Dayr Ayyub

Dayr Ayyub
Dayr Ayyub
Arabic	دير أيوب
District	Ramla
Coordinates	31°49′38″N 35°01′06.45″E / 31.82722°N 35.0184583°E / 31.82722; 35.0184583Coordinates: 31°49′38″N 35°01′06.45″E / 31.82722°N 35.0184583°E / 31.82722; 35.0184583
Population	320[1] (1945)
Area	4,500[1] dunums
Date of depopulation	April, 1948[2]
Cause(s) of depopulation	Military assault by Yishuv forces
Current localities	Canada Park

Dayr Ayyub (Arabic: دير أيوب ‎) was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Ramla. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on March 6, 1948 by the Givati and Sheva' brigades of Operation Nachshon. It was located 17.5 km southeast of Ramla, situated close to Bab al-Wad. On attack, the village was defended by the Jordanian Army but was mostly destroyed with the exception of few houses and the village cemetery.

History

To the northwest of the village site is an area which, according to village belief, contained the tomb of the prophet Ayyub, the Biblical Job.^[3] A census by the Ottomans in 1596 registered the village as belonging to the nahiya (subdistrict) of Ramla, (liwa' (district) of Gaza), and with a recorded population of 94. The villagers paid paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, and fruits, as well as on other types of produce and property, such as goats, beehives, and vineyards.^[4]

Dayr Ayyub was located close to Bab al-Wad; here the shrine of Imam Ali, at Bab al-Wad, photographed about 1934-39

In the late nineteenth century, the village was described as being a small hamlet situated on a hillside.^[5] In 1945 the village had a population of 320. An elementary school was founded in 1947 in the village, and had an enrollment of 51 students.^[3] In the 1944/45 growing season, a total of 2,769 dunums of village land was planted in cereals; 127 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, 10 of which were olive groves.^[3][6]

1948, and aftermath

Dayr Ayyub was first attacked by the predecessors to the Israel Defense Forces on the 21 December 1947, by 25 men, according to the village mukhtar. Three houses in the village were bombed, but there were no reports of casualties.^[3][7] On 7 February 1948, British troops moved into the village and demolished two houses. The Palestinian newspaper Filastin quoted a British communique which said that the houses had been used to fire on Jewish convoys driving by the village.^[3][8]

During and following Operation Nachshon the village changed hands several times; "The History oh the Haganah" indicates that the village was occupied three times in this period.^[3]

In 1949 Armistice Agreements with Jordan Dayr Ayyub became a demilitarised zone in the Latrun no man's land.^[9] However, the Israeli forces used force to prevent the Palestinian population from re-entering their own homes and claimed the territory following the war. Despite this being a demilitarized zone according to the 1949 agreements, on November 2, 1950, three Palestinian children were shot, two fatally by IDF troops near Dayr Ayyub in the Latrun salient. Ali Muhammad Ali Alyyan (12) his sister Fakhriyeh Muhammad Ali Alyyan (10) and their cousin Khadijeh Abd al Fattah Muhammad Ali (8) all from Yalo village, "The two children [Ali and Fakhriyeh] were stood in a wadi bed and the soldiers opened fire at them. According to both [adult] witnesses only one man fired at them with a sten-gun but none of the detachment attempted to interfere".^[10]

The settlement of Mevo Choron, founded in 1970, is north of the village site; there are no Israeli settlement on village land.^[3]

According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, describing the village site in 1992, say that the eastern segment of the Canada Park lies on the village site.^[3] He further describes the site: "[It] is strewn with debris, including parts of walls connected to iron rafters. The remains of houses can be seen on a high hill to the south, opposite the village. The cemetery, located on this hill, to the southeast, contains the remains of a tombstone with the inscription: "AI-Hajj Muhammad 'Ulayyan Taha, died on 14 Muharram 1355 Hijra." [Islamic calendar: equvivalent of 6 April 1936]." Large cypress, eucalyptus, carob, and fig trees dominate the site, mixed with recently planted firs. The valleys are used by Israelis for fig cultivation. A spring at the southeastern edge of the village site is surrounded by a cow pen, and the entire area is fenced in.^[3]

See also

• Operation Nachshon
• Canada Park

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Hadawi, 1970, p.66
2. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xx, village #337. Also gives cause of depopulation
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Khalidi, 1992, p.376
4. ^ Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter and Kamal Abdulfattah (1977), Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. p. 153. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 376
5. ^ Conder, Claude Reignier and H.H. Kitchener: The Survey of Western Palestine. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, 1881, III, p.15. Also cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 376.
6. ^ Hadawi, 1970, p. 114
7. ^ New York Times, 22.12.1947
8. ^ "Filastin", 08.02.1948
9. ^ Map of Palestine before al-Nakba and 1949 Armistice Agreements with Jordan
10. ^ Morris, 1993, p 181

Bibliography

• Conder, Claude Reignier and H.H. Kitchener (1881): The Survey of Western Palestine: memoirs of the topography, orography, hydrography, and archaeology. London:Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. vol 3
• Hadawi, Sami (1970), Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center, http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html 
• Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0-88728-224-5 
• Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521009676. http://books.google.com/?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=benny+morris&q. 
• Morris, Benny (1993), Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956 ISBN 0-19-829262-7, Oxford University Press

External links

• Welcome To Dayr Ayyub
• Dayr Ayyub, from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
• Dayr Ayyub, Palestine Family