Kasla, Jerusalem

Kasla was a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on July 17, 1948, by the Harel Brigade of Operation Dani. It was located 17 km west of Jerusalem.

History

Antiquity

Kasla has been identified with the ancient Canaanite settlement of Chesalon,Khalidi, 1992, p. 298 and is believed to preserve its ancient name.Finkelstein et al, 2021
Excavations at Kiriath-jearim, 2019: Preliminary Report
/ref>Albright, 1923 Chesalon is mentioned in the Book of Joshua as one of the landmarks on the boundary of Tribe of Judah.Carta's Official Guide to Israel and Complete Gazetteer to all Sites in the Holy Land. (3rd edition 1993) Jerusalem, Carta, p.268, During the Roman period, Chesalon was a Jewish settlement; it was mentioned in a document found in Wadi Murabba'at and dated to the first-century CE.Ganor and Klein, 2015
Khirbat el-Mitraz
/ref> Remains from the Roman era has been found in a cave by the village. It is unknown whether it continued to exist in the aftermath of the First Jewish-Roman War and the Bar Kohkva Revolt.

Ancient ashlar stones have been found at Kasla, and the village had several ''khirbas'', including a shrine for a local sage known as al-Shaykh Ahmad.

Ottoman era

Kasla was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers under the name of ''Kisli'', or ''Kisla,'' as being in the ''nahiya'' ("subdistrict") of Ramla, which was under the administration of Gaza Sanjak. It had a population of 11 household;Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 155 an estimated 61 persons, who were all Muslims. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, fruit trees, sesame, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 1,280 akçe. All of the revenue went to a waqf.

In 1838, ''Kesla'' was noted as a Muslim village in the ''el-Arkub'' district, southwest of Jerusalem.

In 1863 Victor Guérin described it a being situated on a ridge, while an Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed ''Kesla'' with a population of 83, in 29 houses, though the population count included men only. It was also noted that to was located 3 1/2 to 4 hours west of Jerusalem.

In 1883, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described ''Kesla'' as "a small stone village in a conspicuous position on the top of a rugged ridge, with a deep valley to the north. There is a spring to the east, and two more in a valley to the south. This is the site of Chesalon."

In 1896 the population of Kesla was estimated to be about 207 persons.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Kasala'' had a population of 233 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p
15
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 299 Muslims, in 72 houses.Mills, 1932, p
41
/ref>

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 280 Muslims, while the total land area was 8,004 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 440 were used for plantations and irrigable land, 2,265 for cereals, while 10 dunams were classified as built-up areas.

File:Kasla 1943.jpg, Kasla 1943 1:20,000 (below centre)
File:Yalu 1945.jpg, Kasla 1945 1:250,000
File:Latroun (10 mai).png, Kasla May 10, 1948 (lower right quadrant)

1948, and aftermath

Kasla, along with four other villages, were overtaken by the Israeli Harel Brigade on 17–18 July 1948 in Operation Dani. 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>

Israel established two moshavs on Kasla's land: in 1948, Ramat Raziel; while in 1952 Ksalon was founded 1 km south of the village site, on the archeological site named ''Khirbat Sa'ra''.

In 1992 the village site was described: "Wild grass covers the entire site and grows amid the rubble of the stone houses, which is difficult to distinguish from the rubble of ruined terraces. Almond trees grow on top of the mountain and cactuses grow along the site’s southern slopes. Northeast of the village, two carob trees are surrounded by the remains of a vineyards. On the slopes, thick wild grass grows on several terraces, which are still intact."

References

Bibliography

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External links

Welcome To KaslaKasla
Zochrot
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17:
IAA
Wikimedia commons
Kasla
from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center

{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War

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