Tabsur

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] Its Palestinian population was kicked out during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.[4]

Tabsur (Khirbat 'Azzun)

(تبصر(خربة عزون

Tabsar, Khirbet 'Azzun
Village
Etymology: from personal name [1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Tabsur (click the buttons)
Tabsur (Khirbat 'Azzun)
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°11′38″N 34°52′44″E
Palestine grid138/177
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictTulkarm
Date of depopulation3 April 1948[2]
Area
 • Total5,328 dunams (5.328 km2 or 2.057 sq mi)
Cause of evacuationExpulsion by the Jewish Yishuv forces
Current LocalitiesRa'anana[3] and Batzra[3]

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 the 1944/45 statistics, a total of 1,602 dunums were 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]

Tabsur 1942 1:20,000 (top left)
Tabsur 1945 1:250,000

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
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 176
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #192. Also gives cause of depopulation
  3. Khalidi, 1992, p. 562
  4. "Welcome to Tabsur". Palestine Remembered. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
  5. Khalidi, 1992, p. 561
  6. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 135. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 561
  7. Listed under the Azzun-name. Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p. 28
  8. Listed under the Azzun-name. Barron, 1923, Table V, p. 48
  9. Mills, 1932, p. 53
  10. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 21
  11. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 76
  12. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 127
  13. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 177
  14. Morris, 2004, p. 245

Bibliography
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