Jusayr was a Palestinian Arab village in the Gaza Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the

1948 Arab-Israeli War Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

on July 17, 1948, under

Operation Barak Operation Barak (, ''Mivtza Barak'', lit. ''Operation Lightning'') was a Haganah offensive launched just before the end of the British Mandate in Palestine. It was part of Plan Dalet. Its objective was to capture villages North of Gaza in anti ...

or Operation Yo'av. It was located 35 km northeast of Gaza.

History

Ceramics 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 here. Jusayr's residents came from

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and the

Hejaz Hejaz is a Historical region, historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes the majority of the western region of Saudi Arabia, covering the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif and Al Bahah, Al-B ...

.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. 381

Ottoman era

In 1517, Jusayr was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

with the rest of

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, and in 1596 the village appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as being in the ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' (subdistrict) of Gaza under the Liwa of Gaza. It had a population of 60 household;Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 147 an estimated population of 330.Khalidi, 1992, p. 117 The whole population was

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. It paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on a number of crops, including

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

, summer crops, vineyards, fruit trees, goats, beehives, as well as on "occasional revenues"; a total of 12,180

Akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

. In 1838, Edward Robinson noted ''el Juseir'' as a Muslim village, located in the Gaza district.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
118
/ref> In 1863

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

visited the village, which he found to have 500 inhabitants, while an Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that the village had a population of 296, in a total of 119 houses, though the population count included men, only.Socin, 1879, p
153
/ref> In 1883 the PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

'' (SWP) described it as being an

adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

village on flat ground.

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 British Mandate authorities, Jusayr had a population of 579 inhabitants, all

s,Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Gaza, p
9
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 839 Muslims, in a total of 246 houses.Mills, 1932, p
4
/ref> Jseir 1931

By the 1945 statistics, Jusayr had a population of 1180 Muslims, with a total of 12,361

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 of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 11,852 dunams were used for cereals, while 54 dunams were built-up land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
137
/ref> Faluja 1945

Jusayr had an elementary school for boys which was founded in 1937, and by 1945, it had 74 students. Jseir 1948

Post 1948

In 1992 the village site was described: "One concrete, flat-roofed house still stands in the middle of a peach orchard. Its front facade has two rectangular windows and a rectangular entrance in the middle. The debris of houses among tall grasses and weeds is visible. A garbage dump is now located on the site, as well as buildings that belong to an Israeli settlement. The surrounding lands are cultivated."

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * (pp
258
9
414
* Nasser, G.A (1955/1973)
"Memoirs"
in ''

Journal of Palestine Studies The ''Journal of Palestine Studies'' (JPS) is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal which has been published since 1971. It is published by Taylor and Francis on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies. History and profile The journal ...

''
"Memoirs of the First Palestine War”"
no. 2 (Win. 73): 3-32], pdf-file, downloadable * * * *

External links

Welcome To JusayrJusayr

Zochrot Zochrot (; "Remembering"; ; "Memories") is an Israeli nonprofit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Nakba, including the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight. The group was co-founded by Eitan ...

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 20
IAAWikimedia commons

from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center {{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Gaza