Khirbat Al-Lawz

Khirbat Al-Lawz was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on July 13, 1948, by the Har'el Brigade of Operation Dani. It was located 11 km west of Jerusalem, situated north of Wadi al-Sarar.

Khirbat Al-Lawz خربة اللوز
Map of Khirbat Al-Lawz-area, 1870s
Etymology: the ruin of the almond[1]
1870s map 1940s map modern map 1940s with modern overlay map A series of historical maps of the area around Khirbat Al-Lawz (click the buttons)
Khirbat Al-Lawz Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°46′04″N 35°06′41″E
Palestine grid	160/130
Geopolitical entity	Mandatory Palestine
Subdistrict	Jerusalem
Date of depopulation	July 13, 1948
Area
• Total	4,502 dunams (4.502 km2 or 1.738 sq mi)
Population  (1945)
• Total	450[2][3]

History

Ottoman era

In 1838, Khirbet el-Lauz was noted as a Muslim village, part of Beni Hasan area, located west of Jerusalem.^[4]

In 1863, Victor Guérin found it to be a hamlet of eighty inhabitants, most of them shepherds.^[5]

Socin found from an official Ottoman village list from about 1870 that chirbet el-loz had a population of 83, with a total of 38 houses, though the population count included men, only.^[6] Hartmann found that chirbet el-loz had 30 houses.^[7]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Khurbet el Loz as "a village of moderate size on the slope of a high ridge near the summit. It has a sort of terrace below it, and stands some 800 feet (240 meters) above the southern valley. There are rock-cut tombs at the place."^[8]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kherbet al-Ley had a population of 234 Muslims,^[9] increasing in the 1931 census to 315 Muslims, in 67 houses.^[10]

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 450 Muslims,^[2] while the total land area was 4,502 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.^[3] Of this, 728 were used for plantations and irrigable land, 693 for cereals,^[11] while 13 dunams were classified as built-up areas.^[12]

Khirbat al-Lawz had a shrine dedicated to a local sage known as al-Shaykh Salama.^[13]

1948 and after

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the village held out against Jewish attack until mid-1948, when the inhabitants left after observing the fall of nearby Suba.^[14] In May 1950, the village site was settled by a group of Yemenite Jews, but they moved to Even Sapir in the following year.^[14]

In 1992 the village site was described: "Grass and thorns grow among the stone rubble and terraces all across the site, as well as almond, fig, and carob trees. A thick forest of cypress and fir trees has been planted around the site. South of it, in the forest, is a well surrounded by several almond and fig trees. The forest is dedicated to the memory of Moshe Dayan, the Israeli general."^[13]

Gallery

• 
  Mount Eitan and its slope with the remains of the village
• 
  The remains (stone clusters) above and below the path the transcends nowadays through the village remains
• 
  Mulberry tree of the village that remained and around it stones and other residues of houses
• 
  A closer look of the Mulberry tree and the remains