Dayr al-Qassi

For Khirbat Dayr al-Qassi, see Zawiya, West Bank

Dayr al-Qassi دير القاسي Deir al-Qasi Deir el-Kasy
House belonging to Abdullah Abedalmajeed Alsadek in Dayr al-Qassi
Etymology: The convent of Wady el Kasy
A series of historical maps of the area around Dayr al-Qassi (click the buttons)
Dayr al-Qassi Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 33°02′07″N 35°19′30″E
Palestine grid	181/271
Geopolitical entity	Mandatory Palestine
Subdistrict	Acre
Date of depopulation	30 October 1948
Area
• Total	34,011 dunams (34.0 km2 or 13.1 sq mi)
Population  (1945)
• Total	1,250
Cause(s) of depopulation	Military assault by Yishuv forces
Current Localities	Mattat, Elkosh, Abirim, Netu'a

Dayr al-Qassi or Deir el-Qasi (Arabic: دير القاسي), was a Palestinian Arab village located 26 km northeast of the city of Acre, which was depopulated during 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Geography

The village was located 26 km northeast of the city of Acre, on a rocky hill about 5 km south of the Lebanese border. It was linked by a paved road to Fassuta in the north and Tarshiha in the southwest. The road divided the town into an eastern and one western quarter, or haras, the eastern quarter being higher up.

History

The first part of the village name, Dayr ("monastery") suggest that the village might have had a monastery and a Christian population. However, in modern times the population was Muslim. According to the residents of the village, ancient artifacts from the Canaanite, Israelite and Roman period were unearthed in the Ottoman and British Mandate period.

Ceramics from the late Roman and the Byzantine eras have been found here.

In the Crusader era it was known as Cassie, and in 1183 it was noted that Godfrey de Tor sold the land of the village to Joscelin III. In 1220 Jocelyn III's daughter Beatrix de Courtenay and her husband Otto von Botenlauben, Count of Henneberg, sold their land, including Cassie and the nearby Roeis (Khirbet Tell ‘er-Ruwesah/Tel Rosh), to the Teutonic Knights.

Remains from the Mamluk era have been found in the area.

Ottoman Empire

Dayr al-Qassi was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 and it belonged to the nahiya (subdistrict) of Jira, part of the Safad Sanjak (District of Safed). In the 1596 tax records Dayr al-Qassi had a population of 24 Muslim household; an estimated 132 persons. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rated of 25% on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, as well as on goats and beehives; a total of 345 akçe.

In the early 18th century, Dayr al-Qassi was a fortified village controlled by a local sheikh (chief) named Abd al-Khaliq Salih. In 1740, Sheikh Zahir al-Umar, an Arab mutasallim (tax collector) from the al-Zayadina clan whose strength was growing throughout the Galilee, struggled to gain control of Dayr al-Qassi. Later that year, he made the village part of his domain by marrying Sheikh Salih's daughter, thereby sealing an alliance with the latter's clan. In late 1767, Zahir's son Ali of Safad requested control of Dayr al-Qassi from his father after his request for Dayr Hanna was rejected. Zahir refused and the two entered into an armed conflict, which Zahir won. Nonetheless, Zahir pardoned Ali and ultimately ceded the village to him.

In 1838, Deir el-Kasy was noted as a Muslim village in the El Jebel district, located west of Safad.

Victor Guérin visited Dayr al-Qassi in 1875, and he estimated that the village had 350 Muslim inhabitants. In 1881, Dayr al-Qassi was described in the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) as being situated on a ridge, encircled by fig trees, olive trees and arable land. It then had a population of about 200.

A population list from about 1887 showed Deir el Kasy to have about 945 inhabitants, all Muslims.

British Mandate

Two women from Dayr al-Qassi, 1937

At the time of the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate, Dair Wal Qasi had a population of 663, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census, when Deir el Qasi had a population of 865, still all Muslims, living in a total of 169 houses.

Later, Dayr al-Qassi was mostly Muslim but had a large Palestinian Christian minority. According to the 1945 census it had 1,250 inhabitants; 370 Christians and 880 Muslims. Together with the two villages of Fassuta (existent) and al-Mansura, the population was 2,300 and their total land area was 34,011 dunums. 1,607 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 6,475 used for cereals, while 247 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Israel

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Dayr al-Qassi was defended by the Arab Liberation Army but the village was occupied by the Israeli Army during its offensive Operation Hiram on October 30, 1948. At the same time, Dayr al-Qassi was bombed by the Israelis, apparently "by mistake", and 7 residents were killed. In December, 1948, there was a suggestion of sending new Jewish immigrants to settle Al-Bassa, Dayr al-Qassi and Tarshiha, but Cisling objected to sending military untrained new immigrants there.

However, in January, 1949, the Cabinet voted to "encourage introducing ‘olim into all the abandoned villages in the Galilee". The village's residents were (again) expelled on 27 May 1949 and most migrated north into Lebanon. By June, 1949, it was reported that the whole northern area had been "Judaised", including Tarshiha, Suhmata, Dayr al-Qassi, Tarbikha, Meiron, Al-Sammu'i, Safsaf and Al-Ras al-Ahmar.

Elkosh was established in 1949, and occupies part of the village site. Netu'a, founded in 1966, Mattat, founded in 1979 and Abirim, founded in 1980, are also on village land. Netu'a is near the neighboring village of al-Mansura.

The Palestinian historian, Walid Khalidi, described the remaining structures on the village land in 1992: "A few stone houses still are used as residences or warehouses by the inhabitants of Elqosh. The debris of destroyed houses is strewn over the site. The school building stands deserted. Fig and olive trees and cactuses grow on the site." In 2004, some of the remains of the village were removed by mechanical equipment during excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

In 2000, a book about the village history was published by Ibrahim Khalil Uthman.

Notable people

• Nabil Marouf, (ar) Palestinian Ambassador to Canada, born in Dayr al-Qassi in 1946.

Galleryي

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See also

• Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel

Bibliography

• Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
• Braun, Eliot (2004-06-09). "Elqosh Archive Report- Final Report" (116). Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel. Archived from the original on 2014-10-25. Retrieved 2020-02-20. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 1. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
• Dauphin, C. (1998). La Palestine byzantine, Peuplement et Populations. BAR International Series 726 (in French). Vol. III : Catalogue. Oxford: Archeopress. ISBN 0-860549-05-4.
• Davis, Rochelle (2011). Palestinian Village Histories: Geographies of the Displaced. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-7313-3.
• Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
• Frankel, Rafael (1988). "Topographical notes on the territory of Acre in the Crusader period". Israel Exploration Journal. 38 (4): 249–272.
• Guérin, V. (1880). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 3: Galilee, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
• Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
• Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (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. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
• Khalidi, W. (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.
• Joudah, Ahmad Hasan (1987). Revolt in Palestine in the Eighteenth Century: The Era of Shaykh Zahir Al-ʻUmar. Kingston Press. ISBN 9780940670112.
• Lerer, Yoav (2011-04-13). "Elqosh - Final Report" (123). Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel. Archived from the original on 2014-10-25. Retrieved 2020-02-20. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
• Morris, B. (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.
• Rhode, H. (1979). Administration and Population of the Sancak of Safed in the Sixteenth Century (PhD). Columbia University. Archived from the original on 2020-03-01. Retrieved 2017-11-03.
• Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838. Vol. 3. Boston: Crocker & Brewster.
• Röhricht, R. (1893). (RRH) Regesta regni Hierosolymitani (MXCVII-MCCXCI) (in Latin). Berlin: Libraria Academica Wageriana.
• Schumacher, G. (1888). "Population list of the Liwa of Akka". Quarterly Statement - Palestine Exploration Fund. 20: 169–191.
• Strehlke, E. [in German], ed. (1869). Tabulae Ordinis Theutonici ex tabularii regii Berolinensis codice potissimum. Berlin: Weidmanns.
• Uthman, Ibrahim Khalil. Dayr al-Qasi: Zanbaqa Khalil al-awsat al-gharbi. Tyre, Lebanon, n.p.

External links

• Palestine Remembered - Dayr al-Qasi
• Dayr al-Qasi, Zochrot
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 4: IAA, Wikimedia commons
• Dayr Al-Qasi from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
• Der al-Qasi, from Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh