Al-Barriyya

Al-Barriyya was a Palestinian village in the Ramle Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on July 10, 1948, as part of Operation Dani. It was located 5.5 km southeast of Ramla, on the eastern bank of Wadi al-Barriyya.

Al-Barriyya

البريّة
Etymology: The desert[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Barriyya (click the buttons)
Al-Barriyya
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°53′17″N 34°55′6″E
Palestine grid142/144
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictRamle
Date of depopulationJuly 10–13, 1948[2]
Area
 • Total2,831 dunams (2.831 km2 or 1.093 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total510[4][3]
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces
Current LocalitiesAzarya,[5][6] Beyt Chashmonay[6]

History

The Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) noted in 1882 that: "The name Barriyeh, 'Desert,' applied to a village, is explained by the inhabitants to be due to their ancestors having about 50 years ago lived in Abu Shusheh, whence they were expelled by the other villagers, and had to settle in the 'Desert,' or 'Outer Part.' They own most of the gardens of Abu Shusheh at the present day. This information is obtained from Mr. Bergheim."[7]

In 1860, it was described as a "modern village", without any antiquities.[8] In 1863 Victor Guérin noted that the village was situated on a low eminence, and "the few houses which compose it consist of roughly constructed huts."[9]

An official Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that it had a total of 20 houses and a population of 72, though the population count included men, only.[10][11]

In 1882, PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described as a small adobe hamlet, surrounded by cultivated land.[12]

British Mandate era

After the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned and a Palestine mandate was accorded to Britain by the League of Nations. In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bariyeh had a population of 295 residents; all Muslims,[13] increasing in the 1931 census to 388, still all Muslims, in a total of 86 houses.[14]

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 510 Muslims[4] with total of 2,831 dunums of land.[3] Of this, 51 dunums of land were used for plantations and irrigable land, 2,627 dunums were used for cereals,[15] while 55 dunams were classified as built-up public areas.[16]

  • Al-Barriya 1942 Survey of Palestine 1:20,000
  • Al-Barriyya. Survey of Palestine. 1945. Scale 1:250,000
  • Palestinian villages depopulated in the area around Lydda and Ramla (coloured in green)

1948, aftermath
Women from Yiftach Brigade raising water from a cistern in Al-Barriyya. Operation Danny, July 1948

The village was depopulated on July 10–13, 1948, after military assault by Yishuv forces, as part of Operation Dani.[2]

The Israeli settlements of Azarya and Beyt Chashmonay was constructed on village land.[6]

In 1992 the village site was described: "The village site is mostly cleared and has been leveled except for one remaining stone house and fragments of the walls of two concrete houses with steel bars protruding from them".[6]

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gollark: Added to your capitalistical profile.

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 265
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xix village #245. Also gives cause of depopulation
  3. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 66 Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 29
  5. Morris, 2004, p. xxi, settlement #26.
  6. Khalidi, 1992, p. 362
  7. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 444
  8. Saintine, 1860, p. 31
  9. Guérin, 1868, p. 56
  10. Socin, 1879, p 145
  11. Hartmann, 1883, p. 140
  12. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 408
  13. Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramleh, p. 21
  14. Mills, 1932, p. 18
  15. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 114
  16. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 164

Bibliography
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