Ma'alul معلول Ma'lul, Maalul, Maaloul, Mahlul | |
|---|---|
 A restoredCatholic Church of Ma'alul in July 2010 | |
| Etymology: from personal name[1] | |
.jpg) 1870s map.jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map.jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Ma'alul (click the buttons) | |
  Ma'alul Location withinMandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates:32°41′44″N35°14′22″E / 32.69556°N 35.23944°E /32.69556; 35.23944 | |
| Palestine grid | 172/233 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Nazareth |
| Date of depopulation | 15 July 1948[4] |
| Area | |
• Total | 4,698dunams (4.698 km2; 1.814 sq mi) |
| Population (1945) | |
• Total | 690[2][3] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault byYishuv forces |
| Current Localities | Migdal HaEmek,Kfar HaHoresh,Timrat,[5][6] and anIsraeli military base |
Ma'alul (Arabic:معلول) was aPalestinian village, with a mixed population of primarily Muslims with a substantial minority ofPalestinian Christians, that was depopulated and destroyed byIsrael during the1948 Arab-Israeli war. Located six kilometers west of the city ofNazareth,[7] many of its inhabitants becameinternally displaced refugees, after taking refuge in Nazareth[8] and the neighbouring town ofYafa an-Naseriyye.[9] Despite having never left the territory that came to form part of Israel, the majority of the villagers of Maalul, and other Palestinian villages likeAndor andAl-Mujidal, were declared "absentees", allowing the confiscation of their land under theAbsentees Property Law.[10]
Today, much of the former village's lands are owned by theJewish National Fund.[11] All that remains of its former structures are twochurches, amosque and aRoman-eramausoleum, known locally asQasr al-Dayr ("Castle of the monastery").[7]
In 1850, Rabbi Joseph Schwartz identified Ma'alul with theBiblical town ofNahalal.[12][13]
Incorporated into theOttoman Empire in 1517, Ma'alul appeared in thecensus of 1596, located in thenahiya ("subdistrict") ofTiberias under theliwa' ("district") ofSafad with a population of seventy-seven. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, as well as goats and beehives.[14][15]
Ma'alul, and the neighbouring towns and villages of Nazareth, Mejdal, Yafa,Jebatha andKneffis paid taxes to the monks of Nazareth, who bought the right to collect these taxes from theOttoman authorities in 1777 for two hundred dollars. Thirty years later, they again purchased this right, though this time for two thousands five hundred dollars, owing to the rise in the price of cereals and ground rents.[16]Pierre Jacotin called the villageMatoun on his map from 1799.[17]
In 1859 the population was estimated to be 280, who cultivated 42faddans of land.[18] In 1875Victor Guérin found Ma'alul to have 350 inhabitants; all Muslim except about 30 "Schismatic Greeks."[19]
By the late nineteenth century, the village was made ofadobe bricks, built on a hill, Just outside the village was a magnificent Romanmausoleum, called Qasr al-Dayr.[18]
A population list from about 1887 showed thatMa'lul had about 650 inhabitants; all Muslims.[20]
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the people of Ma'alul were tenants of theSursuq family ofBeirut, absentee landlords who had acquired the village lands earlier. In 1921 the Sursuqs sold all but 2,000dunams of Ma'alul's land to theZionistPalestine Land Development Company.[21] Zionist pioneers founded themoshav ofNahalal on that land the same year. The remaining 2,000 dunums were insufficient to support the village's population, so at the request of theMandate government, the company agreed to lease an additional 3,000 dunams to the villagers until 1927. The villagers had the option to buy this land before the lease expired.[6]
According to theBritish Mandate's1922 census of Palestine,Ma'alul had 436 inhabitants; 186 Muslims and 250 Christians,[22] where all the Christians were Orthodox.[23] By the1931 census the population had decreased to 390; 228 Muslims, and 162 Christians, in a total of 90 houses.[24]
In the1945 statistics the population of Ma'alul was 690; 490 Muslims and 200 Christians,[2] with a total of 4,698dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[3] Of this, a total of 650 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 3,462 for cereals,[25] while 29 dunams were built-up land.[26]
The village was captured by the Israeli army on 15 July 1948 duringOperation Dekel. The villagers were forced to leave and the houses destroyed.[6]
In 1949 an Israeli military base was built on village land.[27]
Walid Khalidi describes the remains of Ma'alul in 1992:
The village site is now covered with a pine forest planted by theJewish National Fund and dedicated to the memory of prominent Jews and some non-Jewish Americans and Europeans. A military base is also on the site. The mosque and two churches still stand, and are used intermittently as cow sheds by the residents of KibbutzKefar ha-Choresh. Overlooking Wadi al-Halabi, between the village site and the site of al-Mujaydil, is an Israeli plastics factory. Cactus, olive trees, and fig trees grow on the site, which is strewn with piles of stones. A few tombs in the Muslim cemetery across from the mosque can be seen. The main village site also contains the remains of houses.[28][1]
Ma'alul was the object of the 1985 documentary film byMichel Khleifi;Ma'loul Celebrates its Destruction.[29][30]
