Lazzaza

Lazzaza (Arabic: لزّازة‎, transliterated as Lazzâza) was a Palestinian Arab village of 230 in the northern Hula Valley next to the Hasbani River, located 27.5 kilometers (17.1 mi) northwest of Safad.[5] Beit Hillel subsequently expanded onto the land.

Lazzaza

لزّازة
Village
Etymology: “fastening”,[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Lazzaza (click the buttons)
Lazzaza
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 33°12′21″N 35°36′42″E
Palestine grid207/290
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictSafad
Date of depopulationMay 21, 1948[2]
Area
 • Total1,586 dunams (1.586 km2 or 392 acres)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total230[3][4]
Cause(s) of depopulationWhispering campaign
Current LocalitiesBeit Hillel.

History

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Lazzaza, while under Ottoman rule, as a village of 70 people built of adobe bricks and situated on a plain near a river.[6]

British Mandate era

It was incorporated into the British Mandate of Palestine in 1922. Under the British, Lazzaza had an elementary school, in which 26 students were enrolled in 1945. The residents, mostly Muslims, took advantage of the village's fertile lands, and agriculture became the basis of its economy. The primarily cultivated crops were onions, corn, and fruits, but the beehives were also kept, in addition to some livestock. Some of Lazzaza's inhabitants also fished in the Hasbani River.[5]

In the 1931 census of Palestine the population of Lazaza was 176, all Muslims, in a total of 39 houses.[7]

In the 1945 statistics, Lazzaza was counted with the nearby Jewish settlement of Beit Hillel which together constituted a population of 330; 230 were Muslims of Lazzaza, the remaining 100 were Jewish of Beit Hillel.[3][4]

Types of land use in dunams in the village in 1945:[8][9]

Land UsageArabJewish
Irrigated and plantation235805
Cereal95119
Cultivable330924
Urban2718
Non-cultivable200

The land ownership of the village before occupation in dunams:[4]

OwnerDunams
Arab377
Jewish942
Public267
Total1,586

1948, aftermath

The Arabs of Lazzaza fled their village during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on May 21, 1948.[2] The village was not attacked by Israeli forces, and the probable cause of its depopulation was a "whispering campaign" devised by Palmach commander Yigal Allon during Operation Yiftach, in which rumor would spread about massive Jewish reinforcements approaching the Galilee. According to Walid Khalidi, "only a few scattered houses remain on the village site", and that the residents of Beit Hillel cultivate the surrounding fields.[5]

See also

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 29
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #8. Also gives cause of depopulation.
  3. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 10
  4. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 70
  5. Khalidi, 1992, p.469.
  6. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 89. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.469.
  7. Mills, 1932, p. 108
  8. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 119
  9. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 169

Bibliography


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