Summary
Galilee village heavily pounded in the massive air bombardment of Operation Hiram and seized at the end of October 1948, in Pappe’s account; its people, like Iqrit’s, secured a categorical Israeli court ruling for their return, and the army destroyed the village the same year to prevent repatriation.
Details
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Kfar Bir’im was among the villages heavily pounded by massive air bombardment during Operation Hiram, and was seized in the single day at the end of October 1948 when most upper Galilee villages fell (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.214-215).
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In 1951 destruction was carried out on Kfar Bir’im, as on Qaddita, Deir Hanna and Ghabisiyya, to prevent repatriation (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.221).
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The people of Kfar Bir’im and Ghabisiyya had managed to secure a categorical ruling from the Israeli courts; the army immediately ‘retaliated’ by destroying their villages, offering the excuse that a military exercise involving an air bombardment had somehow left the village in ruins and uninhabitable (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.221).
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Pappe groups Kfar Bir’im with Iqrit and Ghabisiyya as the three villages whose story began in October 1948 and has still not ended (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.219).
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Sitta’s register lists Kafr Bir’im in the Safad district: depopulation date 3-11-48 with the note “Early Nov-1948”, Exodus Causes 1 / E, Arab Population 48 of 824 on 12,250 dunums, operation hm (The Palestinian Nakba 1948 — The Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine, PDF p.16).
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In Manna, Kafr Bir‘im is, with Iqrit, a Christian border village destroyed and its residents evicted, but its inhabitants were allowed to live elsewhere in the country instead of being expelled to Lebanon, as happened to the inhabitants of Muslim villages along the border strip (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.33).
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Manna’s Chapter 2 in full (part 3) gives the eviction sequence: Mano Friedman and Raful counted the population on 7 November 1948 at 1,050 people; on 13 November Friedman returned with four soldiers and ordered the residents to leave for Lebanon within forty-eight hours, on a promise the expulsion was temporary and for security reasons; villagers camping in the orchards lost, by the news that spread, seven children to the cold, and on 19 November many moved to abandoned houses in Jish and some to Rumaysh in Lebanon (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.109).
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Bechor Shitrit visited the evicted villagers in Jish the next day with military governor Elisha Soltz and repeated the promises of a temporary displacement; after the government ratified the border expulsions on 24 November, it approved the return of Kufr Bir’im’s people from Rumaysh only to live in Jish or elsewhere, not in their village (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.109-110).
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Manna’s Chapter 5 (part 6) adds: in February 1949 villagers who had repaired and waterproofed their houses for winter were arrested — sixty-five individuals, including the elderly and women — and trucked to the Jordanian border near Jenin, from where they made their way via the East Bank and Syria to south Lebanon and crossed back to settle in Jish; on 5 June 1949 a Hashomer Hatzair settlement nucleus was established on the village land, settlers supported by police expelled the young men guarding the houses, and the settlers lived in the deserted houses for about two years until moving to kibbutz Bar’am in summer 1951 (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.200).
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In May 1951 Kufr Bir’im’s and Iqrit’s residents jointly went to the Supreme Court, represented by Muhammad Nimr al-Hawwari; Manna says the court did not aid them, and that the army and settlers tore down the houses and uprooted most of the olive trees in 1953 (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.200).
Where sources disagree
- On the court outcome and demolition: Pappe says the people of Kfar Bir’im secured a categorical court ruling for their return and that destruction was carried out in 1951 (The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, PDF p.221). Manna says the May 1951 case brought by Iqrit and Kufr Bir’im together did not deliver the hoped-for justice and dates the demolition of both villages’ houses to 1953 (Nakba and Survival, PDF p.200). The two accounts stand as printed in each source.
Related pages
The Palestinian Nakba 1948 — The Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Iqrit, Operation Hiram