| Jahula | |
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Jahula
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| Arabic | جاحولا |
| District | Safad |
| Coordinates | |
| Population | 420[1] (1945) |
| Area | 3869[1] dunums |
| Date of depopulation | May, 1948[2] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | |
Jahula (Arabic: جاحولا) was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Safad. It was depopulated during the 1948 War on May 1, 1948 by the Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach. It was located 11 km northeast of Safad.
In 1945, the village had a population of 420. The village had one mosque and a shrine for a local sage known as al-Shaykh Salih.
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Jahula was situated in the foothills of the Galilee Mountains overlooking the Hula Valley plain, by the Tiberias--al-Mutilla highway.[3]
The Jahula area had been occupied from the seventh through the third millennium B.C., according to archaeological excavations conducted in 1986.[3]
Jahula was recorded in the Ottoman census of 1596 as belonging to the nahiya (subdistrict) of Jira under the liwa' (district) of Safad, and at the time it had a small population of 28 inhabitants. They paid taxes on crops such as wheat and barley, and reared goats, bees, and water buffalos.[4]
The villagers of Jahula were predominantly Muslim and worshipped at a local mosque, situated approximately 1 km north of the village site. A shrine there was dedicated to Shaykh Salih, a local religious preacher.[3] The houses in the village were made of masonry.[3]
Most villagers were engaged in agriculture, and a spring located on the north side of the village supplied the people of Jahula with drinking water.[3] In 1944/45, some 1,626 dunums out of a total of 3,869 dunums was allocated to grain farming.[3][5] Some villagers were also employed in the stone quarries north of the village.[3]
Jahula was depopulated during the 1948 War on May 1, 1948 by the Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach.[3][6] Benny Morris writes that the cause of depopulation is unknown, while the British Historian R. Esber gives as depopuation cause: "Direct mortar attacks on civilians, siege, shooting at fleeing Arabs".[6]
Presently, the Israeli settlement of Yiftach is 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) northwest of the village site; there are no settlements on village lands.[3]
Of the village site the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi wrote in 1992: "The only remains of the destroyed village are a few stone terraces. The site is enclosed by barbed wire, and cactuses and trees grow on it. The village spring is still in use by Israelis. Parts of the village land are planted in cotton and watermelons, while other parts are wooded and hilly.[3]
