Tabsur
| Tabsur (Khirbat 'Azzun) | |
|---|---|
  Tabsur (Khirbat 'Azzun) | |
| Arabic | (تبصر(خربة عزون |
| Name meaning | from personal name [1] |
| Also spelled | Tabsar, Khirbet 'Azzun |
| Subdistrict | Tulkarm |
| Coordinates | 32°11′36.27″N 34°52′38.06″E / 32.1934083°N 34.8772389°ECoordinates: 32°11′36.27″N 34°52′38.06″E / 32.1934083°N 34.8772389°E |
| Palestine grid | 138/177 |
| Area | 5,328 dunams |
| Date of depopulation | 3 April 1948[2] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Fear of being caught up in the fighting |
| Secondary cause | Expulsion by Yishuv forces |
| Current localities | Ra'anana[3] and Batzra[3] |
Tabsur (Arabic: تبصر), also Khirbat 'Azzun (Arabic: خربة عزون), was a Palestinian village located 19 kilometres southwest of Tulkarm. In 1931, the village had 218 houses and an elementary school for boys.[3] It was depopulated before the outbreak of 1948 Arab-Israeli war.[4]
History
Tabsur was established before the middle of the nineteenth-century on an archaeological site.[5] The village contained archaeological remains, including the foundations of a building, a well, fragments of mosaic pavement, and tombs.[3]
In the late nineteenth century, Tabsur was described as a moderate-sized hamlet with a well to the north.[6] It was later classified as a hamlet by the Palestine Index Gazetteer.[5]
British Mandate era
During the British Mandate an elementary school for boys was established in the village. The village also had a few shops.[3]
In the 1922 census of Palestine there were 709 villagers; 700 Muslims and 9 Christians,[7] (where the Christians were all Orthodox,[8]) increasing in 1931 census to 994; 980 Muslims and 14 Christians, in 218 houses.[9]
In 1944/45 a total of 1,602 dunums was allocated to cereals, while 24 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.[10][11][12] 29 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) area.[13]
1948, aftermath
The Arabs of Tabsur were ordered to leave by the Haganah on 3 April 1948, as part of Haganas policy of clearing out the Arab villages on the coastal plain.[14] The villagers left on 16 April 1948.[14]
Ra'anana was established south of Tabsur in 1921. Now a city, some of its suburbs have expanded into land that once belonged to the village. Batzra, founded in 1946 on village land, lies to the north.[3]
In 1992, the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi wrote: "The village has been completely covered with Israeli citrus orchards, making it difficult to distinguish from the surrounding lands. Citrus and cypress trees grow on the village land."[3]
The estimated number of Palestinian refugees from Tabsur in 1998 was 2,406.[4]
See also
References
- ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 176
- ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #192. Also gives cause of depopulation
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Khalidi, 1992, p. 562
- 1 2 "Welcome to Tabsur". Palestine Remembered. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
- 1 2 Khalidi, 1992, p. 561
- ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 135. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 561
- ↑ Listed under the Azzun-name. Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p. 28
- ↑ Listed under the Azzun-name. Barron, 1923, Table V, p. 48
- ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 53
- ↑ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 21
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 76
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 127
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 177
- 1 2 Morris, 2004, p. 245
Bibliography
- Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Conder, Claude Reignier; Kitchener, Herbert H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
- Hadawi, Sami (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
- 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.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas (PDF). Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
- Palmer, E. H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
External links
- Welcome To Tabsur
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 10: IAA, Wikimedia commons
