Tabsur

Tabsur (Khirbat 'Azzun)
Tabsur (Khirbat 'Azzun)
Arabic (تبصر(خربة عزون
Name meaning from personal name [1]
Also spelled Tabsar, Khirbet 'Azzun
Subdistrict Tulkarm
Coordinates 32°11′36″N 34°52′38″E / 32.19333°N 34.87722°E / 32.19333; 34.87722Coordinates: 32°11′36″N 34°52′38″E / 32.19333°N 34.87722°E / 32.19333; 34.87722
Palestine grid 138/177
Area 5,328 dunams
Date of depopulation 3 April 1948[2]
Cause(s) of depopulation Fear of being caught up in the fighting
Secondary cause Expulsion by Yishuv forces
Current localities Ra'anana[3] and Batzra[3]

Tabsur (Arabic: تبصر‎), also Khirbat 'Azzun (Arabic: خربة عزون‎), was a Palestinian village located 19 kilometres southwest of Tulkarm. In 1931, the village had 218 houses and an elementary school for boys.[3] It was depopulated before the outbreak of 1948 Arab-Israeli war.[4]

History

Tabsur was established before the middle of the nineteenth-century on an archaeological site.[5] The village contained archaeological remains, including the foundations of a building, a well, fragments of mosaic pavement, and tombs.[3]

In the late nineteenth century, Tabsur was described as a moderate-sized hamlet with a well to the north.[6] It was later classified as a hamlet by the Palestine Index Gazetteer.[5]

British Mandate era

During the British Mandate an elementary school for boys was established in the village. The village also had a few shops.[3]

In the 1922 census of Palestine there were 709 villagers; 700 Muslims and 9 Christians,[7] (where the Christians were all Orthodox,[8]) increasing in 1931 census to 994; 980 Muslims and 14 Christians, in 218 houses.[9]

In the 1944/45 statistics, a total of 1,602 dunums were allocated to cereals, while 24 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.[10][11][12] 29 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) area.[13]

1948, aftermath

The Arabs of Tabsur were ordered to leave by the Haganah on 3 April 1948, as part of Haganas policy of clearing out the Arab villages on the coastal plain.[14] The villagers left on 16 April 1948.[14]

Ra'anana was established south of Tabsur in 1921. Now a city, some of its suburbs have expanded into land that once belonged to the village. Batzra, founded in 1946 on village land, lies to the north.[3]

In 1992, the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi wrote: "The village has been completely covered with Israeli citrus orchards, making it difficult to distinguish from the surrounding lands. Citrus and cypress trees grow on the village land."[3]

The estimated number of Palestinian refugees from Tabsur in 1998 was 2,406.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 176
  2. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #192. Also gives cause of depopulation
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Khalidi, 1992, p. 562
  4. 1 2 "Welcome to Tabsur". Palestine Remembered. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
  5. 1 2 Khalidi, 1992, p. 561
  6. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 135. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 561
  7. ↑ Listed under the Azzun-name. Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p. 28
  8. ↑ Listed under the Azzun-name. Barron, 1923, Table V, p. 48
  9. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 53
  10. ↑ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 21
  11. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 76
  12. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 127
  13. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 177
  14. 1 2 Morris, 2004, p. 245

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.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.