Destroyed Palestinian Villages:
A Reign of Terror & Systematic Expulsion

Al-Tira

The village stood on the lower western slopes of Mount Carmel, (approx. location at on map) overlooking the coastal plain. It was linked by a spur to a coastal highway northwest of al-Tira. Al-Tira was the district of Haifa's most populous village and the second largest in terms of area. The Crusaders called it St.Yohan de Tire. In 1596, al-Tira was a village in the nahiya of Shafa (liwa' of Lajjun), with a population of 286. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, as well as on other types of produce and property, such as goats, beehives, and vineyards.

In the late nineteenth century, al-Tira had a population estimated at 1,200. Numerous caves marked the hills close to the village, which were surrounded by olive groves. The prosperity of the village declined after 1872 because of the heavy conscription imposed by the Ottomans that year, but recovered subsequently. The residents (5,240 Muslims and 30 Christians in 1945) built their stone and mud houses in clusters on a cross-shaped village plan. Al-Tira had two elementary schools, one for boys and another for girls. Its lands contained a number of springs, and its economy was based on the cultivation of grain, vegetables, and fruit. In 1943 al-Tira produced more olives and olive oil than any other village in Haifa District. Many almond trees were grown there as well, which gave rise to the village's nickname Tirat al-Lawz, or the Tira "of the almonds." In 1944/45 a total of 16,219 dunums of its land was allocated to cereals, and 3,543 to orchards. Some villagers also engaged in animal husbandry. Al-Tira's lands included five ancient ruins (khirbat). One of them, Khirbat al-Dayr, contained the ruins of the monastery of St. Brocardus, some previously inhabited caves, and a vaulted tunnel.

The Irgun Zvai Leumi (IZL) carried out a bombing raid on al-Tira on 12 December 1947, during the very first round of fighting. The bombing was carried out during the Jewish holiday of Chanukka, in conjunction with six other IZL attacks in various parts of the country. The raid left thirteen villagers dead in al-Tira according to The History of the Haganah. The Palestinian newspaper Filastin listed children and elderly among the casualties. The account said that the raiding party, consisting of around twenty men, had approached a secluded house at the edge of the village and firebombed it. The attackers also shot at houses and fled through olive groves to a waiting truck. The New York Times reported that, in addition to the thirteen dead, ten people were wounded, one house was destroyed, and several others were damaged.

The village was exposed to smaller assaults in the coming weeks. An attack on 5 February lasted for one-half-hour and left no casualties, according to a British communique, which added that there was no response from the village. A major attack on al-Tira was made in the early morning of 22 April, in conjunction with the Haganah's offensive against Haifa. That attack was ostensibly aimed at preventing Arab reinforcements from reaching Haifa. The first attempt to capture the village came shortly after the fall of Haifa, a few days later. Israeli historian Benny Morris writes that al-Tira was attacked at 1:40 A.M. on 25 April with mortars and machine guns. The arrival of British troops forced a ceasefire, but the British withdrew after helping evacuate some of the women and children, and the Haganah resumed their assault early the next morning. The British carried out a similar evacuation the next day. The New York Times reported that the village had been "severely mortared," and quoted the Haganah as claiming that al-Tira was a "principle Arab base." On 5 May, a third effort was made to move more of the inhabitants to safety, and according to Morris, some six hundred were taken to Jenin and Nablus.

The attacks continued for about one week. On 13 May, an unsuccessful Haganah strike was made by the Alexandroni Brigade. The History of the Haganah writes that the attempt failed because of the lack of "detailed information about the enemy's system of defense in the village." This setback prompted the Zionist leadership to scrap plans to occupy Qalqilya as outlined in Plan Dalet.

According to The History of the Haganah, the village fell on 16 July during the Ten Days Battles between the two truces of the war. That account notes that the occupation of al-Tira was significant in that it was the first time during the conflict that naval firepower had been called in to aid land forces. In a coordinated attack, the Eilat bombarded the villages of al-Tira, Kafr Lam and al-Sarafand before land units moved in. According to Morris, most of the remaining villagers--who had held out under siege for over two months--were either expelled to the Jenin-Nablus-Tulkarm Triangle or incarcerated in POW camps.

Based on a report from the Secretary General of the Arab League, some of al-Tira's villagers apparently sought refuge in neighboring 'Ayn Ghazal. The Arab League asserted that twenty-eight refugees from al-Tira were burned alive there in late July, but a United Nations observer who visited the area on 28 July found "no evidence to support claims of a massacre." Morris cites an Israeli claim that Haganah soldiers had found the corpses in an advanced state of decomposition and burned them. He adds that there was no indication of where the bodies had come from or how the victims had died.

The settlements of Ha-Chotrim and Megadim were established in 1949, the first on the village site and the second farther away on village land. Kefar Gallim and Beyt Tzvi were built on village land in 1952 and 1953 respectively (Return to map above).

The village site is partly occupied by Ha-Chotrim. Some of the houses, such as one which belonged to 'Irsan al-Dhib, remain standing. The cemetery is unkempt and there are several broken gravestones. The remains of two shrines are visible, and the school is now used by Israeli students, both Arab and Jewish. There are some forests and some residential houses in the mountainous part of the surrounding land.