Iqrit

Iqrit stood on a steep hilltop in the northern Galilee, a few kilometers from the Lebanese border. On the eve of 1948 it had some 490 residents, nearly all of them Greek Catholic Christians; the village traced its site back to Canaanite and Crusader times, and its people farmed olives, grapes, and grain on the surrounding slopes.

In November 1948, days after the fighting in the Galilee ended, the Israeli army ordered the villagers out, declaring the area dangerous and promising they could come back within two weeks. They were moved to nearby villages and never permitted to return. Iqrit’s people took their case to Israel’s Supreme Court, which ruled in July 1951 that their evacuation had been illegal and that they must be allowed home. On Christmas Eve of that year, Israeli soldiers demolished the village, leaving only the church and the cemetery standing. Its lands were later expropriated for state use.

The struggle never stopped. The villagers and their descendants — today numbering around 1,500 — have petitioned courts and governments for decades, and in recent years young members of the community have kept a near-continuous presence at the hilltop church, where weddings and services are still held. Along with Kafr Bir’im, Iqrit remains the emblem of the internally displaced Palestinians who can see their village but may not live in it.

Sources

• Iqrit — Palestine Remembered
• Iqrit — Zochrot
• Iqrit — Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question (PalQuest)
• Palestine Open Maps