Village memory · Palestine

Bashshit

بَشِّيت

Ramla districtDepopulated 1948

Bashshit — the Crusaders' Basit, and the home of the grammarian and chronicler Jamal al-Bashshiti, who died in 1417 — was a grain village of 1,620 with a three-domed shrine above it and a mosque at its center. The Giv'ati Brigade took it on 12 or 13 May 1948, days before the Mandate ended; the Haganah statement called it a strong Arab center. Seven Israeli settlements stand on its land; three houses and a pool remain.