Nuris

Nuris
The Jezreel Valley today
Nuris
Arabic	نورِِِس
Also Spelled	Noori[1]
District	Jenin
Coordinates	32°32′06.4″N 35°21′48.9″E / 32.535111°N 35.363583°E / 32.535111; 35.363583Coordinates: 32°32′06.4″N 35°21′48.9″E / 32.535111°N 35.363583°E / 32.535111; 35.363583
Population	570[2] (1945)
Area	6256[2] dunums
Date of depopulation	May 29–30, 1948[3]
Cause(s) of depopulation	Military assault by Yishuv forces
Secondary cause	Fear of being caught up in the fighting
Current localities	Nurit[4]

Nuris (Arabic: نورِِِس‎) was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Jenin. It was depopulated during the 1948 War on May 29, 1948 under Operation Gideon.

Location

Nuris was located 9 kilometers (5.6 mi) northeast of Jenin, built on both sides of a shallow wadi. The Haifa-Samakh railway-line passed northeast of the village. It was linked by dirt roads to the villages of Zir'in and Al-Mazar^[5]

There were several springs north of Nuris, most importantly 'Ayn Jalut (or Jalud), which was one of the largest springs in Palestine.^[5]

History

Nuris was located in the Jezreel Valley and was referred to by the Crusaders as Nurith. Nearby, the Mamluks defeated the Mongols in the Battle of 'Ayn Jalut.^[5]

In 1596, Nuris was a village in the Ottoman Empire, nahiya (subdistrict) of Jinin under the liwa' (district) of Lajjun, with a population of 88. It paid taxes on a number of products, including wheat, barley, olives, and goats and beehives.^[6]

The village was captured and burned by Napoleon's troops, after the Battle of Mount Tabor in 1799.^[7] In the early nineteenth century, British traveller James Silk Buckingham noted that it was surrounded by olive-trees.^[1][5] Buckingham also remarked that there were several other settlements in sight, "all inhabited by Mohammedans."^[1]

In the late 19th century, the village was described as being small, situated on rocky ground, much hidden between the hills, about 600 ft (180 m) above a valley.^[8] Nuris had an elementary school for boys which was founded under the Ottomans in 1888 and a mosque.^[5]

In 1921, the village reportedly had 38 tenant families, and 224 people out of a total population of 364 (1922 census) cultivated 5,500 dunums out of a village area of 27,018.^[9] That year, the Sursock family sold part of the land in Nuris. Some families decided to stay in Nuris after the sale and accepted land as compensation while some accepted monetary compensation and left the village.^[9] The inhabitants of the village who remained acquired a block of land for a period of six years and were offered to opportunity to purchase the land originally leased to them. They paid rental at 6% of the published sale offer on the land, but later, at the request of the farmers in Nuris, this was changed to one-fifth of the total yield in agricultural output of the land.^[9] After the original six year lease was up, reports in 1928 showed that no villagers had bought the land leased to them.^[9] In 1921, the average farmer cultivated 24 dunums, by 1929 this had drastically reduced to 4.4, although the population grew significantly.^[10] In 1931, Nuris had a population of 429 people and a recorded 106 houses were located in the village.^[5]

By 1945, Nuris had 570 inhabitants with 163 houses, although the area was much smaller than it had been before 1920, with an area of 6256 dunums. The inhabitants, were mainly employed in cereal farming, although some land was allocated to irrigation and growing olives.^[2][5][11]

1948, and aftermath

On 19 April 1948, Palmach headquarters ordered the destruction of "enemy bases at Al-Mazar, Nuris and Zir'in".^[12] Morris notes that destroying the villages was "part and parcel" of the Haganah operations at this time, however, he also writes that Nuris was not finally depopulated until the end of May.^[3][12]

The Israeli settlement of Nurit was later established on village land, northwest of the village site.^[13]

The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the village in 1992: "The site, overgrown with pine and oak trees, is strewn with piles of stones. Part of the surrounding land is fenced in and is used as a grazing area, while another part is cultivated. Cactuses and olive and fig trees grow near the site."^[13]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Buckingham, 1821, p495
2. ^ ^{a b c} Hadawi, 1970, p.55
3. ^ ^{a b} According to Morris, 2004, p. xvii, village #123. Also gives causes of depopulation
4. ^ According to Morris, 2004, p. xxi, settlement #39, 1948
5. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Khalidi, 1992, p. 338
6. ^ 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. 161. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 338
7. ^ Cline, 2002 p161.
8. ^ SWP, 1881, Vol. 2, p.86. Also cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 338
9. ^ ^{a b c d} Stein, 1987, p.56
10. ^ Stein, 1987, p.57
11. ^ Hadawi, 1970, p.99
12. ^ ^{a b} Morris, 2004, p. 346
13. ^ ^{a b} Khalidi, 1992, p. 339

Bibliography

• Buckingham, James Silk (1821), Travels in Palestine Through the Countries of Bashan and Gilead, East of the River Jordan, Including a Visit to the Cities of Geraza and Gamala in the Decapolis, http://books.google.com/?id=ou-bF_a8a2cC 
• Cline, Eric H. (2002): The Battles of Armageddon: Megiddo and the Jezreel Valley from the Bronze Age to the Nuclear Age
• 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 2 p. 125
• 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 
• Palmer, E. H. (1881): The survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English name lists collected during the survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and explained by E.H. Palmer. p.166
• Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521009676. http://books.google.com/?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=benny+morris&q. 
• Stein, Kenneth W. (1987), The Land Question in Palestine, 1917-1939, UNC Press, ISBN 0807841781, http://books.google.com/?id=hpvnNILnO3kC&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=Nuris+palestine&q=Nuris%20palestine 
• Tepper, Yotam (7/7/2009): Nuris, Survey Final Report, Hadashot Arkheologiyot, no.121

External links

• Welcome To Nuris
• Nuris at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center