Khirbat Umm Burj

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Khirbat Umm Burj
خربة أم برج
General view from ruined house.jpg
Khirbat Umm Burj (ruined house)
Etymology: the mother of the tower [1]
Historical map series for the area of Khirbat Umm Burj (1870s).jpg 1870s map
Historical map series for the area of Khirbat Umm Burj (1940s).jpg 1940s map
Historical map series for the area of Khirbat Umm Burj (modern).jpg modern map
Historical map series for the area of Khirbat Umm Burj (1940s with modern overlay).jpg 1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Khirbat Umm Burj (click the buttons)
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Khirbat Umm Burj
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°38′12″N34°58′11″E / 31.63667°N 34.96972°E / 31.63667; 34.96972
Palestine grid 147/115
Geopolitical entity Mandatory Palestine
Subdistrict Hebron
Date of depopulationNot known [2]
Area
[3]
 • Total
13,083 dunams (13.083 km2; 5.051 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total
140 [4] [3]
Current Localities Nehusha [5]

Khirbat Umm Burj was a Palestinian Arab village in the Hebron Subdistrict, sometimes designated in modern maps as Burgin. [6] Its ruins are today located within the borders of Israel. It occupied an extensive site, stretching about 30 dunams (7.4 acres) on the crest of a hill, rising some 430 metres (1,410 ft) above sea level, and commanding a good prospect of the surrounding region. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on October 28, 1948, during the third stage of Operation Yo'av under the command of Yigal Allon. The site is located 17 km northwest of Hebron.

Contents

History

The site was occupied from the Iron Age. A large ancient necropolis was here, including a church or synagogue, residential buildings and numerous agricultural installations. [7] Israeli archaeologists, Amir Ganor and Boaz Zissu, think that Umm Burj may be a corruption of the 1st-century Jewish village, Kefar Bish, a view earlier rejected by Klein who said that Kefar Bish still bears its namesake in the nearby ruin of Khirbet al-Bis. [8] [9] A Jewish inscription, possibly dating from the Bar Kokhba revolt, has been found in a hiding complex at the site; it mentions a "Shelamzion daughter of...". [10]

In the late 19th century, extensive Christian remains were noted in the area surrounding Umm Burj. [11] Finnish scholar, Aapeli Saarisalo, visited the site of Umm Burj in the early 20th-century, and described its ruins as being of Byzantine and Arab origin. [12]

Late Ottoman period

In 1838 Um Burj was noted as village, located in the area between the mountains and Gaza, but subject to the government of el-Khulil. [13]

In 1863, Victor Guérin passed north of Khirbat Umm Burj, and described the village as being on a mountain, dominating the surroundings. [14]

An Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that um-burdsch had a population of 150, in 25 houses, though the population count included men, only. [15] [16]

French orientalist and archaeologist, Charles Clermont-Ganneau, visited the site in 1874 where he noticed a well situated nearby, called Bîr Hârûn, surmounted with a rude structure, near which were troughs hollowed out in large stone blocks. [17]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Umm Burj as: "A ruined village, with a central tower; apparently not ancient; caves and cisterns round it, and a well". [18] Khalidi believed that the SWP assumption that the tower was not ancient might have been wrong. [19]

The village was settled in the 19th century by the Al-Husayni family, who purchased the land, that was initially proposed for purchase by Jews. [20]

British Mandate period

In the 1931 census of Palestine, Umm Burj and Sanabra, listed in the sub-district of Hebron, had a joint population of 119 Muslims, in a total of 26 houses. [21]

In the 1945 statistics it had a population of 140 Muslims, [4] with a total of 13,083 dunums of land. [3] Of this, 28 dunums were irrigated or used for plantations, 3,546 were for cereal, [22] while 15 dunams were built-up (urban) areas. [23]

The villagers used to obtain drinking water from three wells on the northern outskirts of the village. [19]

1948 and aftermath

According to a February 26, 2026 Haaretz investigation, one file opened for public inspection concerned the killing of three elderly Arabs—two women and one man—in the village. The report states that the village was captured in July 1948, and that three months later soldiers debated how to dispose of four Arabs who remained there. Private Aryeh Ben-Shem of Battalion 143 testified that one of the four worked for the soldiers in the kitchen and was spared. Regarding the other three, Ben-Shem testified that Lieutenant Yosef Fishel ordered the soldiers to bring them into a building and fire a PIAT round at it, telling them to “finish them.” After the round missed, the report says the soldiers threw grenades into the structure and then set it on fire. One soldier testified that upon entering the house, one victim was dying and he shot him, while the other two lay on the ground unresponsive after being kicked. Another soldier testified that “eliminating Arabs by order from someone in authority” was not surprising because he had heard of many similar cases. [24]

After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the ruin of Umm Burj came under Israeli control under the terms of the 1949 Armistice Agreements [25] between Israel and Jordan.

Today, the site lies in the Adullam-France Park.

The moshav of Nehusha was established in 1955 on land that had belonged to the village, west of the village site, [26] but collapsed in 1968. It was re-established in 1981.

Archaeology

In the years 1995–2012, archaeological fieldwork was conducted by a team of archaeologists at Khirbet Umm Burj on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), among whom were Boaz Zissu and Amir Golan, et al., where they uncovered at the site two Byzantine churches, and a Jewish inscription incised on a doorjamb of an underground room in a hiding tunnel system. [27]

References

  1. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 408
  2. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xix village #326. Morris gives both cause and date of depopulation as "Not known".
  3. 1 2 3 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 50 Archived 2018-06-23 at the Wayback Machine
  4. 1 2 Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 23
  5. ↑ Khalidi, 1992, p. 224
  6. ↑ In the Topographical Map (Map # 9, Jerusalem Corridor) published by Israel's Nature Protection Society, the site is listed as Ḥurvat Burjin.
  7. ↑ Ganor and Klein, 2011, Horbat Burqin, Preliminary Report
  8. ↑ Boaz Zissu and Amir Ganor, Survey and Excavations at Ḥorbat Burgin in the Judean Shephelah: Burial Caves, Hiding Complexes and Installations of the Second Temple and Byzantine Periods, ʿAtiqot (publication of the Israel Antiquities Authority), Issue 58 (2008), p. 63; Zissu, Boaz (2008). "Survey and Excavations at Ḥorbat Burgin in the Judean Shephelah: Burial Caves, Hiding Complexes and Installations of the Second Temple and Byzantine Periods". 'Atiqot. 58 (58): 60–64. JSTOR   23464336.
  9. ↑ Samuel Klein, The Twenty-four City Councils in Judea (ארבע ועשרים בולאות שביהודה), Vienna 1933, p. 293 (Hebrew)
  10. ↑ Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae: a multi-lingual corpus of the inscriptions from Alexander to Muhammad. Vol. IV: Iudaea / Idumaea. Eran Lupu, Marfa Heimbach, Naomi Schneider, Hannah Cotton. Berlin: de Gruyter. 2018. pp. 843–844. ISBN   978-3-11-022219-7. OCLC   663773367.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  11. ↑ Warren and Conder, 1884, p. 446
  12. ↑ Aapeli Saarisalo, "Topographical Researches in the Shephelah", in: The Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society, vol. XI, Jerusalem 1931, p. 16
  13. ↑ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 117
  14. ↑ Guérin, 1869, p. 336
  15. ↑ Socin, 1879, p. 162
  16. ↑ Hartmann, 1883, p. 148
  17. ↑ Clermont-Ganneau, 1896, ARP, vol 2, p. 462
  18. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 380
  19. 1 2 Khalidi, 1992, p. 223
  20. ↑ Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 376
  21. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 33
  22. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 93 Deprecated link archived 2012-09-07 at archive.today
  23. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 143 Deprecated link archived 2013-01-31 at archive.today
  24. ↑ "המסמכים הסודיים שנזרקו לפח חושפים פקודות חריגות ממלחמת העצמאות". Haaretz (in Hebrew). 26 February 2026.
  25. ↑ The 1949 Armistice Agreement between Israel and Jordan
  26. ↑ Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, pp. 217, 224, ISBN   0-88728-224-5 ,
  27. ↑ Judea and Samaria Research Studies, Miriam Billig (ed.), vol. 22, Ariel University: Ariel 2013, pp. 19–20, 151–ff.

Bibliography

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