Khirbat al-'Umur

Khirbat al-‘Umur stood on a small plateau facing south on the southern slope of a mountain about twelve kilometres west of Jerusalem, with Wadi al-Ghadir running east to west at the foot of it. A range to the south divided the village’s land from that of Dayr ‘Amr. Dirt paths linked it to the Jaffa–Jerusalem highway a short way north and to the neighbouring villages. As the name says, the village was built beside a khirba — a ruin — whose remains probably date to the Byzantine period.

In the late nineteenth century it was described as a small hamlet. Its plan was rectangular, its houses stone, with two main streets crossing at the centre and dividing it into four sections. The people were Muslims. Drinking water came from several springs nearby, one of them named for the village. The 1931 census counted 187 people in 45 houses; the 1945 statistics counted 270, on 4,163 dunums of which 1,279 were under cereals and 497 irrigated or orchard, 98 of those in olives. They grew fruit, olives and grain, and irrigated some of it, especially in the strip of Wadi al-Ghadir running along the southern side of the village.

The village was occupied on 21 October 1948, which places it within the Har’el Brigade’s advance during Operation Ha-Har; Zochrot gives the same date and names Har’el. No account gives details of what happened at Khirbat al-‘Umur in particular. Benny Morris records the general pattern of the operation — that villagers fled under military pressure or were expelled by the forces that entered — and that thousands of people were displaced by it in all, some camping for weeks in the surrounding valleys until Israeli forces drove them out again.

Giv’at Ye’arim was founded on village lands in 1950. Stone rubble and window and door frames, half hidden in wild grass, are scattered across the site, and many terraces are still visible. Cactus grows on the east and north sides; almond, olive, fig and cypress grow on the site itself and on the land south of it. The cemetery, to the south, is covered with dirt and grass, but many graves can be seen, each with a stone standing at its head and foot. The spring of ‘Ayn al-‘Umur and the stone structure around it are still there.

Sources

• Khirbat al-‘Umur — Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question (PalQuest)
• Khirbat al-‘Umur — Zochrot, drawn from Walid Khalidi, All That Remains (Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992)