A displaced Palestinian village that was located 5 km west of Jerusalem. Zionist military organizations entered it on April 9, 1948 AD, and committed a massacre in which 107 people of all groups and ages were martyred.
This massacre became known as the “Deir Yassin Massacre”, which was a mass extermination and expulsion carried out in the 1948 war by the Zionist organizations Irgun and Stern.
The Jews settled in the village in 1980, rebuilt over the ruins of the original buildings, and named its streets after the Irgun fighters who carried out the massacre.
the site
The village of Deir Yassin is located on the slope of a hill whose peak is 800 meters above sea level. It is about 5 km west of the city of Jerusalem and overlooks a wide view from all sides.
The village faced the western suburbs of the city of Jerusalem and was separated from it by a single terraced valley that was parallel to a road that connected these suburbs with Deir Yassin and with the main Jerusalem-Jaffa road, which was about 2 km north of Deir Yassin.
Population
The population of Deir Yassin in 1922 was estimated at 254 people, and their number rose in the 1931 statistics to 428 people. They were all Arab Muslims, and they lived to date in 91 houses.
In 1945 statistics, the village’s population was 610 people, and at the beginning of 1948 it rose to 708 people. The number of refugees from the village in 1998 was estimated at 4,345 people.
the date
According to the narratives circulating about the naming of Deir Yassin, it was named so in reference to a monastery built on its land during the Crusader period in the twelfth century AD.
The second part of the name is in reference to the shrine of Sheikh Yassin located in the village mosque, which also bears his name.
Deir Yassin landmarks
Deir Yassin is considered one of the important archaeological sites. It contains walls dating back to the Middle Ages, in addition to some cemeteries, and a ruin that was located southwest of the village. Among its most prominent religious monuments are:
- Monastery: It dates back to the 12th century AD, and some accounts say that it was built before that.
- Sheikh Yassin Mosque.
- The shrine of Sheikh Yassin inside the mosque.
- Al-Jalmouna (Al-Khirbet): It is located southwest of the village.
- the rules: These are military buildings erected in the late Ottoman era on the western and northern sides of the village.
- Wells: It is a group of ancient water wells that were common to all the villagers, and from which they used to supply their livestock. Among these wells are: the Pigeon Well, the Monk’s Well, Al-Jawza’s Well, the Scavenger’s Well, Al-Khalah Well, and Al-Harika Well.
- Caves: There were a group of caves in the village, including: the Mule Cave, which was used to shelter animals, especially by shepherds coming from outside the village.
Village schools
Until its occupation in 1948, there were two schools in Deir Yassin, the first for boys, built in 1943, and the second for girls, built in 1946.
There was also a social club called the “Nahda Club,” three shops, four limestone quarries, and two mosques, the Sheikh Yassin Mosque and another mosque built by Mahmoud Salah (who was a wealthy resident of the village) on the upper heights overlooking the village.
Economy
The village’s economy was mainly dependent on stone crushers, and Deir Yassin stone was known as the “Yassini” stone and was distinguished by its hardness and beauty.
The residents of the village practiced a range of other activities, the most important of which were agriculture, livestock raising, and trade exchange with neighboring villages and with the city of Jerusalem. Some of them worked in building and constructing houses, in addition to some professions and crafts, and they owned a bus company.
Deir Yassin massacre
Armed Zionist organizations committed a massacre that created panic in the hearts of hundreds of Palestinians in various Palestinian villages and towns, which is the “Deir Yassin Massacre.” This massacre took a major turn of exaggeration in Arab and international newspapers and radio at the time, even though it was not the first massacre committed by Zionist gangs in Palestine.
The number of martyrs of the massacre varied from one source to another, and some believe that Zionist organizations exaggerated the numbers to spread fear in the hearts of the Palestinians and push them to flee their villages and cities.
Historian Walid Al-Khalidi notes in his analysis and study of the details of the massacre that there were motives for choosing Deir Yassin in particular to commit it, most notably the village’s proximity to six settlements that were established on the outskirts of the city of Jerusalem, especially the “Givat Shaul” colony, which is only 1.2 km away from the heart of the village.
Another motivation is the ease of access to the village of Deir Yassin via the main road between it and Givat Shaul, which is suitable for the passage of armored vehicles.
Deir Yassin after the massacre and displacement
I wrote to a number of villagers who survived the massacre and were expelled by Zionist organizations outside their village to places close to the city of Jerusalem. Among them were 55 children whose parents and relatives were killed, and they arrived in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Mrs. Hind Al-Husseini received them and housed them in two small rooms in a small market inside the town called Souq Al-Hasr. The number of orphaned and needy children increased day after day as a result of the war, so she decided to officially open an institution concerned with the care of orphaned and needy children, Palestinians and even Arabs, and called it “the Arab Child House Foundation.” .
The Israelis did not destroy the houses, most of which were on the hill, and in 1949 hundreds of Jewish immigrants from different countries settled in the village. They called it “Givat Shaul Bet,” and they considered it the new section of the “Givat Shaul” colony, which had been established on lands bordering Deir Yassin since 1906. .
The settlers used some of the homes as a mental hospital, and used others located outside the boundaries of the hospital lands, for residential, commercial, or warehouse purposes.
Outside the fence there are carob and almond trees and the remains of olive tree trunks. Several wells line the southwestern edge of the village.
As for the village cemetery, located east of the site, it is neglected and covered by the ruins of the ring road that was built around the village hill. A single tall cypress tree still stands in the middle of the cemetery.
