Welcome To al-Barriyya - البرية (אל-בריה)

District of al-Ramla Ethnically cleansed days ago	العربية Google Earth
	Gallery (4)

Statistic & Fact

Value

Occupation Date

July 10, 1948

Distance From District

5.5 (km) Southeast of al-Ramla

Elevation

100 (meters)

Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Details

Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction

Pre-Nakba Aerial View

Map Location

See location #25 on the map

View from satellite

Military Operation

Operation Dani

Village Temains

In mid-September 1948, al-Barriyya was completely destroyed with the exception of one stone house.

Ethnically Cleansing

al-Barriyya inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.

Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership

Ethnic Group	Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab	2,758
Jewish	0
Public	73
**Total	2,831

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

Land Usage
As of 1945

Land Usage	Arab (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation	51
Planted W/ Cereal	2,627
Built up	55
Arable	2,678
Non-Arable	98

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Population

Year	Population*
1922	295
1931	388
1945	510
Est. Refugees 1998	3,633

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Number of Houses

In (1931): 86

Near By Towns

al-Ramla ↖	Daniyal ↑ (N)	'Innaba ↗
Tall al-Batteikh ←	al-Barriyya	→ al-Kunayyisa
↙ al-Na'ani	↓ Abu Shusha	↘ al-Qubab

Places of Warship

One mosque

Nearby Wadies & Rivers

The village is situated on the Eastern bank of Wadi al-Barriyya.

Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands

Azarya, Beyt Chashmonay, and Kefar Shemu'el.

Village Before Nakba

The village stood on a low rise overlooking wide areas on the south and west, and was linked by a short paved road (built by the volunteer labor of the villagers) to the Ramla-Jerusalem highway. Wadi al-Barriyya passed through the eastern edge of the village. In the late nineteenth century, aI-Barriyya was described as a small hamlet built of adobe bricks and surrounded by cultivated land. The village plan was rectangular, generally extending in an east-west direction; as the village grew, new houses were built towards the south and southeast. (Fruit orchards and the village's threshing grounds obstructed any possible expansion to the north, while Wadi aI-Barriyya hindered growth towards the east.) Most of the residents of al-Barriyya were Muslims and worshipped in a small mosque. The village also had an elementary school for boys, which had forty-eight students and one teacher at the time of its founding in 1943. The villagers relied upon rain water, collected in cisterns, and the water resources of nearby villages for their domestic water needs.

The village economy was based mainly on beekeeping and on rainfed agriculture. The British Royal Commission that visited the village in 1936 reported that al-Barriyya was one of the pioneering villages in the adoption of beekeeping. Revenues from this activity were estimated at 1,000 Palestinian pounds in 1936. Cultivated crops included grain, watermelons, and vegetables. In 1944/45 a total of 2,627 dunums was allocated to cereals; 51 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Some villagers also worked in animal husbandry, while a few others were migrant laborers in nearby cities.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

Israeli historian Benny Morris indicates that al-Barriyya was attacked and depopulated between 10 and 13 July 1948. This apparently took place during Operation Dani (see Abu aI-Fadl, aI-Ramla sub-disctrict). But the History of the War of Independence states that the village was already in Israeli hands at the beginning of Operation Dani, on 9-10 July. The plan of that operation indicated that al-Barriyya would be the launching point for an Israeli unit that would encircle Lydda and Ramla. Under those circumstances, the village may have been occupied in the course of Operation Barak (see al-Batani al-Gharbi, Gaza sub-district), the offensive launched in the Ramla area during the month of May.

Whatever the date of occupation, it is clear that al-Barriyya was firmly in Israeli hands by September. Morris relates that Israeli Prime Minister Ben-Gurion applied to the cabinet for permission to destroy the village in mid-September. He does not mention whether permission was granted, but that same month the village was reported to have been renamed Barriya Bet and settled with Jewish immigrants. On 21 September the settlers reportedly abandoned the site for 'lack of motivation,' preferring 'the seeming comforts of town.'

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

Currently there are two Israeli settlements on village lands: 'Azarya (141144), founded in 1949, and Beyt Chashmonay (142144), founded in 1972. Kefar Shemu'el (144144), founded in 1950 on the lands of the destroyed village of 'Innaba (Ramla sub-disctrict), is about 4 km east of the site.

Village Today

The village site is mostly cleared and has been levelled except for one remaining stone house and fragments of the walls of two concrete houses with steel bars protruding from them (see photos).

Source

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

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

Pre-Nakba Aerial view of the village / صورة من الجو للقرية اخذت قبل النكبة

Display Name	Clan/Hamolah	Country of Residence
انس	علي	عمان, الاردن
yousef hamad	حمد	فلسطين, رام الله القديمة
أبو محمد	حسان	-
محمد خليل	-	البريه
مراد حسان	حسان	-
Nidal Saleem	Saleem	Dubai, United Arab Emirates
osams hamad	حمد	فلسطين
yousef ali	ALI	NEW YORK, USA
ابو امجد	خليل	رامالله
ابو محمود	علي	عمان الهاشمي
احمدعبد الحميد علي	علي	عمان طبربور
mohamad wax	خليل	الزرقاء, الهاشميه
abu Jana	خليل	Dammam, Dammam
ابو العسل	-	اريحا
ابو فارس	سليم	-
طارق عبدالله	حمد	الزرقاء
احسان صالح	سلامه	عمان
سامر ضيف الله	ضيف الله	Amman, Jordan
ابو وسام	خليل	-

All Registered Members

في قرية البريّة المهجرة في قضاء الرملة بقي بيت واحد ينطق بما كان - 2020 . 6 .6 Duration: min 36 sec
تاريخ النضال والهجرة من قرية بشيت Duration: 24 min 2 sec

No links have been shared yet, be free to the first to share the first link.

PalestineRemembered		About Us	Oral History	العربية
Menu	Pictures	Zionist FAQs	Haavara	Maps

PalestineRemembered.com		Satellite View	Search	Donate	Contact Us	Looting 101	The Home of Palestinians		العربية
About Us	Zionist FAQs	Conflict 101	Pictures	Maps	Oral History	Haavara	Facts Not Lies	Zionism 101	Zionist Quotes