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The Palestinian Nakba 1948 — The Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine

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Summary

Salman Abu Sitta’s Register is a single 24-column table, repeated over 20 wide sheets, listing every locality its compiler counts as depopulated in the Nakba: 531 fully depopulated localities and 662 further, partially depopulated (“extra”) localities, 1,193 in all, with a 1948 Arab population of 804,465 and 17,184,463 dunums of land (computed from the register’s printed district subtotals, the land subtotals sum exactly to the printed grand total). For each main-list locality the register gives its names in English and Arabic, its region “by Morris” and its Palestine district, its depopulation date, a two-part Exodus Causes code, a grid reference, its 1948 Arab population and land area, the Israeli operation and defenders codes, a massacres/destruction reference, and its refugees as recorded by UNRWA on 9/4/97 and as registered and estimated for 1998 — 3,602,887 registered refugees in 1998 and 4,940,269 in total estimated, of whom 1,337,382 unregistered. Although the running head is the Nakba of 1948, the register’s dates run from December 1947 to 1952, taking in Negev Bedouin tribal sections expelled or relocated into the 1950s. It is a dataset, not a narrative: there is no prose, legend or bibliography in these pages.

What the file is

  • The file is the Register itself — Section V of Salman Abu Sitta, The Palestinian Nakba 1948 (Palestine Land Society, London; first edition 1998, second edition 2025), where it runs to pp.42-61 of the book: 20 PDF pages, each one wide landscape sheet (page size about 960 × 375 pt) carrying part of one continuous table. Every sheet repeats the running head “THE PALESTINIAN NAKBA” (1948), the title “The list of towns and villages depopulated by the Israeli Invasion in 1948”, the full 24-column header (Arabic labels printed above the English ones), and the footer The Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine. There is no cover, title page, introduction, legend, notes section or bibliography in the file; the author’s name appears nowhere in these 20 pages and is taken from the delivery and the publisher’s book page (see frontmatter). A stray word “Resignation”, printed twice below the table on PDF p.1, belongs to no column of the register.
  • Kind: a register/dataset extracted from the book The Palestinian Nakba 1948 as delivered; the PDF’s own metadata (not the text) gives creation by Adobe InDesign CS6 on 27 August 2015. Access basis given with delivery: author-copy, downloaded from the URL in the frontmatter (the Palestine Land Society’s site, plands.org).
  • The 24 columns: 1. S No. (the register’s own serial); 2. AS No.; 3. M No.; 4. K No. — three cross-reference numberings the file does not expand; 5. Name in English; 6. Name in Arabic; 7. Area by Morris (a region label); 8. Palestine District; 9. Depopulation Date; 10. Notes; 11-12. Exodus Causes, in two sub-columns, one numeric (codes 1-6) and one of letters (E, M, C, F, W, A and combinations); 13. PGR (grid reference); 14. Arab Population 48; 15. Total Land Area, d; 16. Israeli Operation (two-letter codes); 17. Defenders; 18. Massacres; 19. Destruction Ref; 20. UNRWA Record of Registered Refugees as on 9/4/97 (In this List); 21-22. (Extra Villages) — names of partially depopulated localities printed alongside the main rows; 23. Registered Refugees 1998; 24. Total Refugees est 1998. No legend for the Exodus Causes codes, the operation codes (ba, dk, hm, yh, yv, dn, bk, af, hh, nn, gd, uv, st, bc, ch, mc, mt, nk and others) or the defenders codes (EG, ALA, AL, IR, SYR, LEB/ALA) is printed anywhere in these pages; they are reported here as printed, not decoded.
  • Order: by Palestine district — Acre, al-Ramla, Baysan, Beersheba, Gaza, Haifa, Hebron, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Jinin, Nazareth, Safad, Tiberias, Tulkarm — each district ending in a subtotal row; Ramallah and Nablus have subtotal rows but no main-list rows, and a “Misc” row follows them before the Grand Total (PDF p.20). Within a district the rows are alphabetical by English name, except Beersheba, which is organised by Bedouin tribe. Subtotal rows, tribal-total rows, “Others” rows and extra-village overflow rows all consume S serials, so the serial (which runs to 566 at the closing statement) is not a count of localities.
  • Text copy: the supplied text copy (raw/2025-sitta-palestinian-nakba-1948-register.txt, from Josh’s memex vault) has a page marker for every page, 1-20, and 13,763 words as counted on intake, but its extraction scrambles this 24-column table: cells interleave, rows split, and the Arabic-script column (names and the Arabic header labels) does not extract at all — the Arabic names are printed and legible in the original (Acre is عكا) but absent from the text copy. The reading notes were therefore written from the original PDF with each page’s rows reassembled in printed order, and quotations were checked against the text copy. Figures cited below are the register’s as printed, including its slips; internal differences are collected under Open questions.

Section by section

The register has no chapters; its sections are its district blocks, taken here in the register’s order. Figures are Arab Population 48 / Total Land Area in dunums, and refugee figures are the register’s UNRWA-based columns.

District of Acre — PDF p.1 (S 1-28, subtotal S 29)

Twenty-eight main-list localities, all in Western or Upper Galilee. The town of Acre (S 1) is dated 16-05-48 with the note “Pop rem’g 3000”, population 14,280 / land 1,949, and 33,126 UNRWA-registered refugees in this list. The largest villages by population are Kabri al (6,218 / 47,428, Massacres mark M), Bassa al (3,422 / 29,535), Dayr al Qasi (2,668 / 34,011) and Damun al (1,520 / 20,357); the October 1948 rows (Dayr al Qasi, Iqrit, Suhmata, Tarbikha and their neighbours) carry operation hm and cause letter E or M, the May-July rows operations ba and dk. Three rows print a population of 0 with cross-reference notes instead of figures — Mansura al and Nabi Rubin and Suruh, each “see Tarbikha” or “see Dayr al Qasi” — and Majd al Kurum (S 14) is dated 28-10-48 with the note “date?,not depopulated?##”. Kafr ‘Inan is dated 31-01-49. District subtotal: 47,038 / 310,571; UNRWA (in this list) 117,948; extra villages 32,409; Registered 1998 159,616; Total est 1998 288,863.

District of al-Ramla — PDF p.2-3 (S 30-93, subtotal S 94)

Sixty-four main-list localities, mostly Lower Coastal. Its two towns dominate: Lydda (S 64), dated 9-07-48 with notes “10,13-Jul.Remain1200”, cause E/M, population 19,442 / 42,838 and 95,588 UNRWA-registered; and Ramle (S 77), dated 9-07-48 with notes “10,13-Jul,IZL,R1500”, population 17,586 / 21,661 and 69,937 UNRWA-registered. Most village rows are dated 9-14 July 1948 with operation dn, the July offensive in this district as the register presents it; the April-May rows carry operations bk, nn and af. Yibna (6,287 / 59,554) has the district’s largest land area. Two rows are openly uncertain: Huraniyya (S 53), whose note reads “Date&Distr uncertain.K364?” with all figures 0, and Jindas (S 58), “Not known.Location approx”, population 0. District subtotal: 97,405 / 609,046; UNRWA 483,034; extra 44,951; Registered 1998 560,499; Total est 1998 598,171.

District of Baysan — PDF p.4 (S 95-125, subtotal S 126)

Thirty-one main-list localities, almost all dated 11-19 May 1948, operation gd, cause letter C. The town of Baysan (S 98) is dated 11-05-48, causes M/C, 6,009 / 28,957. Sirin (S 116) is the district’s earliest and one of its largest rows: 5-04-48, cause A (the numeric code is 6), 940 / 28,445. Two rows note land remaining in Israel — Fatur al, “mid Feb-1948. Land in Israel”, and Hamra al, “Date est. Land in Israel” — and Zab’a and Zarra’a al are keyed to the K numbering (“see K194”, “est as K213”). District subtotal: 19,300 / 272,661; UNRWA 77,556; extra 3,738; Registered 1998 86,300; Total est 1998 118,523.

District of Beersheba — PDF p.5-7 (S 127-227, subtotal S 228)

The register’s exceptional district. It opens with nine PS (police station) rows (S 127-135), each printing a population of 46 and a date in 1944 as printed — Imara al PS 12-05-44, Jammama PS 21-05-44, Asluj PS 25-12-44, Awja Hafir PS 26-12-44, Kurnub PS 22-11-44, Zuwaira al PS 24-11-44, Khalasah al PS 16-11-44 — except Ghamr PS (4-03-49) and Um Rashrash (9-03-49). Then the town of Beersheba (S 136): 20-10-48, causes M/E, Massacres M, 6,461 / 3,890, 33,557 UNRWA-registered. The rest of the district is Bedouin tribal sections, each with its own total: Tarabin (S 137-159; total 32,665 / 1,362,475), Azazema (S 160-171; total 16,746 / 5,700,000), Tayaha (S 172-199; total 16,248 / 2,085,825), Hanajreh (S 200-205; total 7,599 / 78,325), Jbarat (S 206-220; total 9,058 / 379,175), Saidiyeen (S 221-226; total 1,312 / 1,238,375) and an Ehewat total (S 227; 1,200 / 1,728,935) with no individual rows printed. The tribal rows are dated, where dated at all, 19-10-48 (the Yoav-period rows, whose split note reads in full across the Jbarat rows: attacked 16/17 July, but the main attack was 6 Oct., culminated in Yoav), 21-12-48 (Hanajreh, “Hill 86 Israeli attack”), 1-11-52 and 5-12-52 (Tarabin rows, the latter under the “Assaf Operation”), or 30-04-50 (Saidiyeen, “Intermittent expulsion”), and very many carry only the note “Relocated by Israelis.” District subtotal: 90,507 / 12,577,000 — the land figure is nearly three-quarters of the register’s whole land total; UNRWA 257,320; extra 54,581; Registered 1998 331,108; Total est 1998 555,811.

District of Gaza — PDF p.8 (S 229-274, subtotal S 275)

Forty-six main-list localities, Lower Coastal and two Negev rows, defenders EG on most rows, operations yv and bk. The district’s town in the main list is Al Majdal (Ashkelon) (S 229): 3-11-48, 11,496 / 43,680, 48,418 UNRWA-registered; Gaza itself appears only as an extra-village name (in the Faluja row). Hamama (5,812 / 41,366) and Isdud (5,359 / 47,871, note “M end Aug 48”, Massacres M) are the largest villages; Burayr (3,178 / 46,184) also carries a Massacres M. Two villages held out into 1949: Faluja al and Iraq al Manshiyya, both dated 28-02-49 (Feb-Mar-1949) with cause E. Kawkaba’s note records three occupations: “bat:12/5,14/6,19/10#3occ” (as printed). District subtotal: 79,947 / 680,018; UNRWA 415,938; extra 31,041; Registered 1998 474,504; Total est 1998 490,960.

District of Haifa — PDF p.9-10 (S 276-334, subtotal S 335)

Fifty-nine main-list localities. Haifa (Arab) (S 295) is dated 20-04-48, notes “21/4-1/5.IZL.Rem5000”, causes M,A, 72,848 / 54,305, Massacres M, 187,425 UNRWA-registered and a Total est 1998 of 447,364. Its UNRWA figure is the largest for a single locality in the register; Jaffa’s row (S 361) is larger in 1948 population (76,920 against 72,848) and in Total est 1998 (472,368 against 447,364). The village rows run February-July 1948: the earliest are Qisarya (14-02-48, cause E, Massacres M, 1,114 / 31,786) and Burj al, Khirbat (14-02-48); the “Little Triangle” rows — Ayn Ghazal (23-07-48, 2,517 / 18,079), Ijzim (23-07-48, 3,445 / 46,905, Massacres M) and Jaba’ (23-07-48, 1,322 / 7,012) — carry operation st. Shafa Amr (S 324), dated 15-07-48 with the note “half pop remaining”, prints 4,211 / 97,268, the district’s largest land area. Several rows are carried at 0 with their population and land folded into another row’s (the two Ghubayya rows, “pop&land inc in K171”; Qumbaza K, “see K Lid”). District subtotal: 121,196 / 636,421; UNRWA 362,755; extra 21,570; Registered 1998 407,992; Total est 1998 744,269, the second-largest district total-estimate in the register, after Jaffa’s 756,743.

District of Hebron — PDF p.11 (S 336-351, subtotal S 352)

Sixteen main-list localities, all Lower Coastal (Bayt Nattif’s area is “Jerusalem”), dated July and October 1948 under operations yv, af and hh, defenders EG on the October rows. Ajjur (4,327 / 58,074) and Bayt Jibrin (2,819 / 56,185) are the largest by land. Dawayima al (S 340) is dated 28-10-48, causes E/M, 4,304 / 60,585, and carries the Massacres mark “M++”, the strongest such mark in the register as printed. Zakariyya (S 349) is dated 31-05-50 with cause E. District subtotal: 22,991 / 375,960; UNRWA 148,718; extra 29,398; Registered 1998 189,084; Total est 1998 141,190 — printed smaller than its Registered 1998 figure, as in Jinin, Nazareth and Tulkarm (see Open questions).

District of Jaffa — PDF p.12 (S 353-377, subtotal S 378)

Twenty-five main-list localities. Jaffa (S 361) is dated 25-04-48, notes “Till early May,IZL.2600 rem”, 76,920 / 17,510, with a Total est 1998 of 472,368. This is the district whose Notes column systematically names the attacking force: “IZL(Irgun)” for Abu Kishk A and Bayt Dajan, “LEHI(Stern)” for Biyar ‘Adas, “IZL” for Jarisha, Kafr ‘Ana, Safiriyya, Sawalima al A and Sheikh Muwannis. The earliest dates in the register are here and in Jerusalem: Mas’udiyya al (Summayl) 24-12-47, Muwaylih al 30-12-47, Mirr al (Mahmudiya) 31-01-48. Ijlil al-Qibliyya’s date is printed 2-04-44, like the Beersheba police-station rows. Salama (7,807 / 6,782), Abbasiyya al (6,554 / 20,540, note “M on 13.12.47”, Massacres M) and Yazur (4,675 / 11,807) are the largest villages. District subtotal: 123,227 / 210,260 — the largest district population in the register, on a land area smaller than every district’s except Nazareth (91,356), Jinin (123,214) and Tulkarm (189,412); UNRWA 372,027; extra 119,567; Registered 1998 521,867; Total est 1998 756,743.

District of Jerusalem — PDF p.13 (S 379-417, subtotal S 418)

Thirty-nine main-list localities. Jerusalem (Qatamon) (S 399) is dated 27-04-48, notes “many battles/quarter”, and carries a 1948 population of 69,693 — most of the district subtotal on its own — land of 20,790, four operation codes (ys, qn, sc, qd) as printed, and a Total est 1998 of 427,988. Dayr Yassin (S 394) is dated 8-04-48, notes “9,10/4/48,IZL,LEHI”, causes M/E, Massacres mark “M+”, 708 / 2,857. Lifta (S 403) is dated 31-12-47, the register’s joint-earliest date. The July rows carry operation dn, the October rows hh, several with defenders EG; Bayt Mahsir (2,784 / 16,268) carries operation mc and defenders ALA, Saris (650 / 10,699) operation nn and defenders ALA. Walaja al (1,914 / 17,708) closes the district. District subtotal: 97,950 / 272,735; UNRWA 246,342; extra 43,490; Registered 1998 307,680; Total est 1998 601,519.

District of Jinin — PDF p.14 (S 419-424, subtotal S 428)

The smallest district section: six main-list localities — Ayn al-Mansi (11-04-48, 104 / 1,295), Jawfa al K (11-05-48, population 0), Lajjun al (29-05-48, 1,279 / 77,242, a land area out of proportion to the district), Mazar al (29-05-48, 313 / 14,501), Nuris (28-05-48, causes M/E, 661 / 6,256) and Zir’in (27-05-48, 1,647 / 23,920) — followed by three rows (S 425-427) carrying only extra-village names (among them Umm Fahm, Ya’bad, Silat Harithiya and Jenin itself, which appears in the register only as an extra name in Lajjun’s row) and the parenthetical (41). District subtotal: 4,005 / 123,214; UNRWA 15,080; extra 16,666; Registered 1998 33,701; Total est 1998 24,598.

District of Nazareth — PDF p.15 (S 429-433, subtotal S 436)

Five main-list localities, all Lower Galilee, three with operation dk: Indur (23-05-48, causes C,M, 719 / 12,444), Ma’lul (14-07-48, 800 / 4,698), Mujaydil al (14-07-48, 2,204 / 18,836), Saffuriyya (15-07-48, defenders ALA, 5,023 / 55,378) and Subeih al A (18-04-48, cause C, population 0 / 5,393). Nazareth itself is not in the main list; it appears among the extra villages in Saffuriyya’s row. Two extra-only overflow rows (S 434-435) carry the parenthetical (34). District subtotal: 8,746 / 91,356; UNRWA 38,384; extra 15,445; Registered 1998 57,144; Total est 1998 53,712.

District of Safad — PDF p.16-18 (S 437-514, subtotal S 515)

Seventy-eight main-list localities, Upper Galilee and Galilee Panhandle, operation yh on the April-May rows and hm on the late-October rows. Safad (Arab) (S 494), the town, is dated 10-05-48, 11,055 / 4,431, 44,532 UNRWA-registered. The district’s rows include the register’s earliest 1948 date, Mansurat al Khayt (17-01-48, notes “DMZ. Returned&expelled”, Massacres M), two DMZ rows later resettled and expelled (Kirad al Baqqara and Kirad al Ghannama, both 21-04-48), a 1949 row (Muntar al, K, 19-07-49, DMZ), two January 1949 rows (Farradiyya al and, in Acre district, Kafr ‘Inan, both 31-01-49), and the queried Jish (S 464, 28-10-48, “date?,not depopulated?##”, no figures). Massacres marks fall on Ayn az Zaytun (M), Husayniyya (M), Khisas al (“MM”, note “Also M 18.12.48”), Sa’sa (“MM”), Safsaf (M, dated 28-10-48) and Saliha (M, 29-10-48). The serial 464 is printed for both Jish and the following row, Kafr Bir’im (3-11-48, “Early Nov-1948”, cause E, 824 / 12,250), as extracted from the original. District subtotal: 52,248 / 531,602; UNRWA 234,444; extra 12,723; Registered 1998 262,388; Total est 1998 320,855.

District of Tiberias — PDF p.19 (S 516-541, subtotal S 542)

Twenty-six main-list localities, plus the unnumbered Eilaboun row (29-Oct-52, “date?,not depopulated?##”, operation hm, defenders ALA, Massacres M, no figures), which the register prints inside this district’s list without an S number of its own. Tiberias (Arab) (S 537) is dated 17-04-48, 6,160 / 15,729, defenders ALA. Samakh (4,014 / 18,611) is the largest village by population after the town, then Lubiya (2,726 / 39,629), Mansura al (2,482 / 55,583) and Wa’ra al-Sawda al K (2,169 / 7,036); by land the order is Mansura al, Lubiya and Hittin (1,380 / 22,764), Lubiya and Hittin both dated 15-07-48 with causes F,M and operation dk. Cause code A (numeric 6) falls on Awlam, Hadatha and Ma’dhar. The DMZ rows run late: Hamma al 19-07-49 (“DMZ.Depop >20/7”), Nuqayb al dated 14-05-48 with the note “DMZ,left between 49,56”, Samra al “DMZ”. Mansura al prints a population of 2,482 and a land area of 55,583, the district’s largest. District subtotal: 28,872 / 304,207; UNRWA 107,371; extra 2,334; Registered 1998 116,461; Total est 1998 177,307.

District of Tulkarm, Ramallah and Nablus subtotals, Misc, Grand Total — PDF p.20 (S 543-566)

Eighteen main-list Tulkarm localities, Northern Coastal, dated February-June 1948: Qaqun (4-06-48, 2,285 / 41,767) and Wadi al Hawarith (14-03-48, notes “North&South”, 2,552 / 30,000) are the largest; Kafr Saba (14-05-48, 1,473 / 9,688, defenders ALA) and Miska (19-04-48, cause E, 1,021 / 8,076) among them. District subtotal (S 561): 11,032 / 189,412, with refugee figures 42,460 / 44,708 / 87,168 / 92,536 / 67,746 as printed. Ramallah (S 562) and Nablus (S 563) then appear as subtotal rows with no main-list localities anywhere in the register, printing only extra-villages refugee figures (654 and 801 respectively, with Registered 1998 figures of 694 and 850 and Total est of 0), and a “Misc” row (S 564) prints 437 / 437 / 464 / 0. The Grand Total (S 565) and the closing statement (S 566) follow, quoted under Key passages: 804,465 Arab population in 1948; 17,184,463 dunums; 2,919,377 UNRWA-registered refugees in this list and 474,513 in the extra villages, 3,393,890 combined; 3,602,887 registered refugees in 1998; 4,940,269 total refugees estimated for 1998; 1,337,382 unregistered; 531 fully depopulated localities, 662 extra (partially depopulated), 1,193 total.

Key passages

The register is a table; its only prose is its headings, notes and totals. Verbatim, with locators:

Evidence the work relies on

The register prints no bibliography and almost no citations in these pages; what it relies on is visible in its own columns, as it presents them:

  • UNRWA records: column 20 is headed as the UNRWA record of registered refugees as on 9/4/97, split between this list and the extra villages; columns 23-24 carry the register’s 1998 registered and estimated totals built on them. The grand totals are 2,919,377 (this list) and 474,513 (extra villages) as on 9/4/97, and 3,602,887 registered and 4,940,269 estimated for 1998 (PDF p.20).
  • Morris’s apparatus: column 3 is an “M No.” numbering and column 7 gives each locality’s area “by Morris” (headings, every sheet). The register cross-references two further numberings without expanding them: “AS No.” (column 2) and “K No.” (column 4), the latter invoked inside notes as well (“see K194”, “est as K213”, “pop&land inc in K171”).
  • The register’s own field data, as presented: depopulation dates and alternative dates in the Notes column, the two Exodus Causes code sets, grid references (PGR), 1948 Arab population and total land area in dunums, Israeli operation codes, defenders codes, and the Massacres and Destruction Ref columns. No sources for these columns are named in the file.
  • Internal cross-references in the Notes column: rows folded into other rows (“see Tarbikha”, “see Dayr al Qasi”, “see K Lid”, “see Ayn Ghazal”, “see Ijzim”, “pop inc K Mas’ub”, “pop inc Manawat”, “pop inc in Mallaha”), and rows carried against another numbering (“cf AS274”, “cf AS304”, “as K98”).

Analysis

  • Method: enumeration and cross-referencing rather than argument. The register’s claim is made by completeness: every locality is one row, keyed to three other numberings (AS, M, K), placed in a district and a region, dated, and given population, land and refugee figures that are subtotalled by district and totalled at the end. Where its sources disagree or a figure is uncertain, the row itself says so — alternative dates in the Notes column, “date not known”, “Loc approx”, “pop est”, “date?” — rather than any apparatus around the table.
  • Perspective: the frame is in the headings. The title calls the depopulation the work of “the Israeli Invasion in 1948”; the running head names the whole event the Palestinian Nakba of 1948. Within that frame the presentation is tabular and unsparing in both directions: localities the compiler is unsure were depopulated at all are kept in the list and flagged (“date?,not depopulated?##”), localities that remained partly populated are kept and flagged (“Pop rem’g 3000” for Acre, “half pop remaining” for Shafa Amr, “Remain1200” for Lydda, “R1500” for Ramle, “2600 rem” for Jaffa), and 662 partially depopulated localities are counted separately as “extra” rather than folded silently into the 531.
  • Scope against its own title: the register’s dates run from 24-12-47 (Mas’udiyya al) to 29-Oct-52 (Eilaboun) and the 5-12-52 Assaf Operation rows in Beersheba, with Saidiyeen expulsions at 30-04-50 and Zakariyya at 31-05-50. The depopulation it documents is therefore not confined to calendar 1948, and its Beersheba tribal sections record processes — relocation inside the country as well as expulsion to Egypt — that the district’s own notes distinguish (“Relocated by Israelis.”; one Azazema total row’s note records expulsion to Egypt in 49-54, some returned).
  • Support and limits: the figures are internally consistent to a striking degree for a hand-built table — the district land subtotals sum exactly to the printed grand total, and the UNRWA columns sum exactly once the Ramallah, Nablus and Misc rows are counted as extra-villages figures (all computed from the printed subtotals) — with three small exceptions recorded under Open questions (the population subtotals fall one short of the grand total, the Registered 1998 subtotals exceed it by one, and the Total est 1998 subtotals fall two short). The limits are the file’s own: no legend for any of its code sets, no bibliography, no statement of how the 1998 estimates were derived, and an Arabic name column that its own text extraction loses. The parenthetical numbers printed at the last row of most district sections ((52) at Acre, (65) at al-Ramla, (22) at Baysan, (39) at Beersheba, (23) at Gaza, (58) at Haifa, (37) at Hebron, (43) at Jaffa, (59) at Jerusalem, (41) at Jinin, (34) at Nazareth, (50) at Safad, (25) at Tiberias, (72) at Tulkarm) are nowhere explained in these pages; they sum to 620 (computed), which is not the printed extra-villages total of 662.

People, organizations, places and events

Salman Abu Sitta, Benny Morris, UNRWA, Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Safad, Tiberias, Baysan, Beersheba, Gaza, Nazareth, Jenin, Lydd, Ramla, Iqrit, Kfar Bir’im, Safsaf, Dawaymeh, Deir Yassin, Lifta, Tantura, Ayn Hawd, Ayn Ghazal, Ijzim, Kfar Lam, Saffuriyya

Concepts

Nakba, Ethnic Cleansing

How it relates to other sources

  • With The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine: the register is the tabular counterpart of Pappe’s narrative. Pappe’s headline figures — close to 800,000 uprooted and 531 villages destroyed — meet the register’s own: 531 fully depopulated localities (PDF p.20) and a 1948 Arab population for those localities of 804,465, subtotalled district by district. Pappe’s Bibliography lists Sitta’s Atlas of the Nakbah (Palestine Land Society, 2005), and his Index lists Abu Sitta, Salman. Row by row, the register’s dates and Pappe’s narrative mostly agree in month and often in day, and differ in the cases recorded on the entity pages and under Open questions: Safsaf (register 28-10-48; Pappe 29 October), Tantura (register 20-05-48; Pappe’s attack 22 May), Ayn Ghazal (register 23-07-48; Pappe’s bombing 26 July), Beersheba town (register 20-10-48 and 6,461 people; Pappe 21 October and 5,000), Kafr Lam (register 15-07-48; Pappe taken 16 July), Saffuriyya (register 15-07-48; Pappe evicted in June). The register also extends past Pappe’s 1948 frame: its latest dates are 1950-1952 (Zakariyya, the Saidiyeen and Tarabin expulsions, Eilaboun), where Pappe’s post-1948 material is centred on the fight against return.
  • With The Question of Palestine: Said quotes Israel Shahak for almost four hundred Arab villages destroyed completely; the register, compiled two decades later out of UNRWA records and the Morris and K numberings, counts 531 fully depopulated localities and 662 more partially depopulated. The register’s refugee columns are the statistical form of Said’s exiles: 3,602,887 registered refugees in 1998 and 4,940,269 in total estimated, against the 1948 population of 804,465 for the depopulated localities themselves.
  • With Zionist Colonialism in Palestine and The 1936-39 Revolt in Palestine: neither earlier source enumerates the depopulated localities; the register supplies the locality-level record — name, date, population, land, operation — for the dispossession both treat in general terms, district by district, including the localities of the 1936-39 revolt’s own geography (Jinin district’s six rows are among its smallest sections).
  • New here against all four earlier sources: a complete, checkable enumeration — every locality’s depopulation date as the register gives it, its 1948 population and land, and its refugee descendants in 1997-98; the Beersheba Bedouin tribal sections, which have no counterpart in the earlier sources; the partially depopulated “extra” localities counted alongside the fully depopulated; and post-1948 depopulation dates running to 1952.

Open questions

  • Authorship and publication data: the file’s 20 pages name no author, publisher or publication date; the frontmatter’s author, publisher and URL come from the delivery and the publisher’s book page (plands.org, checked 2026-10-19), which lists the Register as Section V (pp.42-61) of The Palestinian Nakba 1948, first edition 1998 and second edition 2025. Which edition’s typesetting this standalone PDF reproduces is not stated in the file; its own metadata gives creation in 2015. The register’s data run to 1998 estimates and a UNRWA record dated 9/4/97, which dates the compilation, not the publication. The publisher’s description of the book speaks of the depopulation of 530 towns and villages; the register’s own closing statement says 531 fully depopulated localities (PDF p.20). Both figures stand as printed in their places.
  • The AS, M and K numberings: the file does not expand the initials. Column 7’s “Area by Morris” makes M’s association with Morris internal to the file; what AS and K stand for is not stated in these pages, though K numbers are used inside notes as if to another register (“see K194”, “pop&land inc in K171”).
  • No legends: the Exodus Causes numeric codes (1-6), the Exodus Causes letter codes (E, M, C, F, W, A and combinations), the Israeli Operation two-letter codes, the Defenders codes and the Massacres marks (M, M+, M++, MM) are never explained in these pages. They are reported as printed throughout the wiki’s use of this source.
  • The ”##” notes: Majd al Kurum (PDF p.1), Jish (PDF p.16) and Eilaboun (PDF p.19) are each noted “date?,not depopulated?##”; no footnote keyed ”##” is printed in these pages, and all three rows print no population figures. Whether the parent book’s apparatus resolves the query cannot be told from this file.
  • The district parentheticals: the numbers printed at the last row of most district sections ((52), (65), (22), (39), (23), (58), (37), (43), (59), (41), (34), (50), (25), (72)) are unexplained in the file and sum to 620 (computed), not to the printed extra-villages total of 662; the Ramallah, Nablus and Misc rows, which have no district sections of main-list rows, print no parenthetical.
  • Total est 1998 printed smaller than Registered 1998 in four districts, as printed: Hebron (141,190 against 189,084), Jinin (24,598 against 33,701), Nazareth (53,712 against 57,144) and Tulkarm (67,746 against 92,536). No other district subtotal shows this inversion.
  • Grand-total arithmetic: the district Arab Population subtotals sum to 804,464 against a printed Grand Total of 804,465; the district Registered Refugees 1998 figures sum to 3,602,888 against a printed 3,602,887; the district Total Refugees est 1998 subtotals sum to 4,940,267 against a printed 4,940,269 (all computed from the printed subtotals). The land and UNRWA columns sum exactly. The differences are recorded as printed, not reconciled.
  • Dates printed as 1944: nine Beersheba police-station rows print depopulation dates in 1944 (e.g. Imara al PS 12-05-44) and Ijlil al-Qibliyya (Jaffa) prints 2-04-44; the register offers no explanation in these pages, and the dates are recorded as printed.
  • Duplicated and missing serials: S 464 is printed for both Jish and Kafr Bir’im (PDF p.16, as extracted from the original); the Eilaboun row (PDF p.19) has no S number; S 433 (Subeih al A) prints its land figure in a displaced position. Because subtotal, total, “Others” and overflow rows also consume serials, the serial sequence cannot be used to recount the 531 from these pages.
  • Spelling and form as printed: the district is “Al-Ramla” in its rows and “al-Ramla” in its subtotal; Beersheba’s subtotal row prints the district as “BeerSheba’”; Safad is once printed “safad” (S 462); “Miscellanous Bedouins” (S 367); “GalazinTayaha” without a space or slash (S 195); Latrun al’s land cell carries its operation codes (“8,376n/ym/bn/m”, S 63); Jerusalem (Qatamon) carries four operation codes at once (ys, qn, sc, qd, S 399).
  • The Arabic column: every locality’s Arabic name is printed in Arabic script and is legible in the original, but neither the supplied text copy nor a fresh extraction recovers it as text; the wiki therefore cannot cite the register’s Arabic spellings from the text copy, and does not reproduce them.
  • Dates that differ from The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine as printed in both works: Safsaf 28-10-48 here against Pappe’s 29 October 1948; Tantura 20-05-48 here against Pappe’s attack of 22 May 1948; Ayn Ghazal 23-07-48 here against Pappe’s bombing of 26 July 1948; Beersheba 20-10-48 and 6,461 people here against Pappe’s 21 October 1948 and 5,000; Kafr Lam 15-07-48 here against Pappe’s 16 July 1948; Saffuriyya 15-07-48 here against Pappe’s June 1948 eviction. Both accounts are kept, attributed, on the places’ pages.

Coverage

PDF p.1-20 of 20, read in full. Reading notes in reading/sitta-2025-palestinian-nakba-1948-register.md cover PDF p.1-10 and PDF p.11-20 with no gaps.

Graph View

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