Eilabun
| Eilabun | |
|---|---|
| Hebrew transcription(s) | |
| • Hebrew | עַילַבּוּן, עֵילַבּוּן |
| • ISO 259 | ʕeilabbun |
| • Also spelled |
Illabun (official) Eilaboun, Ailabun (unofficial) |
| Arabic transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | عيلبون |
 | |
  Eilabun | |
| Coordinates: 32°50′18.24″N 35°24′2.74″E / 32.8384000°N 35.4007611°ECoordinates: 32°50′18.24″N 35°24′2.74″E / 32.8384000°N 35.4007611°E | |
| District | North |
| Founded | 19th century |
| Government | |
| • Type | Local council (from 1973) |
| Area | |
| • Total | 4,835 dunams (4.835 km2 or 1.867 sq mi) |
| Population (2005) | |
| • Total | 4,400 |
Eilabun (Arabic: عيلبون Ailabun, Hebrew: עַילַבּוּן, עֵילַבּוּן) is an Israeli-Arab local council in Israel's North District, located in the Beit Netofa Valley. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, Eilabun had a population of 4,400 inhabitants in 2005.[1] The population is predominantly Christian. In 1973, Eilabun achieved local council status by the Israeli government.[2]
Overview
Eilabun is a small town in the Galilee 15 kilometres (9 miles) south-west of Safad in Northern Israel, it consists of a Christian and Muslim Arabic population. Christians being the majority and they consist of about 70% of the town's total population.
Etymology
According to the Survey of Western Palestine, the name Eilabun comes from Arabic, meaning "hard, rocky ground."[3] An Israeli theory is that the place was built on the ancient site of "Ailabu" (Hebrew: עַיְלַבּוּ), a possible variation of the name Ein Levon.[4]
History
Rock-cut sarcophagi have been found to the west of the village.[5]
Ottoman period
In 1517, the village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the Ottoman tax registers as being in the nahiya ("Subdistrict") of Tabariyya under the Liwa ("District") of Safad with a population of 13 Muslim households.[6]
In 1875, the French explorer Victor Guérin found that the village had a population of about 100 Greek Christians, with a "humble" chapel. He noted an excellent water source, and remains (including columns) of old buildings.[7] In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it as "a stone village, well built, containing about 100 Christian Arab. It is situated on a ridge, surrounded by brushwood, with arable land in the valley. A good spring exists to the west of the village."[8]
British rule
At the time of the 1931 census, 'Ailabun had 85 occupied houses and a population of 404, 32 Muslims and 372 Christians.[9]
In 1945, the population comprised 530 Christians and 20 Muslims,[10] who owned a total of 11,190 dunams of land, while 3,522 dunams of land was public.[11] Of this, 1,209 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 2,187 for cereals,[12] while 18 dunams were built-up land.[13]
Israeli rule
Israel's Golani Brigade's 12th Battalion captured Eilabun on October 30, 1948—during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, from the Arab Liberation Army (ALA). After the town's surrender, negotiated by four priests, the commander of the Golani troops selected 14 young Arab men and had them executed, in what became known as the Eilabun massacre. The village was then looted.[14] Most of the town's residents were marched out to the Lebanese border, while hundreds fled to nearby gullies, caves and villages.[15][16] As part of an agreement between Archbishop Hakim and the leader of the "Arab Section" in the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the Eliabun exiles in Lebanon were allowed to return in summer of 1949.[15] The village remained under Martial Law until 1966.
On 25 April 2008, six people were injured, two of them sustaining serious wounds, in a brawl which broke out between Druze and Christians near Eilabun.[17] The sectarian conflict was a part of the long running feud between the communities, which began in 2004 in the city of Shefa-'Amr. The April 2008 clash began for an unknown reason as members of the Druze community marched towards the grave site of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, walking on the main road near the village of Eilabun.[17] The marchers fought with the village residents using guns and stones.[17] The Druze community elders who were present at the scene managed to restore calm.[17] The conflict ended following an official reconciliation between the Druze and Christians in 2009.
People from Eilabun
See also
References
- ↑ Localities with populations over 1,000 Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics
- ↑ Eilabun (Israel) Dov Gutterman, FOTW
- ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 121
- ↑ HaReuveni, Immanuel (1999). Lexicon of the Land of Israel (in Hebrew). Miskal - Yedioth Ahronoth Books and Chemed Books. p. 739. ISBN 965-448-413-7.
- ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, p. 381
- ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 189.
- ↑ Guérin, 1880, p. 359-360
- ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, p. 364.
- ↑ E. Mills, ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine. p. 82.
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Village Statistics 1945.
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in S. Hadawi, Village Statistics, 1945. PLO Research Center, 1970, p.72
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in S. Hadawi, Village Statistics, 1945. PLO Research Center, 1970, p. 122
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in S. Hadawi, Village Statistics, 1945. PLO Research Center, 1970, p. 172
- ↑ Morris, 2004, pp.479-480
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Morris, 2004, p. 480
- ↑ Benvenisti, 2000, p 153-154
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 "Druze, Christians clash near Galilee village - Israel News, Ynetnews". Ynetnews.com. 1995-06-20. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
Bibliography
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eilabun. |
- Benvenisti, Meron; Kaufman-Lacusta, Maxine (2000), Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-21154-5
- Conder, Claude Reignier; Kitchener, Herbert H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology 1. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Guérin, Victor (1880). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine. Vol 3; Galilee, pt. 1.
- Hadawi, Sami (1970), Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center
- Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft.
- Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Palmer, E. H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
