Khirbat Al-Lawz

Khirbat Al-Lawz was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on July 13, 1948, by the Har'el Brigade of Operation Dani. It was located 11 km west of Jerusalem, situated north of Wadi al-Sarar.

History

Ottoman era

In 1838, ''Khirbet el-Lauz'' was noted as a Muslim village, part of ''Beni Hasan'' area, located west of Jerusalem.

In 1863, Victor Guérin found it to be a hamlet of eighty inhabitants, most of them shepherds.

Socin found from an official Ottoman village list from about 1870 that ''chirbet el-loz'' had a population of 83, with a total of 38 houses, though the population count included men, only. Hartmann found that ''chirbet el-loz'' had 30 houses.

In 1883, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described ''Khurbet el Loz'' as "a village of moderate size on the slope of a high ridge near the summit. It has a sort of terrace below it, and stands some above the southern valley. There are rock-cut tombs at the place."

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Kherbet al-Ley'' had a population of 234 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p
14
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 315 Muslims, in 67 houses.Mills, 1932, p
41
/ref>

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 450 Muslims, while the total land area was 4,502 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 728 were used for plantations and irrigable land, 693 for cereals, while 13 dunams were classified as built-up areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
153
/ref>

Khirbat al-Lawz had a shrine dedicated to a local sage known as al-Shaykh Salama.Khalidi, 1992, p. 300

Post 1948

In 1992 the village site was described: "Grass and thorns grow among the stone rubble and terraces all across the site, as well as almond, fig, and carob trees. A thick forest of cypress and fir trees has been planted around the site. South of it, in the forest, is a well surrounded by several almond and fig trees. The forest is dedicated to the memory of Moshe Dayan, the Israeli general."

Gallery

File:KhirbatAlLawzNov132022 02.jpg, Mount Eitan and its slope with the remains of the village
File:KhirbatAlLawzNov132022 03.jpg, The remains (stone clusters) above and below the path the transcends nowadays through the village remains
File:KhirbatAlLawzNov132022 05.jpg, Mulberry tree of the village that remained and around it stones and other residues of houses
File:KhirbatAlLawzNov132022 04.jpg, A closer look of the Mulberry tree and the remains

References

Bibliography

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External links

Khirbat al-Lawz
Zochrot
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17:
IAA
Wikimedia commons
Al-Lawz, Khirbat
from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
* By Umar Agbariya, 7.6.2008, Zochrot
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War

Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
District of Jerusalem