Ishwa' ( ar, إشوع) was a
Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
village which was depopulated during the
1948 Arab-Israeli war
Events January
* January 1
** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.
** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect.
** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...
. The village was located about 20 km west of
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, on the present location of
Eshta'ol
( he, אֶשְׁתָּאוֹל) is a moshav in central Israel, and a biblical location mentioned in the Books of Joshua and Judges and in the first Book of Chronicles. Located north of , it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regio ...
. In the
1931 British census of Palestine
The 1931 census of Palestine was the second census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate for Palestine. It was carried out on 18 November 1931 under the direction of Major E. Mills after the 1922 census of Palestine.
* Census of ...
, Ishwa had a population of 468 in 126 houses. The village was occupied by the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
(IDF) on July 16, 1948, in
Operation Dani
Operation Danny ( he, מבצע דני, ''Mivtza Dani'') was an Israeli military offensive launched at the end of the first truce of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The objectives were to capture territory east of Tel Aviv and then to push inland and ...
by the
Harel Brigade
Harel Brigade (, ''Hativat Harel'') is a reserve brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, today part of the Southern Command. It played a critical role in the 1948 Palestine war, also known as "Israel's War of Independence." It is one of the former ...
. All of its inhabitants fled or were expelled.
History
Ishwa was an ancient village, situated at the foot of a hill.
It is thought to have been established over the site of the
Israelite
The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan.
The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...
city of
Eshtaol
( he, אֶשְׁתָּאוֹל) is a moshav in central Israel, and a biblical location mentioned in the Books of Joshua and Judges and in the first Book of Chronicles. Located north of , it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional ...
, famous for the biblical story of
Samson
Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...
. It was known by that name during the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
era, when it fell within the administrative district of Eleutheropolis (
Bayt Jibrin
Bayt Jibrin or Beit Jibrin ( ar, بيت جبرين; he, בית גוברין, translit=Beit Gubrin) was a Palestinians, Palestinian village located northwest of the city of Hebron. The village had a total land area of 56,185 dunams or , ...
). However, Dayr Abu al-Qabus, located to the north has also been identified with Eshta'ol.
[Khalidi, 1992, p. 293]
Ottoman era
During the 16th century CE, settlement seems to have shifted to the northwest to
Islin
Islin ( ar, عسلين) was a Palestinian Arab village located 21 kilometers west of Jerusalem. The village had a population of 302 inhabitants and was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. It was occupied by Israeli forces, possibly from ...
. During the 17th or 18th century the site of Islin went out of use, and Ishwa was probably repopulated.
[
In 1863 the French explorer ]Victor Guérin
Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Mino ...
visited and found the village to have barely 300 inhabitants. The only ancient remains was a ruined arch
An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it.
Arches may be synonymous with vaul ...
near the well
A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...
, which he thought was possibly dated to the Roman period. An Ottoman village list of about 1870 counted 32 houses and a population of 90 in ''Schu’a'', though the population count included men, only. It was described as being in the Hebron district, just east of Sar'a
Sar'a ( ar, صرعة), was a Palestinian Arab village located 25 km west of Jerusalem, depopulated in the 1948 war. The site lies on a hill, at an elevation of about above sea-level.
History Bronze Age to Roman period
Sar'a might have bee ...
.
By 1875, it had a population of 450.[ In 1883, the PEF's '']Survey of Western Palestine
The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the Survey of Western Palestine and in 1880 for the Survey of Eastern Palestine. The survey was carried out after the ...
'' (SWP) described it as being built near the foot of a hill and with olive trees planted below the village. Ishwa had a star-shaped configuration, its mostly stone houses extending along the roads leading to other villages.[
In 1896 the population of ''Aschuwa was estimated to be about 354 persons.
]
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine
The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922.
The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divisi ...
conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Ishwa had a population of 379, all Muslim.[Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p]
15
/ref> This had increased by the time of the 1931 census to 468, still all Muslim, in 117 houses.[Mills, 1932, p]
40
In the 1945 statistics the population was 620, all Muslims[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p]
24
/ref> while the total land area was 5,522 dunam
A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...
s, according to an official land and population survey.[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p]
57
/ref> Of this, 473 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 1,911 for cereals, while 47 dunams were classified as built-up areas.
File:Kasla 1943.jpg, Ishwa 1943 1:20,000 (left)
File:Yalu 1945.jpg, Bayt Mahsir 1945 1:250,000 (lower left quadrant)
File:Latroun (10 mai).png, Bayt Mahsir May 10 1948
1948 Arab–Israeli War and aftermath
Ishwa, along with four other villages, were overtaken by the Israeli Harel Brigade
Harel Brigade (, ''Hativat Harel'') is a reserve brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, today part of the Southern Command. It played a critical role in the 1948 Palestine war, also known as "Israel's War of Independence." It is one of the former ...
on 17–18 July 1948 in Operation Dani
Operation Danny ( he, מבצע דני, ''Mivtza Dani'') was an Israeli military offensive launched at the end of the first truce of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The objectives were to capture territory east of Tel Aviv and then to push inland and ...
. The villages had been on the front line since April 1948 and most of the inhabitants of these villages had already left the area. Many of those who stayed fled when Israeli forces attacked and the few who remained at each village were expelled.
Following the war, the area was incorporated into the State of Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. In 1949 the moshav
A moshav ( he, מוֹשָׁב, plural ', lit. ''settlement, village'') is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 an ...
of Eshtaol
( he, אֶשְׁתָּאוֹל) is a moshav in central Israel, and a biblical location mentioned in the Books of Joshua and Judges and in the first Book of Chronicles. Located north of , it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional ...
was established on land that had belonged to Ishwa and nearby Islin.[Morris, 2004, p.]
xxi
settlement #78[Khalidi, 1992, p. 294]
In 1992 Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi ( ar, وليد خالدي, born 1925 in Jerusalem) is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian people, Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the 1948 Palestinian exodus, Palestinian exodus. He is a co-founder of the ...
noted that: "Only a few of the village houses remain on the site, interspersed among the settlement's houses; some serve as residences and warehouses. The village cemetery, next to the administrative building of the settlement, has been levelled and planted with grass. On the southern edge of the cemetery is a cave that contains the large grindstone of a flour mill. Olive and carob trees grow on the site, among other trees more recently planted by the settlers. At the western edge of the village is a soccer field. The walls and fallen roofs of the destroyed houses can be seen at the edge of this field."[
In 1998, a book about the village was published in Jordan.][Davis, 2011, p]
283
/ref>
See also
*List of villages depopulated during the Arab–Israeli conflict
Below is a list of villages depopulated or destroyed during the Arab–Israeli conflict.
1880–1946
Arab villages
A number of these villages, those in the Jezreel Valley, were inhabited by tenants of land which was sold by a variety of owners, ...
References
Bibliography
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*Kan‘aan, Deeb Ahmad. 1998. Ishwa‘: Qarya Filastiniyya shwa‘: A Palestinian village Jordan.
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External links
Palestine Remembered - Ishwa
Ishwa'
Zochrot
Zochrot ( he, זוכרות; "Remembering"; ar, ذاكرات; "Memories") is an Israeli nonprofit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Palestinian ''Nakba'' ("Catastrophe"), including the 1948 Pa ...
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17
IAA
Wikimedia commons
Wikimedia Commons (or simply Commons) is a media repository of free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used across all of the Wikimedia projects in ...
Ishwa
from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center () is a leading Palestinian arts and culture organization that aims to create a pluralistic, critical liberating culture through research, query, and participation, and that provides an open space for the community ...
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War
Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
District of Jerusalem