Al-Kafrayn

Al-Kafrayn
Children of Al-Kafrayn, around 1937
Al-Kafrayn
Arabic الكفرين
Name meaning "The two villages"[1]
Also spelled Kafrin, al-[2]
Subdistrict Haifa
Coordinates 32°34′25″N 35°07′08″E / 32.57361°N 35.11889°E / 32.57361; 35.11889Coordinates: 32°34′25″N 35°07′08″E / 32.57361°N 35.11889°E / 32.57361; 35.11889
Palestine grid 161/219
Population 920[3][4] (1945)
Area 10,882[4] dunams
Date of depopulation 12–13 April 1948[2]
Cause(s) of depopulation Military assault by Yishuv forces

Al-Kafrayn (Arabic: الكفرين‎) was a Palestinian village in the Haifa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on 12 April 1948 as part of the Battle of Mishmar HaEmek. It was located 29.5 km southeast of Haifa.

History

The Crusaders referred to al-Kafrayn as Caforana.[5]

Ottoman era

In 1859, Kefrein was estimated to have a population of 200, who cultivated 30 feddans.[6]

In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described it as "a village of moderate size, on the west side of the watershed, with a spring on that side."[6]

A population list from about 1887 showed that Kefrein had about 485 inhabitants, all Muslim.[7]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Al Kufrain had a population 571; 569 Muslims,[8] and 2 Orthodox Christians,[9] increasing in the 1931 census to 657, all Muslims, in a total of 95 houses.[10]

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 920 Muslims,[3] and the total land area was 10,882 dunams.[4] Of the land, 147 dunams was for plantations and irrigable land, 9,776 dunums (2,416 acres) for cereals,[11] while 18 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[12]

1948 and aftermath

Al-Kafrayn became depopulated in April 1948 after military assault by Yishuv forces.[2] 11–12 April 1948, the same day it was occupied, the Yishuv forces blew up some 30 of Kafrayns houses.[13][14]

On 19 April, 1948, the Palmach held an exercise in al-Kafrayn and afterwards they blew up the rest of the village.[15][16]

Most of the villagers ended up in tent homes in the Jenin area, appealing to the AHC: "Thousands of poor women and children from the villages of Abu Zureiq and Mansi and Ghubayya and Kafrin and other places near the colony of Mishmar Ha‘emek, whose houses the Jews have destroyed and whose babies and old people [the Jews] have killed, are now in the villages around Jenin without help and dying of hunger. We ask you to repair the situation . . . and do everything to quickly send forces of vengeance against the Jews and restore us to our lands."[17]

Following the war the area was incorporated into the State of Israel. An Israeli military training camp was later built on the village's land.[5]

In 1992, the remains were described: "The site and its surrounding area are divided between a military training camp and a cow pasture. A rubble-filled has been fenced in and is covered with dirt, underbrush and thorns. Almond,olive and fig trees are scattered around the site."[5]

References

  1. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 147
  2. 1 2 3 Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #155. Also gives cause of depopulation
  3. 1 2 Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 14
  4. 1 2 3 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 48
  5. 1 2 3 Khalidi, 1992, p. 169
  6. 1 2 Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 42
  7. ↑ Schumacher, 1888, p. 180
  8. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. 34
  9. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table XVI, p. 49
  10. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 92
  11. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 90
  12. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 140
  13. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. 242, note #600, p. 296
  14. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. 346, note #30, p. 397
  15. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. 242, note #609, p. 297
  16. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. 346, note #34, p. 397
  17. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. 242, note #607, p. 297

Bibliography

  • Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
  • Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
  • Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
  • Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
  • Khalidi, W. (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, B. (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
  • Palmer, E.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
  • Schumacher, G. (1888). "Population list of the Liwa of Akka". Quarterly statement - Palestine Exploration Fund. 20: 169–191.
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