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Welcome To al-Burj - البرج (אל-בורג')

District of al-Ramla
Ethnically cleansed days ago
العربية

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Picture for al-Burj Village - Palestine: : Let us see how the most
Gallery (54)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date July 15, 1948
Distance From District 14 (km) East of al-Ramla
Elevation 275 (meters)
Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Detailswhat's new
Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction
Map Location See location #22 on the map

View from satellite
Military Operation Second phase of Operation Dani.
Defenders Jordanian Army
Exodus Cause Military assault by Zionist troops
Village Temains al-Burj was mostly destroyed with the exception of one crumbling house remain standing.
Ethnically Cleansing al-Burj inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 4,705
Jewish 0
Public 3
**Total 4,708
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation 6
Olive Groves 60
Planted W/ Cereal 2,631
Built up 12
Arable 2,637
Non-Arable 2,059
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
1922 344
1931 370
1945 480
1948 557
Est. Refugees 1998 3,419
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses
Year Number of Houses
1931 92
1948 138
Near By Townswhat's new
Shilta
↑
(N)
Bil'in
↗        
Barfiliya  ←
al-Burj
→   Bayt Sira
            ↙
Bayt Shanna
↓
Bir Ma'in
↘           
Bayt Liqya
Town's Name Through History al-Burj may have been named in reference to the nearby Crusades castle, Castle Arnold.
Schools An elementary school for boys which was founded in 1947, and it had an initial enrollment of 35 boys.
Water Supply A water tank located on the East side which provided the village with its water supplies.
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands		 Kefar Rut
Featured Video

Village Before Nakba

The village was situated on a rocky spot in the western foothills of the Ramallah Mountains, overlooking the central coastal plain. It was linked by a network of narrow roads to the Ramla-Ramallah highway, which ran a relatively short distance to the southeast, and to the neighboring villages of Bayt Sira, Safa, and Barfiliya. The village may have been named al-Burj (an Arabization of the Greek pyrgos, 'tower') in reference to the Crusader castle, Castle Arnold, that had been built on the site in earlier times. The village was visited by Edward Robinson in 1838 , and when the authors of the Survey of Western Palestine saw it, later in the nineteenth century, al-Burj was a village situated on a hilltop that was surrounded on all sides by open fields. They also saw the remains of the Crusader fortress nearby.

Originally, al-Burj had a semi-circular layout, but it expanded southward during the Mandate. Some of its houses were built of adobe brick, while others were of stone. Its population was predominantly Muslim. The villagers underwrote the construction of an elementary school that was completed in 1947, and that had an initial enrollment of about thirty-five students. A water tank on the east side provided the village with drinking water. Animal husbandry and agriculture were the main occupations of the residents. They cultivated grain, fruit, vegetables, and olives. In 1944/45 a total of 2,631 dunums was allotted to cereals; 6 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

Al-Burj village was the scene of a battle between Israeli forces and the Transjordanian Arab Legion during the Ten Days between the two truces of the war. The Israeli army occupied the village on 15 July 1948, during the second phase of Operation Dani (see Abu al-Fadl, Ramla sub-disctrict). It occupied Barfiliya, Salbit, and Bir Ma'in at the same time, according to a Reuters dispatch in the New York Times. The following day, the Arab Legion tried to regain control of the village with two infantry platoons and a column of ten armored cars, as related by the History of the War of Independence. That account reads:

The armored cars approached el Burj and our men let them advance towards the village's houses and then opened fire with anti-tank weapons. After a four-hour long battle, the enemy withdrew, taking some killed and wounded and leaving on the battlefield 4 armoured vehicles and a number of their dead. Meanwhile, our mortars and heavy machine-guns opened fire on the enemy infantry, but they withdrew before we could complete their encirclement.

Palestinian historian 'Arif al-'Arif states that the attempt to recapture al-Burj managed to block the advance of Israeli forces along this axis. Estimates of the number of casualties in the battle vary considerably. According to the Haganah, 30 Arabs were killed and 50 wounded, with 3 Jews killed and another 7 wounded. But al-'Arif states that 7 Arabs were killed and 6 were missing and presumed dead, while 3 were wounded.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

The agricultural settlement of Kefar Rut (153146) is northeast of the site on village lands.

Village Today

Only one crumbled house remains on the hilltop. Cactuses and wild plants grow on the site. The nearby settlement uses the village land for hothouse agriculture.

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
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