Al-Buwayziyya
| Al-Buwayziyya | |
|---|---|
  Al-Buwayziyya | |
| Arabic | البويزية والميس |
| Also spelled | Buweiziya,[1][2] |
| Subdistrict | Safad |
| Coordinates | 33°09′22.04″N 35°34′13.85″E / 33.1561222°N 35.5705139°ECoordinates: 33°09′22.04″N 35°34′13.85″E / 33.1561222°N 35.5705139°E |
| Palestine grid | 203/284 |
| Population | 510[2][3] (1945) |
| Area | 14620[2] dunams |
| Date of depopulation | May 11, 1948[1] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Influence of nearby town's fall |
Al-Buwayziyya (Arabic: البويزية والميس) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 11, 1948 by the Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach. It was located 22 km northeast of Safad.
In 1945 it had a population 510. The village had elementary school for boys which was founded in 1937.
History
Al-Buwayziyya was situated on the western edge of the Hula Valley Plain, on the lower, rocky slopes of Mount ‘Amil.[4] It was located on the western side of a highway that ran from the city of Tiberias to the northernmost Palestinian village of Al-Mutilla. The village had many springs that provided drinking water.[4]
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Buaizia had a population of 276, all Muslims,[5] increasing in the 1931 census to 318, still all Muslims, in a total of 75 houses.[6]
The population were mostly engaged in agriculture and mainly grew citrus fruits, grains and vegetables.[4] In 1944/45 a total of 2,770 dunums was allocated to cereal farming, 56 dunums was used for irrigation and orchards,[7] while 17 dunams were classified as urban (built-up) land.[8]
1948, aftermath
The village was attacked by Israeli forces on 11 May 1948 as part of Operation Yiftach which depopulated eastern Galilee. According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, al-Buwayziyya’s residents fled when they learned that the neighboring village of al-Khalisa, 5 km to the north, had succumbed to Jewish forces and as a result the village had been evacuated after the Haganah declined the villagers’ request for conditional permission to stay.[4]
Today all that remains is a few destroyed houses, walls and terraces, and the concrete roof of one house.[9]
References
- 1 2 Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #18. Also gives cause of depopulation
- 1 2 3 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 69
- ↑ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 9
- 1 2 3 4 Khalidi, 1992, p.442
- ↑ Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Safad, p. 42
- ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 105
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 118
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 168
- ↑ Khalidi, 1992, p.443
Bibliography
- Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
- Hadawi, Sami (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
- Khalidi, Walid (1992). All That Remains:The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
External links
- Welcome To al-Buwayziyya
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 4: IAA, Wikimedia commons
- al-Buwayziyya at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
- al-Buwayziyya, Dr. Khalil Rizk.
