Ayn Ghazal
Ayn Ghazal
عين غزال 'Ain Ghazal, 'Ein Ghazal | |
---|---|
Village | |
Etymology: "Spring of the gazelle"[1] | |
Ofer |
'Ayn Ghazal (
History
In 1517 the area of 'Ayn Ghazal was incorporated into the
In 1799, it appeared as the village Ain Elgazal on the map that Pierre Jacotin compiled that year, though it was misplaced.[9]
In 1870, Victor Guérin passed by, and noted that the village had 290 inhabitants. It was divided into two sections, and surrounded by tobacco plantations.[10]
Under Ottoman rule like much of the rest of Palestine in the late 19th century, Ayn Ghazal was described as a small village built of stone and mud, with about 450 residents. The villagers cultivated 35 Faddans of land (1 faddan is equal to 100-250 dunams).[11] Much of the land in the Ayn Ghazal and the neighbouring villages of
Ayn Ghazal had two schools: an elementary school for boys founded by the Ottomans in 1886, and an elementary school for girls. The village also had a cultural club and an athletic club.
A population list from about 1887 showed that Ain Ghuzal had about 910 inhabitants; all
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ‘Ain Ghazal had a population of 1,046, all Muslims,[16] increasing in the 1931 census, when it was counted with Khirbat al-Sawamir, to 1,439, still all Muslims, in 247 houses.[17]
In the 1945 statistics the population was 2,170, all Muslims,[2] and it had a total of 18,079 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[3] 1,486 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 8,472 for cereals,[18] while 130 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[13][19]
1948, and aftermath
When the conflict started, the village was poorly armed. Israeli intelligence estimated the village arsenal at a total of 87 weapons by mid-1947; including 23 obsolete rifles and 45 pistols.
In early June 1948, an
"these villages are in our pocket [...] We can act against them also after the [reinstitution of the] truce. This will be a police action... They are not regarded as enemy forces as their area is ours [i.e., in Israel] and they are inhabitants of the state...[and] these villages do not represent a military danger."[24]
The second truce, beginning on the 18 July, was not violated by the villagers.[25]
According to
'Ayn Ghazal was one of dozens of Palestinian villages subjected to aerial bombardment after the IDF managed to procure
Azzam Pasha, the Secretary General of the Arab League issued a statement alleging that atrocities were committed during and after the attacks. In particular it was stated that 28 people from al-Tira were burnt alive. The IDF rejected these allegations but admitted that their soldiers had found 25–30 bodies at 'Ayn Ghazal in "an advanced state of decomposition," and that the soldiers made prisoners bury the remains. The IDF also buried about 200 bodies found in the three villages after the battle.[30] On July 28, a United Nations observer visited the area, and found, according to Folke Bernadotte, "no evidence to support claims of massacre."[31] In early August, 1948, neighbouring Jewish settlers arrived in carts and looted Ayn Ghazal and Ja'ba.[32]
In mid-September 1948, UN investigators placed the number of killed or missing in the three villages (Ayn Ghazal, Ijzim and Ja'ba) at 130. Bernadotte condemned Israel's "systematic" destruction of Ayn Ghazal and Ja'ba, and asked that the Israeli government restore at its own expense all houses damaged or destroyed during and after the attack. Bernadotte said that a total of 8,000 people had been driven out of the three villages, and demanded that they be allowed to return; however, Israel rejected these demands.[13]
One of a number of Palestinian villages that was completely obliterated and then reforested by Israeli authorities, Ayn Ghazal, like
References
- ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 142
- ^ a b Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 13
- ^ a b c Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 47
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #166. Also gives cause of depopulation.
- ^ a b Morris, 2004, p. xxii, settlement #118
- ^ Bronstein in Masalha, 2005, p. 233.
- ^ al-Bakhīt, Muḥammad ʻAdnān; al-Ḥamūd, Nūfān Rajā (1989). "Daftar mufaṣṣal nāḥiyat Marj Banī ʻĀmir wa-tawābiʻihā wa-lawāḥiqihā allatī kānat fī taṣarruf al-Amīr Ṭarah Bāy sanat 945 ah". www.worldcat.org. Amman: Jordanian University. pp. 1–35. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
- S2CID 258602184.)
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ Karmon, 1960, p. 163 Archived 2019-12-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Guérin, 1875 p. 302
- ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 41. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.148
- ^ Yazbak, 1998, p. 140
- ^ a b c d e f g Khalidi, 1992, p.148.
- ^ Schumacher, 1888, p. 179
- ^ Mülinen, 1908, p. 284
- ^ Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. 34
- ^ Mills, 1932, p. 90.
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 89
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 139
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. 30
- ^ Filastin, 13.04.1948, cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 150, cited in Slyomovics, 1998, p. 100
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 150, cited in Slyomovics, 1998, p. 100
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. 96, 146. Note 172, logbook entry, IDF, for 9. June.
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. 438, 439, Note 146
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. 441, note 169; citing the investigating "Central Truce Supervision Board", chaired by US Brigadier General W.E. Riley. This board also found that the IDF assault on the villages had been a violation of the truce.
- ^ a b c Benvenisti, 2000, p. 152.
- ^ a b Morris, 2004, p. 439
- ^ Salah Abdel Jawad in Benvenisti, 2007, p. 97
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. 439, note 152
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. 440, note 163 & 164
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. 440, note 167. However, according to this note, "something amiss had indeed occurred", as it refers to an ongoing IDF "trial" concerning the "28". The relevant IDF files are still closed, according to Morris, 2004, p. 458.
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. 441, note 173.
- ^ Slyomovics, 1998, p. 30
- ^ Bronstein in Masalha, 2005, p. 220
Bibliography
- Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- ISBN 978-3-540-68160-1.
- ISBN 0-520-21154-5.
- Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945.
- Guérin, V. (1875). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 2: Samarie, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
- Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
- ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
- Karmon, Y. (1960). "An Analysis of Jacotin's Map of Palestine" (PDF). Israel Exploration Journal. 10 (3, 4): 155–173, 244–253. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-12-22. Retrieved 2017-09-05.
- ISBN 1-84277-622-3.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
- Mülinen, Egbert Friedrich von 1908, Beiträge zur Kenntnis des Karmels "Separateabdruck aus der Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palëstina-Vereins Band XXX (1907) Seite 117-207 und Band XXXI (1908) Seite 1-258."
- Palmer, E.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Schumacher, G. (1888). "Population list of the Liwa of Akka". Quarterly Statement - Palestine Exploration Fund. 20: 169–191.
- Slyomovics, Susan (1998). The object of memory: Arab and Jew narrate the Palestinian village (Illustrated ed.). University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-1525-0.
- ISBN 978-90-04-11051-9.
External links
- Welcome To 'Ayn Ghazal
- 'Ayn Ghazal, Zochrot
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 8: IAA, Wikimedia commons
- Ayn Ghazal from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
- 3ein Ghazal Archived 2020-07-20 at the Wayback Machine, from Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh
- Ali Hamoudi, Ayn Ghazzal, testimony, 1 March 2003, from Zochrot
- Tour and signposting at Ayn Ghazzal, 6.6.03, Zochrot
- Remembering Ayn Ghazal, Booklet from Zochrot, 07/2003
- "Memoirs" "Refugee Interviews" in Journal of Palestine Studies: