Nasir ad-Din, Palestine

This article is about the Palestinian village. For other uses, see Nasr al-Din (disambiguation).

Nasir ad-Dīn (Arabic: نصر الدين) was a small Palestinian Arab village 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) southwest of Tiberias, on the crest of a slope that overlooks the Sea of Galilee. The village had several springs to the east, south, and southeast. In the 1931 British census 179 people lived there,^[5][6] decreasing to 90 in a 1945 census. Nasir ad-Din and nearby al-Manara were in the same jurisdiction with 4,185 dunams of land, most of which was allocated to cereals.

Nasir ad-Din نصر الدين Nasr ad-Din, Nasir al-Din
Village
Etymology: from personal name[1]
1870s map 1940s map modern map 1940s with modern overlay map A series of historical maps of the area around Nasir ad-Din, Palestine (click the buttons)
Nasir ad-Din Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°46′43″N 35°31′24″E
Palestine grid	199/242
Geopolitical entity	Mandatory Palestine
Subdistrict	Tiberias
Date of depopulation	12 and 23 April 1948[2]
Area (together with Al-Manara) [3]
• Total	4,185 dunams (4.185 km2 or 1.616 sq mi)
Population  (1945)[4][3]
• Total	90
Cause(s) of depopulation	Military assault by Yishuv forces
Secondary cause	Influence of nearby town's fall
Tertiary cause	Fear of being caught up in the fighting
Current Localities	Residential areas of Tiberias

In the 1948 Palestine war, the village was destroyed and its residents expelled as part of the 1948 Palestinian expulsion.

History

Archeological excavations has shown that the place was inhabited in the Hellenistic era, and that a major settlement was here during the Roman era, in 2nd to 4th century CE.^[7]

Nasir ad-Din is named after a shrine dedicated to Nasir ad-Din, an Ayyubid general who died while fighting the Crusaders and buried to the north of the village, according to local legend. A kilometer to the west is the shrine for another Muslim soldier who died fighting the Crusaders, named Sheikh al-Qaddumi.^[6]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Nasir al Din had a population of 109, all Muslims,^[8] increasing in the 1931 census to 179, still all Muslims, in 35 houses.^[5]

During the British Mandate in Palestine, most of Nasir ad-Din's houses were scattered north–south, with no particular village plan. The inhabitants worked in agriculture and animal breeding.^[6]

In the 1944/1945 statistics the population consisted of 90 Muslims,^[4] and together with the people of Al-Manara they had 4,185 dunams of land.^[3] Of this, 4,172 dunams of land were used for cereals,^[9] while 13 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) area.^[10]

1948 war and destruction

Further information: 1948 Palestine war and 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight

On April 12, 1948, a company from the 12th battalion of Israel's Golani Brigade captured Nasir ad-Din to cut off Tiberias from major Arab centers to the west (Nazareth and Lubya). The skirmish lasted four hours because the Haganah encountered unexpected local resistance. Historian Saleh Abdel Jawad writes that 12-20 civilians were "massacred by machine guns."^[11] Most of the inhabitants fled to Tiberias or Lubya — British troops escorted villagers to Lubya. The Haganah reported 22 Arabs were killed, six wounded, and three captured.^[12] The civilian deaths included seven men, at least one woman, and a number of children. Two Haganah troops were also wounded.

The capture and killing in Nasir ad-Din was a decisive factor for the flight of Arabs from Tiberias, and was a major demoralizing factor for Arab forces. Historian Benny Morris reports that some Palestinians at the time described the attack as "a second Deir Yassin", in reference to the highly publicized Deir Yassin massacre which had occurred days prior.^[13] All the houses were destroyed, and residents that remained were expelled on April 23.^[14]