Safad district · depopulated 1948 · 2 min read
Al-Dawwara
الدوارة
Al-Dawwara stood on flat ground twenty-seven kilometres from Safad, near the confluence of the Hasbani, the Banyas and the Dan, facing Mount Hermon. An Israeli military intelligence report lists it among the villages whose inhabitants fled on 25 May 1948 as a result of the whispering campaign devised by Yigal Allon for Operation Yiftach — though the gap between that date and the campaign's launch on 10 May suggests a military attack also played a part. The whole area is now a fish hatchery; a few building stones at the edge of a pond are all that is left.
See Al-Dawwara on the Atlas33.1787°N · 35.6341°EAl-Dawwara stood on flat terrain at about 75 metres, twenty-seven kilometres from Safad, looking out over a broad expanse to the north and facing Mount Hermon — Jabal al-Shaykh — to the northeast. It lay near the confluence of the three rivers that flowed into Lake Hula: the Hasbani, the Banyas and the Dan. A secondary road linked it to the highway that led to Safad.
In 1931 the whole population was Muslim but for one Christian; no exact breakdown is available for 1945, but the population remained predominantly Muslim. The older houses were clustered together and separated by narrow alleys; towards the end of the Mandate the village expanded and the newer houses were built further apart. Most were of mud, though some were built of basalt. The residents worked chiefly in agriculture, growing grain, vegetables and citrus, their crops either rainfed or irrigated from the springs and rivers. In 1944/45, 68 dunums were devoted to citrus and bananas and 281 to cereals, while 2,135 were irrigated or planted in orchards; of 5,470 dunums in all, 2,547 were Arab-owned. The 1931 census counted 552 people in 106 houses. The 1944/45 figure of 700 Arabs alongside 400 Jews is amalgamated with Sde Nechemya and ‘Amir.
Al-Dawwara is listed in an Israeli military intelligence report as one of the villages whose inhabitants fled on 25 May 1948, as a result of a whispering campaign conceived by the Palmach commander Yigal Allon and implemented during Operation Yiftach. The discrepancy between the date of flight cited by Benny Morris — 25 May — and the date on which the whispering campaign was launched — 10 May — indicates, in Khalidi’s reading, that a military attack on the village may also have played a part in the evacuation. Zochrot dates the occupation to 10 May and names the Palmach’s First Battalion.
Kibbutz ‘Amir was established half a kilometre west of the site in 1939 and Sde Nechemya northwest of it in 1940, both on village land. There are hardly any traces of the village left: only a few building stones at the edge of a fish pond remain. The entire area has been converted into a fish hatchery.
Sources
Cited works
3- palquest.org — al dawwara(opens in a new tab)https://www.palquest.org/en/place/16804/al-dawwara
- zochrot.org — en(opens in a new tab)https://www.zochrot.org/villages/village_details/49116/en
- en.wikipedia.org — Al Dawwara(opens in a new tab)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Dawwara
Connected in the archive
18 connected records18 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
named in this record — 1 record
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Safedصفد
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Al-Dawwara stood on flat terrain at about 75 metres, twenty-seven kilometres from Safad, looking out over a broad expanse to the north and facing Mount Hermon — Jabal al-Shaykh — to the northeast.
names this place — 1 record
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Al-'Abisiyyaالعابسية
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Three Jewish settlements had been founded very close to the site before 1948. 'Amir, built in 1939, and Sde Nechemya, built in 1940, stand nearer the site than the third but on land that belonged to the village of al-Dawwara; Kefar Szold, established in 1942 on what was traditionally al-'Abisiyya's land, lies east of the site.
in the same district — 16 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- Al-Ja'unaالجاعونة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Safad district.
- Al-Khalisaالخالصة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Safad district.
- Al-Khisasالخصاص
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Safad district.
- Al-Na'imaالناعمة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Safad district.
- Al-Salihiyyaالصالحية
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Safad district.
- Al-Zuq al-Tahtaniالزوق التحتاني
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Safad district.
- and 10 more
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“Al-Dawwara.” Village Memory, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/memory/al-dawwara.- MLA
“Al-Dawwara.” Village Memory, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/memory/al-dawwara. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-al-dawwara, title = {Al-Dawwara}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/memory/al-dawwara}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }