon after occupation the remaining 'Ayn al-Zaytun women, children, and senior citizens were rounded by the Palmah troops and then ethnically cleansed with shots fired over their heads to speed their evection from their homes. On the 3rd of May, some of the village inhabitants attempted to come back to their homes, but they were fired upon and one person was killed (Benny Morris, p. 102).

Exodus Cause Military assault by Zionist troops
Village Temains On May 3rd 1948, the village was mostly destroyed with the exception of few deserted house.
Ethnically Cleansing 'Ayn al-Zaytun inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 1,054
Jewish 0
Public 46
**Total 1,100
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation 477
Olive Groves 150
Planted W/ Cereal 280
Built up 35
Arable 757
Non-Arable 308
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
1596 622
19th century 200
1922 386
1931 567
1945 820
1948 951
Est. Refugees 1998 5,841
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses
Year Number of Houses
1931 127
1948 213
Near By Townswhat's new
Qaddita
         
Taytaba

(N)
Mirun  
   Biriyya
           
al-Sammu'i
           
Safad
Nearby Wadies & Rivers The village was situated on the western slopes of Wadi al-Dilb
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands
No settlements on village lands
Featured Video

Village Before Nakba

The village was situated on the western slope of Wadi al-Dilb, next to the highway leading to the city of Safad. Wadi al-Dilb may have been the wadi that the Arab geographer al-Dimashqi (d. 1327) called Wadi Dulayba, which he described as lying between Mirun and Safad. He said that water gushed from a spring there for one or two hours (allowing people to collect drinking water and wash), and then abruptly retreated. [[Nukhbat, cited in D 6/2:29, fn. 1]] In fact, the village name, which was Arabic for 'spring of the olives,' did indicate that a spring of some kind was in the vicinity. In 1596, 'Ayn al-Zaytun was a village in the nahiya of Jira (liwa' of Safad) with a population of 622. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, and olives, as well as on vineyards and orchards. [[Hut. and Abd.:175]]

In the late nineteenth century, visitors reported that 'Ayn al-Zaytun was a stone-built village located on top of a hill north of Safad. The village, which had an estimated population of 200 to 350, was surrounded by arable land. [[SWP (1881) I:196]] Because of its proximity to the sub-disctrict capital, 'Ayn al-Zaytun was considered a suburb of Safad. As the village grew, stone houses were built to the south, in the direction of Safad. The entire population was Muslim. 'Ayn al-Zaytun had an elementary school and a mosque. The villagers cultivated olives, grain, and fruit, especially grapes. Agriculture was dependent upon rainfall, but the villagers drew their drinking water from a well and a spring which lay 800 m due north. In 1944/45 a total of 280 dunums was allotted to cereals; 477 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

Zionist forces attacked 'Ayn al-Zaytun well before they succeeded in occupying it. The New York Times reported that early on the morning of 3 January 1948, a raiding party killed one villager and bombed four houses, and that firing continued in the neighborhood during the rest of the day. Later, as a prelude to the occupation of Safad during Operation Yiftach (see Abil al-Qamh, Safad sub-disctrict), Palmach troops approached 'Ayn al-Zaytun from the north and occupied it on 1 May 1948. [[NYT:4/1/48]]

As the villagers later recalled, the bloody events in the village began at 3:00 a.m. with a barrage of mortar fire from eleven mortars, followed by a ground assault by two platoons. Villagers interviewed in 1973 said that the village men who had weapons decided on a tactical retreat, but the rest of the villagers decided not to leave their homes. When Israeli troops entered the village, the villagers were rounded up. The men among them were taken away and the rest were humiliated and expelled while shots were fired over their heads, according to the villagers' testimony and Israeli sources. As for the men, some were later expelled and enabled to join their families, but thirty-seven of them, selected at random, were taken captive. According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, they were probably among a group of seventy people later massacred in a gully between 'Ayn al-Zaytun and Safad under orders from Moshe Kelman, the commander of the Palmach's Third Battalion. Morris reports that Kelman had some difficulty in finding soldiers who were willing to carry out the killings, but eventually entrusted the task to two men. After the prisoners were killed, and in anticipation of a Red Cross visit to the area, he ordered their hands to be untied to conceal the fact that the killing had been done in cold blood.

Several villagers attempted to return to their homes over the next couple of days but were fired upon by the Palmach; one of them was killed, according to Morris. As for the village houses, they were burned or blown up by Palmach sappers on 2 and 3 May. The destruction was carried out partly in order to terrify the inhabitants of Safad, who could watch the spectacle from nearby hills. The sight of the village being leveled had a demoralizing effect in the city, as well as in the surrounding villages of eastern Galilee.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

There are no Israeli settlements on village lands.

Village Today

The rubble of destroyed stone houses is scattered throughout the site, which is otherwise overgrown with olive trees and cactuses. A few deserted houses remain, some with round arched entrances and tall windows with various arched designs. In one of the remaining houses, the smooth stone above the entrance arch is inscribed with Arabic calligraphy, a fixture of Palestinian architecture. The well and the village spring also remain.

Source

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

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