Islin ( ar, عسلين) was a

Palestinian Arab 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 located 21 kilometers 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 ...

. The village had a population of 302 inhabitants and 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 ...

. It was occupied by

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 ...

i forces, possibly from the Fourth Battalion of the Harel Brigade, on 18 July 1948 during

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 ...

, causing its inhabitants to leave.

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 ...

, a moshav, was built on the village's land.

History

In 1596, Islin appeared as ''Islit'' in Ottoman tax registers as being in the ''

Nahiya A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

'' of Ramla of the '' Liwa'' of Jaffa. It had a population of 14

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

households, an estimated 77 people, who paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, and goats or beehives; a total of 4,700

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...

. In the later 1870s the place was uninhabited, with ruins of a village still visible, and with a Mukam. It was probably re-established at the beginning of the century.Khalidi, 1992, p. 295

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, Islin had a population 132, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p
15
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 186; in a total of 40 houses. In the 1945 statistics the population was 260, all Muslims, while the total land area was 2,159

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, 104 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 830 for cereals, while 20 dunams were classified as built-up areas.

1948 Arab–Israeli War and after

Islin, 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

. 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.Morris, 2004, p
436
/ref> File:Kasla 1943.jpg, Islin 1943 1:20,000 (left) File:Yalu 1945.jpg, Islin 1945 1:250,000 (lower left quadrant) File:Latroun (10 mai).png, Islin May 10 1948 Of the site in 1992,

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 ...

writes:

"Partially destroyed walls and stone terraces can be seen throughout the site. A thick forest, bushes, and grass grow over and around the stone rubble. Many
carob The carob ( ; ''Ceratonia siliqua'') is a flowering evergreen tree or shrub in the Caesalpinioideae sub-family of the legume family, Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated for its edible fruit pods, and as an ornamental tree in gardens and landscap ...
trees and some
olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...
trees grow on the northern edge of the site, and
eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...
and
fir Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family (biology), family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North America, North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The ...
trees grow in the south. The site also houses a bus repair yard belonging to the
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 ...
i public transportation cooperative, Egged."

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To 'Islin'Islin

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 ...

'Islin
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 ...