Dayr al-Hawa

Dayr al-Hawa (Arabic: دير الهوا) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. The village was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on October 19, 1948, by the Fourth Battalion of the Har'el Brigade of Operation ha-Har. It was located 18.5 km west of Jerusalem.

Dayr al-Hawa دير الهوا
Etymology: The Monastery of the Wind[1]
1870s map 1940s map modern map 1940s with modern overlay map A series of historical maps of the area around Dayr al-Hawa (click the buttons)
Dayr al-Hawa Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°45′05″N 35°02′14″E
Palestine grid	153/128
Geopolitical entity	Mandatory Palestine
Subdistrict	Jerusalem
Date of depopulation	October 19–20, 1948[2]
Area
• Total	5,907 dunams (5.907 km2; 2.281 sq mi)
Population  (1945)
• Total	60[3][4][5]
Cause(s) of depopulation	Military assault by Yishuv forces

History

Ottoman era

Dayr al-Hawa is not mentioned in 16th century records, and was likely first settled in a later period.^[6]

In 1838, Edward Robinson called it a "lofty" village, on the brink of a valley.^[7] It was further noted as a Muslim village, located in the District of el-Arkub, southwest of Jerusalem.^[8] In 1856 the village was named D. el Hawa on Kiepert's map of Palestine published that year.^[9]

Victor Guérin, visiting the village in 1863, wrote that Dayr al-Hawa "probably owes its name, monastery of the wind, to its high position".^[10]

An Ottoman village list from around 1870 showed that Der el-Hawa had 32 houses and a population of 103, though the population count included men, only.^[11][12]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described it as "a village standing high, on a knoll rising from a high ridge, with a deep valley to the north. It has several high houses in it. On the west is a good spring. The ground is covered with brushwood all round the place."^[13]

In 1896 the population of Der el-hawa was estimated to be about 162 persons.^[14]

British Mandate era

Dayr el-Hawa 1948

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted i by the British Mandate authorities, Dair al-Hawa had a population of 38 residents; all Muslims,^[15] increasing in the 1931 census to 47 inhabitants, in 11 houses.^[16]

In the 1945 statistics the village had a population of 60 Muslims,^[4] with a total of 5,907 dunums of land.^[5] Of this, 58 dunams were for irrigable land or plantations, 1,565 for cereals,^[17] while 4 dunams were built-up land.^[18]

A mosque was located in the western part of the village and there was a shrine for a local sage known as al-Shaykh Sulayman. Near the ruins of the old village now stands the Israeli moshav, Nes Harim,^[19] however, it is not on village land. (It is on the land of Bayt 'Itab.)^[20]

During the 1948 it was defended by the local militia and the Egyptian Army/Muslim Brotherhood Battalion.^{[citation needed]}

• 
  Dayr al-Hawa, Mandate survey, 1:20,000
• 
  Dayr al-Hawa, 1945, 1:20,000

Archaeology

Coins and ceramics from the Byzantine era have been found here.^[21]

See also

• Susan Abulhawa