Al-Ashrafiyya (), was a Palestinian

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

village in the District of Baysan. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine. It was located 4.5 km southwest of Baysan. The village was depopulated on May 12, 1948, during Operation Gideon. The village was completely destroyed and the inhabitants fled to

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

History

Just east of the village site, (at 196/208) pottery remains from the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

era have been found, together with coins dating to the time of

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

(527–565 C.E.).

British Mandate era

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

, conducted by the Mandatory Palestine authorities, ''Ashrafiyet Kuzma'' had 29 inhabitant; 27 Muslims and 2 Christians, while ''Ashrafiyet Rushdi'' had 7 Muslims; a total of 36 inhabitants. The 2 Christians were Roman Catholics. In the 1931 census there were 4 villages named Ashrafiyat, where ''Ashrafiyat Kazma'' had 123 Muslims and 2 Christians in a total of 34 houses, while the three others were all Muslims; 48 in 11 houses in ''Ashrafiyat Abd el Hadi'', 10 in 3 houses in ''Ashrafiyat Haddad'', and 36 in 10 houses in ''Ashrafiyat Zamriq''. In total there were 219 inhabitants in a total of 58 houses. In the 1945 statistics, the population consisted of 230 Muslims, and the land area was 6711

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, the land ownership census the Land Ownership (Dunums) was as follows: The use of village land in 1945: The population rose to 267 in 1948 with 61 houses. The Wadi al-Maddu' runs near where the village was located.

1948, aftermath

In March, 1948, Yosef Weitz had started pressing the Haganah to expel Arab tenant farmers, and kibbutz leaders in the Baysan valley had demanded new settlements in their area, as "a means of freeing our land rom Arabsand preventing the return of the beduins who had fled to Transjordan". On 22 April, 1948, Haganah agreed to set up five new settlements on non-Arab land, including land in Al-Ashrafiyya. The Palestinian inhabitants of Al-Ashrafiyya, along with those of the neighbouring village of Farwana, fled to

with the approach of the pre-state

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i forces of the Golani Brigade during Operation Gideon on 11 May 1948.Morris, 2004, p.
227
/ref> Following the war the area was incorporated into the

State of Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and two

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

im were established on village land in 1948, Shluhot and Reshafim, both east of the village site. In 1992, it was described: "The site and the area around it are cultivated by the residents of Reshafim. A fishery also has been built on the site."

References

Bibliography

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