Lazzaza
| Lazzaza | |
|---|---|
  Lazzaza | |
| Arabic | لزّازة |
| Subdistrict | Safad |
| Coordinates | 33°12′21.23″N 35°36′42.28″E / 33.2058972°N 35.6117444°ECoordinates: 33°12′21.23″N 35°36′42.28″E / 33.2058972°N 35.6117444°E |
| Palestine grid | 207/290 |
| Population | 230 (1945) |
| Area |
1,586 dunams 1.6 km² |
| Date of depopulation | May 21, 1948[1] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Whispering campaign |
| Current localities | No settlements were built on village lands |
Lazzaza (Arabic: لزّازة, transliterated as Lazzâza) was a Palestinian Arab village of 230 in the northern Hula Valley next to the Hasbani River, located 27.5 kilometers (17.1 mi) northwest of Safad.[2]
History
Travelers in the nineteenth century describe Lazzaza, while under Ottoman rule, as a village of 70 people built of adobe bricks and situated on a plain near a river.[3]
It was incorporated into the British Mandate of Palestine in 1922. Under the British, Lazzaza had an elementary school, in which 26 students were enrolled in 1945. The residents, mostly Muslims, took advantage of the village's fertile lands, and agriculture became the basis of its economy. The primarily cultivated crops were onions, corn, and fruits, but the beehives were also kept, in addition to some livestock. Some of Lazzaza's inhabitants also fished in the Hasbani River.[2] In the 1945 population survey by Sami Hadawi, Lazzaza was counted with the nearby Jewish settlement of Beit Hillel which together constituted a population of 330, 100 of whom were Jewish.[4]
The Arabs of Lazzaza fled their village during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on May 21, 1948.[1] The village was not attacked by Israeli forces, and the probable cause of its depopulation was a "whispering campaign" devised by Palmach commander Yigal Allon during Operation Yiftach, in which rumor would spread about massive Jewish reinforcements approaching the Galilee. According to Walid Khalidi, "only a few scattered houses remain on the village site", and that the residents of Beit Hillel cultivate the surrounding fields.[2]
See also
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
References
Bibliography
- Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
- Hadawi, Sami (1970), Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center
- Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0-88728-224-5
External links
- Welcome to Lazzaza
- Lazzaza, from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
- Lazzaza, Dr. Khalil Rizk.