Nuris

Nuris

The Jezreel Valley today
Nuris
Arabic نورِِِس
Also spelled Noori[1]
Subdistrict Jenin
Coordinates 32°32′06.4″N 35°21′48.9″E / 32.535111°N 35.363583°E / 32.535111; 35.363583Coordinates: 32°32′06.4″N 35°21′48.9″E / 32.535111°N 35.363583°E / 32.535111; 35.363583
Palestine grid 184/215
Population 570[2][3] (1945)
Area 6256[2] dunams
Date of depopulation May 29–30, 1948[4]
Cause(s) of depopulation Military assault by Yishuv forces
Secondary cause Fear of being caught up in the fighting
Current localities Nurit[5]

Nuris (Arabic: نورِِِس‎‎) was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Jenin. In 1945, Nuris had 570 inhabitants. It was depopulated during the 1948 War on May 29, 1948 under Operation Gideon.[6]

Location

Nuris was located 9 kilometers (5.6 mi) northeast of Jenin, built on both sides of a shallow wadi. The Haifa-Beisan-Samakh railway-line passed northeast of the village. It was linked by dirt roads to the villages of Zir'in and Al-Mazar.[7]

There were several springs north of Nuris, most importantly 'Ayn Jalut (or Jalud), "Spring of Goliath", which was one of the largest springs in Palestine.[7]

History

Nuris was located in the Jezreel Valley and was referred to by the Crusaders as "Nurith." Nearby, the Mamluks decisively defeated the Mongols in the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260.[7]

Ottoman era

In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Jenin under the liwa' (district) of Lajjun, with a population of 88. It paid taxes on a number of products, including wheat, barley, olives, and goats and beehives.[8]

The village was captured and burned by Napoleon's troops, after the Battle of Mount Tabor in 1799.[9] Pierre Jacotin named the village Noures on his map from that campaign.[10]

In the early 19th-century, British traveller James Silk Buckingham noted that Nuris was surrounded by olive-trees.[1][7] Buckingham also remarked that there were several other settlements in sight, "all inhabited by Mohammedans."[1]

In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described the village as being small, situated on rocky ground, much hidden between the hills, about 600 ft (180 m) above a valley.[11] Nuris had an elementary school for boys, which was founded under the Ottomans in 1888, and a mosque.[7]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Nuris had a population of 364, all Muslims.[12] In 1921, the village reportedly had 38 tenant families, and 224 people out of a total population of 364 (1922 census) cultivated 5,500 dunums out of a village area of 27,018.[13] That year, the Sursock family sold some of the village lands to the Palestine Land Development Company. [14] A group of 35 young Jews began to farm the land, which became the core of Kibbutz Ein Harod. [15]

Some of the villagers of Nuris received monetary compensation and left the village.[13] Those who remained acquired a block of land for a period of six years and were given the opportunity to purchase the land originally leased to them. They paid rental at 6% of the published sale offer on the land, but later, at the request of the farmers in Nuris, this was changed to one-fifth of the total yield in agricultural output of the land.[13] After the original six-year lease was up, reports in 1928 showed that no villagers had bought the land leased to them.[13] In 1921 the average farmer cultivated 24 dunums, by 1929 this had drastically reduced to 4.4, although the population grew significantly.[16] In 1931, Nuris had a population of 429 people and a recorded 106 houses were located in the village.[17]

By 1945, Nuris had 570 inhabitants with 163 houses, although the area was much smaller than it had been before 1920, with an area of 6256 dunums. The inhabitants, were mainly employed in cereal farming, although some land was allocated to irrigation and growing olives.[2][7][18]

1948 War and aftermath

On 19 April 1948, Palmach headquarters ordered the destruction of "enemy bases at Al-Mazar, Nuris and Zir'in".[6] Israeli historian Benny Morris notes that destroying the villages was "part and parcel" of the Haganah operations at this time, however, he also writes that Nuris was not finally depopulated until the end of May.[4][6]

An Israeli moshav, Nurit, was later established on village land, northwest of the village site.[19] Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the village in 1992: "The site, overgrown with pine and oak trees, is strewn with piles of stones. Part of the surrounding land is fenced in and is used as a grazing area, while another part is cultivated. Cactuses and olive and fig trees grow near the site."[19]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Buckingham, 1821, p495
  2. 1 2 3 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 55
  3. ↑ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 16
  4. 1 2 According to Morris, 2004, p. xvii, village #123. Also gives causes of depopulation
  5. ↑ According to Morris, 2004, p. xxi, settlement #39, 1948
  6. 1 2 3 Morris, 2004, p. 346
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Khalidi, 1992, p. 338
  8. ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 161. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 338
  9. ↑ Cline, 2002, p. 161
  10. ↑ Karmon, 1960, p. 169
  11. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p.86. Also cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 338
  12. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Jenin, p. 29
  13. 1 2 3 4 Stein, 1987, p.56
  14. ↑ Healing the Land and the Nation: Malaria and the Zionist Project in Palestine, 1920-1947, Sandra Sufian, p. 150
  15. ↑ Zeev Sternhell, 2009, The Founding Myths of Israel, p.198
  16. ↑ Stein, 1987, p.57
  17. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 70
  18. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 99
  19. 1 2 Khalidi, 1992, p. 339

Bibliography

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