Al-Ruways
| al-Ruways | |
 al-Ruways
|
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| Arabic | الرويس |
| Also Spelled | al-Ruweis |
| Sub-district | Acre |
| Coordinates | 32°51′50.01″N 35°10′40.46″E / 32.8638917°N 35.1779056°ECoordinates: 32°51′50.01″N 35°10′40.46″E / 32.8638917°N 35.1779056°E |
| Population | 330 (1945) |
| Area | 1,163[1] dunums
1.2 km² |
| Date of depopulation | July 15-16, 1948[2] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
al-Ruways (Arabic: الرويس) was a Palestinian Arab village of 330 on a rocky hill located 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) southeast of Acre and south of al-Damun.[3]
Contents |
[edit] History
Al-Ruways stood on the site of the Crusader town of Careblier.[3] In 1266, a Crusader vanguard returning from a raid in Tiberias to Acre was ambushed by Mamluk forces based in Safad in Careblier.[4] Based on tradition, the people of the village professed to have blood relations with Hussam ad-Din Abu al-Hija. Hussam ad-Din was a high-ranking officer in the Ayyubid army of Saladin.[5]
In the late nineteenth century, al-Ruways was situated on open ground with olive groves to the north of the village. Its population of 400 was entirely Muslim.[6] Under the British Mandate of Palestine in the early twentieth century, al-Ruways was one of the smallest villages in the District of Acre, with a population of 217 in 1931, and consisting of two quarters. The village had a mosque, its children attended school in nearby al-Damun. The villagers drinking water came from domestic wells, and they primarily grew wheat, corn, sesame, watermelons, and olives.[3] In Sami Hadawi's population survey, al-Ruways had a population of 330 in 1945.[7]
On July 18, 1948, two days after Nazareth was occupied by Israel's Seventh Brigade in Operation Dekel, some units advanced into the Western Galilee and captured a number of Arab villages, one of which was al-Ruways. The inhabitants fled after bombardment and the fall of major neighboring towns (Shefa-'Amr and Nazareth).[8][9] According to Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, "the site is deserted. The debris of old wells and cement roofs is strewn of over the site, which is otherwise covered by a forest of eucalyptus trees and cactus."[8]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Palestine remembered al-Ruways
- ^ Morris, 2004, p xvii village #91. Also gives the cause of depopulation.
- ^ a b c Khalidi, 1992, p.28.
- ^ Bronstein, 2005, p.46.
- ^ Benvenisti, 2000, p.195.
- ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP, Vol. I, p.271. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 28
- ^ Hadawi, 1970, p.41.
- ^ a b Khalidi, 1992, p.29.
- ^ Morris, 2004, pp.421-423.
[edit] Bibliography
- Benvenisti, Meron (2000), Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land since 1948, University of California Press, http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8205/8205.ch05.html
- Bronstein, Judith (2005), The Hospitallers and the Holy Land: Financing the Latin East, 1187-1274, Boydell Press, ISBN 978-1-84383-131-0, http://books.google.com/?id=vVFpbui2E8QC&pg=PA152&dq=Careblier
- 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 1
- 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, (second edition 2004 third printing 2006) The Birth Of The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-00967-7
[edit] External links
- al-Ruways Palestine Remembered
- al-Ruways from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre
- Al-Rweis photos from Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh
