Khirbat Ism Allah 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 ...

hamlet in the Jerusalem Subdistrict, located 26 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 ...

. It was depopulated during the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

on July 17, 1948, 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 ...

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 ...

. Khirbat Ism Allah was mostly destroyed with the exception of several deserted houses.

History

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 ...

'' only noted “foundations" here.

British Mandate era

According to the

1931 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 P ...

, conducted in 1931 by the British Mandate authorities, Khirbat Ism Allah had a population of 18 inhabitants, in 4 houses.Mills, 1932, p
20
/ref> In 1944 Zionist established

Kfar Uria Kfar Uria ( he, כְּפַר אוּרִיָּה, ) is a moshav in central Israel. Located near Beit Shemesh in the Shephelah. It falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The village was fi ...

about 1,5 km NW of the village site, but not on village land.Khalidi, 1992, p. 296 In the 1945 statistics, Khirbat Ism Allah had a population of 20 Muslims, with a total of 568

dunums 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 ...

of land. Of this, 3 dunams were for irrigable land or plantations, 485 for

cereals A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more food en ...

, while 80 dunams were classified as non-cultivable land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
153
/ref> Rafat 1942

1948, aftermath

In 1992, the site was described: "The caves in the northern part of the site still show evidence of their former use as dwellings; the remains of arched entrances are present. In the southern part of the site, a few ruined houses are surrounded by low stone walls. This area has been recently repopulated by a Jewish shepherd family that renovated and occupied one of the houses. The walled in area is used as a goat barn, and the entire area has become a grazing site for the family's flock. The family uses the village spring to the west."

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Ism Allah, Khirbat, Palestine Remembered Khirbat Ism Allah

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

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