Khan al-Duwayr

Khan al-Duwayr (Arabic: خان الدوير‎) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on May 30, 1948 by the Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach. It was located 35 km northeast of Safad.

Khan al-Duwayr

خان الدوير
Village
Etymology: Khân ed Duweir, the caravanserai of the little convent or circle[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Khan al-Duwayr (click the buttons)
Khan al-Duwayr
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 33°14′22″N 35°40′19″E
Palestine grid213/293
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictSafad
Date of depopulationNot known[2]
Population
 (1931)
 • Total137[3]

History

The village had a khirbat named Tall al-Qadi which lay about 1 km to the northwest of the village.[4]

Ottoman era

In 1875 Victor Guérin noted it as a hamlet called ‘’Khan Doueir’’. A small wood of oaks and terebinths grew close to it.[5]

In 1881 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Khan ed Duweir as: "Two stone houses here contain about twenty Moslems; situated on slope of hill near the stream of water, with olives and arable cultivation around."[6]

British Mandate era

In the 1931 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, the population of Khan ed-Duwair was 137, all Muslims, in a total of 29 houses.[3]

In the 1945 statistics no Arabs were listed as inhabitants, while the nearby Dan had a population of 260,[7] and Arabs still owned 2,163 dunams of the land.[8] Of this, they used 2,067 for plantations and irrigable land, while 96 were used for cereals.[9]

1948, aftermath

On 12 April 1948, prior to the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Israel Galili wrote to Yosef Weitz recommending that new settlements be established at the site of a number of Arab villages, including Khan al-Duwayr, 'as soon as possible'. Norman Finkelstein, quoting Benny Morris, notes this recommendation was made even though most of the sites had not yet been depopulated.[10][11]

On the 22 April, 1948, Haganah command agreed to provide the manpower to set up settlements on non−Arab land in several Arab villages; one of the villages mentioned was Khan al-Duwayr.[12]

According to the Israel–Syria Mixed Armistice Commission, Khan al-Duwayr was part of the DM after the 1948 war. Israel, however, gradually managed to evict all the Arab inhabitants of the DM zone, using a "stick and carrot" method.[13]

Dafna is located about 3 km southwest of the Khan al-Duwayr site, while Dan 2 km to the west of the site: neither is on village land.[4]

In 1992 the village site was described: "The site is deserted, overgrown with grass. Only the ruins of a khan (caravansary) are visible. The surrounding land is either cultivated by Israelis, or used as forest or pasture."[4]

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 26
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village # 390. Also gives both the date and cause for depopulation as "Not known"
  3. Mills, 1932, p. 107
  4. Khalidi, 1992, p. 464
  5. Guerin, 1880, p. 336
  6. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 88
  7. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 09
  8. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 69.
  9. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 118
  10. Morris, 2004, p. 371, note #168, p. 405 Other places mention to be depopulated was Bayt Mahsir, Saris, Kafr Misr, Khirbet Manshiya, Tantura, Burayr and Mis [in the Galilee panhandle]
  11. Finkelstein, 2003, pp. 72–73.
  12. Morris, 2004, p. 372, note #176, p. 405 Other places mentioned was Kafr Misr, Ma'alul, Ashrafriya, and Daliyat al-Rawha'
  13. Morris, 2004, p. 513, notes #55–60, p. 539

Bibliography
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