Dayshum

Dayshum
Dayshum
Arabic	ديشوم
Also Spelled	Dayshum, Deishum
District	Safad
Coordinates	33°04′48.96″N 35°30′25.51″E / 33.0802667°N 35.5070861°E / 33.0802667; 35.5070861Coordinates: 33°04′48.96″N 35°30′25.51″E / 33.0802667°N 35.5070861°E / 33.0802667; 35.5070861
Population	590[1] (1945)
Area	23,044[1] dunums
Date of depopulation	30 October 1948[2]
Cause(s) of depopulation	Military assault by Yishuv forces
Current localities	Dishon[3]

Dayshum (Arabic: ديشوم‎) was a Palestinian village, depopulated in 30 October 1948 by the Sheva Brigade of Israeli paramilitary force Palmach in an offensive called Operation Hiram, where the village has been completely destroyed, and only house rubble left behind. The village was located 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) north of Safed, 600 meters (2,000 ft) above sea level.

History

In 1517, Dayshum was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire after it was captured from the Mamluks, and by 1596, it was a village under the administration of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Jira (liwa’ of Safad) with a population of fifty. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, olives, and fruits, as well as on other types of produce and property, such as goats, beehives, and a press that was used for processing either olives or grapes.^[4]

Some of the villagers were descendants of Algerian immigrants who had fought with Abd alQadir alJazairi against the French colonialists in the 1830s and 1840s. These people may have come with him to the region following his defeat and banishment to Damascus in 1847. As some of their ancestors had been horsemen in Algeria, the villagers of Dayshum took a keen interest in raising horses.^[5]

In the late nineteenth century, Dayshum was described as a “well-built” village with about 400 residents. The village houses were situated on the side of a steep hill near the bottom of a valley and had gabled roofs. The village had three mills and several small gardens.^[6]

In 1944/45 a total of 4,701 dunums of village land was allocated to cereals and 611 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.^[7][8]

See also

• List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
• Killings and massacres during the 1948 Palestine War

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Hadawi, 1970, p.69
2. ^ Morris, 2004, p.xvi, village #32. Also gives cause of depopulation
3. ^ Morris, 2004, p.xxii settlement #131. Settlement date uncertain, according to Morris, but possibly 1949 (re-established 1953)
4. ^ Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter and Kamal Abdulfattah (1977), Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. p. 177. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 445
5. ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 445
6. ^ Conder and Kitchener: SWP I, 1881, p.201, Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 445-446
7. ^ Hadawi, 1970, p.118
8. ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 446

Bibliography

Conder, Claude Reignier and H.H. Kitchener (1881): The Survey of Western Palestine: memoirs of the topography, orography, hydrography, and archaeology. London:Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. vol 1

• Hadawi, Sami (1970), Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center, http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html 
• Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0887282245 
• Morris, Benny (2004), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521009677 

External links

• Welcome to Dayshum, Palestine Remembered
• Dayshum, at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
• Dayshum, Dr. Khalil Rizk.