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Iqrit

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Summary

Maronite village near the Lebanese border, occupied without a fight on 31 October 1948, in Pappe’s account; its people were evicted on a promise of return in two weeks, won an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that the eviction was illegal on 31 July 1951, and then saw the army fabricate a formal expulsion order and demolish the village, sparing only the church and cemetery, on Christmas Eve 1951 — a legal struggle Pappe says was still not over almost sixty years later.

Details

  • Iqrit stood close to the Lebanese border, perched high in the mountains, about thirty kilometres east of the coast; an Israeli battalion occupied it on 31 October 1948 and the people surrendered without a fight, expecting, as a Maronite community, to be welcome in the new Jewish state (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.220).

  • The battalion commander ordered the people to leave as it was dangerous to stay, promising return in two weeks; on 6 November 1948 they were evicted and transported by army trucks to Rama, and the fifty people, including the local priest, allowed to stay behind to guard houses and property were driven out six months later (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.220).

  • On 26 September 1949 the Minister of Defence announced that the British Mandate British Emergency Regulations applied to Iqrit, in order to prevent the promised repatriation (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.220).

  • The people took their case to the Israeli Supreme Court on 28 May 1951; on 31 July the court declared the eviction illegal and ordered the army to allow resettlement, so the IDF fabricated a formal expulsion order dated 6 November 1948 and sent it to the former residents, now refugees in Rama, in September 1951 (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.220).

  • On Christmas Eve 1951 the Israeli army completely demolished all the houses in Iqrit, sparing only the church and the cemetery, to prevent repatriation (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.221).

  • Pappe presents Iqrit’s tale as fairly representative of what also happened to Kfar Bir’im and Ghabisiyya, whose stories began in October 1948 and, like Iqrit’s, had still not ended (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.219).

  • Sitta’s register lists Iqrit at S 8: depopulation date 31-10-48 with the note “early Nov-1948”, Exodus Causes 1 / E, Arab Population 48 of 568 on 24,722 dunums (The Palestinian Nakba 1948 — The Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine, PDF p.1) — the register’s date and Pappe’s occupation date of 31 October 1948 agree, and its note covers the early-November eviction Pappe dates to 6 November.

  • In Manna, Iqrit is a Christian border village destroyed with its residents evicted, but — contrary to the Muslim border villages — its inhabitants were allowed to live elsewhere in the country instead of being expelled to Lebanon (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.33).

  • Manna’s Chapter 2 in full (part 3) adds the eviction’s terms as the residents testified: the officer who delivered the order on 6 November 1948, Ya’qub Qarra, promised return after two weeks and told them to take provisions for that period, leaving a few men to guard houses and possessions; 126 families, numbering 616 people, were evicted that day (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.108-109).

  • On 24 November 1948 the government ratified the border strip expulsions, Ben-Gurion saying: “As for the Arabs, we shall not bring them back” (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.109-110).

  • Manna’s Chapter 5 (part 6) treats Iqrit with Kfar Bir’im: the inhabitants were evacuated with false promises of return within weeks, fought to return through direct contacts and, in Kufr Bir’im’s case, a delegation to Maronite Archbishop Mubarak in Lebanon; in May 1951 the residents of both villages went to the Supreme Court, choosing Muhammad Nimr al-Hawwari to represent them, but “the court did not come to the aid of the villagers,” and army and settlers subsequently tore down the houses and uprooted most of the olive trees in 1953; the two villages became a symbol of the Present Absentees’ struggle to return (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.200).

Where sources disagree

  • On the demolition date: Pappe dates Iqrit’s complete demolition, sparing church and cemetery, to Christmas Eve 1951, after the 31 July 1951 Supreme Court ruling that the eviction was illegal and the army’s fabricated expulsion order (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.220-221). Manna gives no ruling in the villagers’ favour for Iqrit and dates the tearing down of the houses of Iqrit and Kufr Bir’im to 1953 (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.200). The two accounts stand as printed in each source.

The Palestinian Nakba 1948 — The Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Kfar Bir’im, Operation Hiram, British Emergency Regulations

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