Haifa district · depopulated 1948 · 2 min read
Yajur
ياجور
Yajur stood on the lower slopes of Mount Carmel nine and a half kilometres from Haifa. Its lands were among those the Ottoman government sold in 1872 to the Lebanese merchants Sursuq and Salim al-Khuri, who sold much of it on to Zionist buyers; the settlement of Yagur was established on it in 1922, and by 1944/45 the villagers held 344 of the 2,720 dunums that had been theirs. After the Haganah attacked Balad al-Shaykh next door, the villagers did not wait: Morris puts their evacuation at 24 or 25 April 1948, and the New York Times reported a direct strike on the same days.
See Yajur on the Atlas32.7585°N · 35.0573°EYajur stood on the lower slopes of Mount Carmel facing northeast, at about 25 metres and nine and a half kilometres from Haifa, with the Haifa–Jenin highway passing to its northeast. Its houses were scattered across the mountain slopes. Yajur has not been identified with any ancient historical site, but there is evidence of its antiquity — fragments of glass, building foundations, and tombs with sarcophagi.
The village’s story is in large part the story of its land. Yajur was one of several villages whose lands were sold by the Ottoman government in 1872 to two Lebanese merchants, Sursuq and Salim al-Khuri, who in turn sold many of those lands to Zionist buyers; the settlement of Yagur was established on the ground in 1922. By the mid-1940s the Arab residents numbered 560 Muslims and 50 Christians — 610 in the 1945 statistics — and of the 2,720 dunums recorded, only 344 were Arab-owned, against 486 Jewish-owned and 1,890 public. In 1944/45, 261 dunums of the villagers’ land were allotted to cereals and 57 were irrigated or planted in orchards, of which 42 dunums were olives. The 1931 census counted 580 Arabs among a total of 1,449 people living at the site, in 291 houses.
Yajur was one of the villages near Haifa captured immediately after the fall of the city. After the Haganah launched a major attack on Balad al-Shaykh, a large village just to the northeast, the people of Yajur decided not to wait for the same assault. Benny Morris states that they evacuated on 24 or 25 April 1948, a couple of days after Haifa was taken. The New York Times reported a direct military strike against the village at the same time: its correspondent wrote that Yajur was one of three villages commanding the eastern approaches to Haifa that were occupied on 24 April, in order to create a protective zone and seal the city off from counterattacks. After its occupation the Haganah turned north, towards Acre. Zochrot dates the occupation to April 1948 and names Haganah units.
Yagur, established in 1922, stands on what were traditionally the village lands. Nesher, founded in 1925 on lands that had belonged to Balad al-Shaykh, is close by to the north. No traces of the houses remain on the site, which is marked by numerous fig trees and a smaller number of olives. Cement factories occupy part of the surrounding land; Yagur farms the rest.
Sources
Cited works
2- palquest.org — yajur(opens in a new tab)https://www.palquest.org/en/place/17176/yajur
- zochrot.org — en(opens in a new tab)https://www.zochrot.org/villages/village_details/49208/en
Connected in the archive
19 connected records19 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
named in this record — 3 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Acreعكا
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: After its occupation the Haganah turned north, towards Acre.
- Balad al-Shaykhبلد الشيخ
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: After the Haganah launched a major attack on Balad al-Shaykh, a large village just to the northeast, the people of Yajur decided not to wait for the same assault.
- Haifaحيفا
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Yajur stood on the lower slopes of Mount Carmel facing northeast, at about 25 metres and nine and a half kilometres from Haifa, with the Haifa–Jenin highway passing to its northeast.
in the same district — 16 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- Abu Shushaأبو شوشة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Haifa district.
- Abu Zurayqأبو زريق
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Haifa district.
- Al-Kafraynالكفرين
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Haifa district.
- Al-Sindiyanaالسنديانة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Haifa district.
- Al-Tiraالطيرة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Haifa district.
- Ayn Ghazalعين غزال
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Haifa district.
- and 10 more
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“Yajur.” Village Memory, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/memory/yajur.- MLA
“Yajur.” Village Memory, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/memory/yajur. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-yajur, title = {Yajur}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/memory/yajur}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }