Welcome To Biriyya - بيريا (ביריא)

District of Safad Ethnically cleansed days ago	العربية Google Earth
$Picture for Biriyya Village - Palestine: : Let us tour Ein al-Zarqa -- جولة في المرج الازرق \ وادي بيريا \ العين الزرقا$	Gallery (37)

Statistic & Fact

Value

Occupation Date

May 2, 1948

Distance From District

1.5 (km) North East of Safad

Elevation

900 (meters)

Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Details

Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction

Pre-Nakba Aerial View

Map Location

See location #62 on the map

View from satellite

Military Operation

Operation Yiftach (commanded by the ethnic cleansing champion Yigal Allon)

Attacking Units

The Palmach's First Battalion

Acts of Terror

Please read about the massacre committed in the next door village of Ayn-al-Zaytun

Exodus Cause

Military assault by Zionist troops

Village Temains

The village has been mostly destroyed with the exception of 15 houses remain standing. Many of these houses now are used by Jewish settlers

Ethnically Cleansing

Biriyya inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.

Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership

Ethnic Group	Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab	408
Jewish	5,170
Public	1
**Total	5,579

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

Land Usage
As of 1945

Land Usage	Arab (Dunum)*	Jewish (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation	53	111
Olive Groves	30	0
Planted W/ Cereal	328	2,336
Built up	25	0
Arable	381	2,447
Non-Arable	3	2,723

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Population

Year	Population*
1596	319
19th century	100
1922	128
1931	170
1945	240
1948	278
Est. Refugees 1998	1,710

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Number of Houses

Year	Number of Houses
1931	38
1948	62

Near By Towns

Taytaba ↖	Dallata ↑ (N)	Qabba'a ↗
'Ayn al-Zaytun ←	Biriyya	→ Mughr al-Khayt
	↓ Safad	↘ Fir'im

Town's Name Through History

The Romans referred to the village by Berai (Biri)

Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands

Kibbutz Biriyya

Village Before Nakba

The village stood on the southern slope of a high hill that overlooked the city of Safad, to the south, and faced Mount al-Januaq, to the west. At the bottom of the slope ran a deep wadi. It was separated from Safad by agricultural land that was crossed by a highway; the highway linked Safad with nearby towns and villages. Biriyya may have been -built on the site of the Roman village of Berai or Biri, which was also a Jewish town during the first century A.D. In 1596, Biriyya was a village in the nahiya of Jira (liwa' of Safad) with a population of 319. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, and olives, as well as on other types of produce and property, such as goats, beehives, vineyards, and a press that was used for processing either olives or grapes.

In the late nineteenth century, Biriyya was a stone-built village surrounded by arable land, with about 100 to 150 (predominantly Muslim) residents. In modern times, most of its agricultural lands were southeast of the village. In 1944/45 a total of 328 dunums was allocated to cereals and 53 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Most of the residents worked in agriculture. They drew water for domestic use and crop irrigation from a number of springs in the vicinity. The villagers relied on Safad for services and for the marketing of their produce.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

A skirmish in the vicinity of Biriyya was reported on 7 April, when the Haganah announced to foreign reporters that 20 Arabs had been killed in an engagement near Mount Canaan, outside Safad. No further details are given by the New York Times, but the village may have been involved, since it lay on the mountain slope.

Israeli historian Benny Morris states that on 1 May 1948, one Palmach squad captured Biriyya, while another force took the adjacent village of 'Ayn al-Zaytun, in preparation for the final assault on Safad. No details are given about the circumstances of the occupation, but judging from the experience of 'Ayn al-Zaytun, the residents were probably forced to leave, and some may have been killed in the process. By taking the two villages, the Palmach managed to establish a link with the Jewish garrison in Safad, facilitating that city's capture. Morris states that the fall of Biriyya had a demoralizing effect on the residents of Safad; according to a New York Times report, they began to evacuate the city following its capture. The occupation of Safad and eastern Galilee was completed in May during Operation Yiftach (see Abil al-Qamh, Safad sub-district).

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

Zionists established a fortified settlement on the lands of the village in 1945 and named it Biriyya (196265). On 5 March 1946 British Mandatory authorities, investigating reports that the settlers had fired on a nearby Arab Legion camp, carried out an arms search there. After discovering weapons, they arrested the settlers and occupied the settlement. Ten· days later a mass of 3,000 other settlers marched up the mountain and tried to set up a second settlement, but the British soldiers drove them away. After continued confrontations, the British released the settlers who had been arrested and eventually (7 June 1946) evacuated the site. It was taken over in September 1948 by a religious kibbutz.

Village Today

About fifteen houses remain and are inhabited by the residents of the settlement of Biriyya; the settlement has been expanded to include the village site (see photos section). In addition to the inhabited houses, four are semi-deserted or used for storage. Stones from destroyed houses can be found in some of the walls around the settlement. Many old almond, olive, fig, and eucalyptus trees are scattered throughout the site, mingled with trees that have been planted more recently

Source

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

Want to browse more? 80,000 pictures were grouped in these gallaries:

Aerial view of village, Sept. 1948

Display Name	Clan/Hamolah	Country of Residence
همام صوان	-	-
عبد الرحمن صوان	-	-
Taha Alsayyed	alsayyed	-
Wassim Farhat	Farhat	Lebanon, Lebanon
علاء صوان	صوان	دمشق, سوريا
Jalal	Sawan	Damascus, Syria
Soubhi	Sawan	Syria, Damascus
AHMAD SAWAN	SAWAN	UAE, UAE

All Registered Members

صفد \ المرج الازرق \ وادي بيريا \ العين الزرقا \ Duration: 10 min 11 sec

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