Al-Dumun () was a
Palestinian
Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine.
*: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...
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
Haifa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the
1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 30, 1948. It was located 10.5 km southeast of
Haifa
Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...
.
History
A known cave located in the area was used as a sheep fold. Flints artefacts from the cave had been dated to the
Neolithic
The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...
period.
[Khalidi, 1992, p. 159]
In 1881 the
PEF's ''
Survey of Western Palestine'' noted at ''Duweimin'' “foundations."
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, Al Damun had a population of 19 Muslims, while in the
1931 census, it was counted under
Isfiya
Isfiya (, ), also known as Usfiya, is a Druze-majority village in northern Israel, governed by a Local council (Israel), local council. It also includes Christians, Muslims and a few Jews, Jewish households. Located on Mount Carmel, it is part of ...
.
[Mills, 1932, p]
92
/ref>
In the 1945 statistics the village had a population of 340 Muslims,[ and the total land area was 2,797 dunams.][ Of this, 5 dunams were used for citrus and bananas, 280 were for plantations and irrigable land, 1,619 for cereals, while 893 dunams were non-cultivable land.
]
1948, aftermath
At the end of April, 1948, the villagers surrendered without a fight, and the village was garrison
A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters.
A garrison is usually in a city ...
ed by the Haganah
Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...
. The villagers were, at first, allowed to stay. Morris notes that part of the document stating this has been blacked out by the IDF censors, presumably, according to Morris, as the writer have suggested that the villagers were to be expelled.[Note 305, Morris, 2004, p]
283
/ref>
In 1992, the remains were described: "All that remains from the village is a building now used as a prison. Cactuses and few remaining fruit trees, such as pomegranate and almond trees, grown on the site. The land is forested and the area is currently used by Israelis for recreation."[
]
Damon prison
The original building of Damon prison was built to be a tobacco factory and stable during the British Mandate for Palestine
The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British Empire, British administration of the territories of Mandatory Palestine, Palestine and Emirate of Transjordan, Transjordanwhich had been Ottoman Syria, part of the Ottoman ...
. The building was constructed to retain humidity to preserve tobacco leaves. Following additional construction around the site, it was opened as a detention center in 1953 by the Israeli Minister of Police.Israel Prison Service
The Israel Prison Service (, ''Sherut Batei HaSohar'', , ''Idārat al-Sujūn al-Isrā’īlīyyah''), known in Israel by its acronym Shabas () or IPS in English, is the state (polity), state agency responsible for overseeing prisons in Israel. It ...
closed the prison temporarily due to inhumane conditions. It reopened in 2001 for incarcerating immigrant workers and Palestinians without official permits. There is no evidence that the complex has had significant changes or improvements since the 1950s.
References
Bibliography
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External links
Welcome To al-Damun, KhirbatKhirbat al-Damun
Zochrot
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 5
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War
Arab villages depopulated prior to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
District of Haifa
Prisons in Israel