Umm al-Faraj

Infobox Former Arab villages in Palestine
name=Umm al-Faraj


imgsize=
caption=
arname=أُم الفرج
meaning=
altSp=Um el-Faraj, La Fierge
district=ac
population=800
popyear=1945
area=825
areakm=
date=21 May 1948 [Benny Morris (2004): "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited", p. XVII. Morris also gives cause(s) of depopulation.]
cause=M
curlocl=Ben Ami

Umm al-Faraj ( _ar. أم الفرج, Azerbaijani Ummi Faraj, known to the Crusaders as La Fierge) was a Palestinian village, located 11 kilometres northeast of Acre and 7 kilometers from the Lebanese border.cite web|title=Welcome to Umm al-Faraj|publisher=Palestine Remembered|accessdate=2007-12-12|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Umm-al-Faraj/]

The entire population was refugees of Turkic-Shiite-Muslim background, and were known to the Arabs as Tatars or simply Turki. Later, many converted to Sunni Islam, and by an order from the Ottoman rulers, their town was officially built in 1912. A year later, most of the men in the town joined the Ottoman army against the Arab revolution in Egypt and fought in the Bulgarian war in 1913. Families of Umm Al-Faraj have distinct names that differs from other Palestinian-Arabs. Since the village is located in the region of Akko, and because Akko was part of the province of Beirut during the Ottoman period unil 1918, the population spoke the Lebanese dailect and practice a Turco-Lebanese culture; modern Palestinians of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip generally consider the entire population of Akko as Lebanese because of having Lebanese accent.

1948 Arab-Israeli War

During 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Umm al-Faraj was assaulted by Israel's Carmeli Brigade in the second stage of Operation Ben-Ami. The operational order, issued 19 May 1948, was to "attack with the aim of conquest, the killing of adult males, destruction and torching."cite book|title=The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited|author=Benny Morris|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=253|isbn=0521009677] The assault, on 21 May 1948, resulted in the depopulation of the village.

The 210 houses that made up Umm al-Faraj were completely destroyed by Israeli forces immediately thereafter. The village mosque was spared during the initial destruction, but was later destroyed in 1999.

References

Additional bibliography

Robert Fisk: "Pity the nation: Lebanon at war." (Chapter 2: Mrs Zamzam in the Rashidieh refugee camp in southern Lebanon recall Umm al-Faraj)