PLace

al-Zawiya

Place
al-Zawiya — الزاوِيَة
District
Galilee
Subdistrict
Safad
Average Elevation
75 m
Distance from Safad
23 km
Population
Year Arab Total
1931 590 590
1944/45 760 760
Land Ownership (1944/45) in dunums
Year Arab Public Total
1944/45 3797 161 3958
Land Use (1944/45) in dunums
Use Arab Public Total
Non-Cultivable & Built-up (Total)
Use Arab Public Total
Built-up 195 195
Non-Cultivable 9 161 170
204 161 365 (9%)
Cultivable (Total)
Use Arab Total
Cereal 3593 3593
3593 3593 (91%)
Number of Houses (1931)
141

The village was situated on flat terrain in the western half of the al-Hula Plain. A secondary road linked it to a highway that passed west of al-Zawiya and led to Safad. Initially, al-Zawiya consisted of two clusters of dwellings on both banks of an irrigation canal that drew water from the Jordan. A bridge spanned the canal, linking the two sections of the village. Shops stood on both sides of the canal. Most of the people of al-Zawiya were Muslims. They planted vegetables and fruits to the east and south of the village site; their fruit orchards were concentrated in the east. They also grew grain; in 1944/45 a total of 3,593 dunums was allotted to cereals.

This was one of the villages occupied towards the end of May 1948, when Israeli forces advanced into the Galilee panhandle. According to an Israeli military intelligence report, the village had been emptied of its residents by 24 May, as a result of a direct military assault on the village. The attack was mounted as part of Operation Yiftach (see Abil al-Qamh, Safad sub-disctrict).

There are no Israeli settlements on village land. However, the settlement of Ne'ot Mordekhay (206285) was established in 1946, just 1 km north of the village site.

No landmarks, rubble, or other signs of al-Zawiya remain. The site has become part of the settlement's agricultural lands, and is now covered by cotton fields .

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