View source for Tabsur

{{Infobox settlement
| name                    = Tabsur (Khirbat 'Azzun)
| native_name             = (تبصر(خربة عزون
| native_name_lang        = ar
| other_name              = Tabsar, Khirbet 'Azzun
| settlement_type         = Village
<!-- images, nickname, motto -->
| etymology               = from personal name <ref>Palmer, 1881, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/176/mode/1up 176]</ref>
<!-- maps and coordinates -->
| pushpin_map             = Mandatory Palestine | pushpin_map_caption     = Location within [[Mandatory Palestine]] | image_map               = {{Historical map series|default=2|date1=1870s|date2=1940s|date3=modern|date4=1940s with modern overlay|width=225}} | map_caption             = A series of historical maps of the area around Tabsur (click the buttons)
| pushpin_mapsize         = 200
| coordinates             = {{coord|32|11|38|N|34|52|44|E|type:city_region:PS|display=inline,title}}
| grid_name               = [[Palestine grid|Palestine&nbsp;grid]]
| grid_position           = 138/177
<!-- location -->
| subdivision_type        = [[Geopolitical entity]]
| subdivision_name        = [[Mandatory Palestine]]
| subdivision_type1       = [[Districts of Mandatory Palestine|Subdistrict]]
| subdivision_name1       = [[Tulkarm Subdistrict|Tulkarm]]
<!-- established -->
| established_title1      = Date of depopulation
| established_date1       = 3 April 1948<ref>Morris, 2004, p.  [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PR18 xviii], village #192. Also gives cause of depopulation</ref>
| established_title2      = Repopulated dates
<!-- area -->
| unit_pref               = dunam
| area_total_dunam        = 5,328
<!-- population -->
<!-- blank fields (section 1) -->
| blank_name_sec1         = Cause of evacuation
| blank_info_sec1         = Expulsion by the Jewish [[Yishuv]] forces
| blank3_name_sec1        = Current Localities
| blank3_info_sec1        = [[Ra'anana]]<ref name="Khalidi 1992, p. 562"/>  and [[Batzra]]<ref name="Khalidi 1992, p. 562"/>
}}
'''Tabsur''' ({{langx|ar|تبصر}}), also '''Khirbat 'Azzun''' ({{langx|ar|خربة عزون}}), was a [[Palestinian people|Palestinian]] village located 19 kilometres southwest of [[Tulkarm]]. In 1931, the village had 218 houses and an elementary school for boys.<ref name="Khalidi 1992, p. 562"/>  Its Palestinian population was expelled during the [[1948 Arab-Israeli war]].<ref name=PR>{{Cite web|title=Welcome to Tabsur|publisher=Palestine Remembered|access-date=2007-12-18|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Tulkarm/Tabsur/index.html}}</ref>
==History==
The site of Tabsur contained archaeological remains, including the foundations of a building, a well, fragments of [[mosaic]] pavement, and tombs.<ref name="Khalidi 1992, p. 562">Khalidi, 1992, p. 562</ref>
.In the 1860s, the Ottoman authorities granted '[[Azzun]] an agricultural plot of land in the former confines of the Forest of Arsur (Ar. Al-Ghaba) in the coastal plain, west of the village.<ref>Marom, Roy, "The Contribution of Conder's Tent Work in Palestine for the Understanding of Shifting Geographical, Social and Legal Realities in the Sharon during the Late Ottoman Period", in Gurevich D. and Kidron, A. (eds.), ''Exploring the Holy Land: 150 Years of the Palestine Exploration Fund'', Sheffield, UK, Equinox (2019), pp. 212-231</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Marom |first=Roy |author-link=Roy Marom|year=2022 |title=The Oak Forest of the Sharon (al-Ghaba) in the Ottoman Period: New Insights from Historical- Geographical Studies, Muse 5 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2pc5867s |access-date=2023-10-06 |website=escholarship.org}}</ref> Residents of 'Azzun then repopulated the archaeological site of Tabsur.<ref name="Khalidi 1992, p. 561">Khalidi, 1992, p. 561</ref> Describing this settlement according to local tradition, Ayalon and Marom noted, <blockquote>On a summer day sometime in the late 1860s, a group of shabab (youth) from the [[Nablus Sanjak|Jabal Nablus]] (Samaria) highland left their village of ʿAzzun and descended to the sparsely populated and [[Sharon plain|wooded coastal plain]]. They arrived at the long-abandoned site of Tubsur [...] Pitching their tents among the ancient ruins, they set about demarcating ʿAzzun’s new land claim in the Forest of [[Apollonia–Arsuf|Arsuf]] (al-ghaba) [...]. They debarked the old [[oak]] trees as boundary marks, one village elder narrated, ‘and after that they began improving the land by chopping down the trees and thorns’.{{pb}}Like colonists settling on a land for the first time, they built an eponymous village, Khirbat ʿAzzun, and began making a living from growing grains and watermelons intended for faraway markets. ‘Its borders extended north as far as the lands of [[Miska, Tulkarm|Miska]], [[Al-Tira, Haifa|al-Tira]] and the Swamp ([[Wadi Falik|al-Bassa]])’, the elder reminisced; ‘as far south as the tribe of [[Abu Kishk]] and the [[Yarkon]] (ʿAuja river), westward up to the ghaba of the people of [[Kafr ʿAbbush]] (Ghabat al-ʿAbabsha) and [[Sidna ʿAli]], and eastward up to the village of [[Kafr Saba]]’.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Ayalon |first=Ami |last2=Marom |first2=Roy |date=2024-11-18 |title=Arab-Jewish ‘neighbourly relations’ in rural Mandatory Palestine: the case of Khirbat ʿAzzun – Raʿanana |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00263206.2024.2423096 |journal=Middle Eastern Studies |language=en |pages=1–17 |doi=10.1080/00263206.2024.2423096 |issn=0026-3206}}</ref></blockquote>
In the 1870s, Tabsur  was described as a moderate-sized [[Hamlet (place)|hamlet]]  with a well to the north.<ref>Conder and  Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp02conduoft#page/135/mode/1up 135]. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 561</ref> It was later classified as a hamlet by the ''Palestine Index Gazetteer''.<ref name="Khalidi 1992, p. 561" />
===British Mandate era===
According to Ayalon and Marom, "The frontline trenches of the [[World War I|Great War]] carved open wounds in the plain’s soil, destroying and temporarily depopulating Khirbat ʿAzzun, Kfar Sava and some other nearby villages."<ref name=":0" />
In the [[1922 census of Palestine]] there were 709 villagers; 700 Muslims and 9 Christians,<ref>Listed under the Azzun-name. Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n30/mode/1up   28]</ref> (where the Christians were all Orthodox,<ref>Listed under the Azzun-name. Barron, 1923, Table V,  p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n50/mode/1up    48]</ref>) increasing in  [[1931 census of Palestine|1931 census]]  to 994; 980 Muslims and 14 Christians, in  218  houses.<ref>Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas   53]</ref>
In the 1940s, Khirbat ʿAzzun was home to 300 people, with shrinking land, and poor infrastructure "The village improved its economic base by adopting new agricultural methods and benefiting from a degree of cooperation with Raʿanana. Toward the end of the period, the village owned a fine mosque, a school, a couple of guest rooms (''dawawin''), twelve plots of citrus plantation (''bayyarat''), a mechanized well, and a grocery shop."<ref name=":0" />
In the [[Village Statistics, 1945|1944/45 statistics]], a total of 1,602 [[Dunam|dunums]] were allocated to cereals, while 24 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.<ref name=1945p21>Department of Statistics, 1945, p. [http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p21.jpg   21]</ref><ref>Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Tulkarm/Page-076.jpg  76]</ref><ref>Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20II/Tulkarm/Page-127.jpg  127]</ref> 29 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) area.<ref>Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/Tulkarm/Page-177.jpg  177]</ref>
[[File:Herzliya 1942.jpg|thumb|Tabsur 1942 1:20,000 (top left)]]
[[File:Herzliya 1945.jpg|thumb|Tabsur 1945 1:250,000]]
===1948, aftermath===
The [[Arabs]] of Tabsur were ordered to leave by the [[Haganah]] on 3 April 1948, as part of Haganas policy of clearing out  the  Arab villages on the coastal plain.<ref name=Morris245>Morris, 2004,  p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PA245 245]</ref> The villagers left on 16 April 1948.<ref name=Morris245/>
A detailed report by Ayalon and Marom, reads:<blockquote>On 16 April, Tiroshi reported the emptying of the village in a terse, unemotional tone: ‘Khirbat ʿAzzun was evacuated by its last inhabitants. The reason we gave for the eviction order: our inability to guarantee that the [[Deir Yassin massacre|deed [massacre] of Deir Yassin]] will not recur here as well. The property was handed over to the committee that handles enemy property.’{{pb}}These laconic, stale reports veil an acute interpersonal and intercommunal drama. Oral recollections of those who were involved in the expulsion shed important light on the events of that fateful day, the likes of which happened in numerous other Palestinian villages. The immediate pretext for deportation was an incident in which Jewish workers were injured in the fields, an incident that caused intense panic in the village. Early in the morning, an armed Jewish delegation from [[Raʿanana]], headed by security chief Moshe Schwartzman, entered Khirbat ʿAzzun. They found its inhabitants near the mosque ‘on their shackles, sitting on the ground and awaiting their fate’. It was a Friday, the [[Friday prayer|day of Islam’s congregational prayer]]. After attempting to break into the [[mosque]], the delegation engaged in a ‘nervous and impatient’ conversation with the village dignitaries regarding assuring the safety of the villagers and their property. The delegation ordered the residents to leave.{{pb}}Sh. Elon, the local Haganah commander who was with the delegation and oversaw the eviction, testified that the Arabs entrusted him with the keys to their houses and property, to be kept until their return. Later on, the property was sold and the proceeds were deposited in a fund designed for compensating the Arabs once the fighting had ended. Instead, however, Raʿanana used the fund’s resources for building Beit ha-Magen, a monumental memorial hall commemorating the ''moshava''’''s'' members who fell fighting the Arabs.<ref name=":0" /></blockquote>
[[Ra'anana]] was established south of Tabsur in 1921. Now a city, some of its suburbs have expanded into land that once belonged to the village. [[Batzra]], founded in 1946 on village land, lies to the north.<ref name="Khalidi 1992, p. 562" />
In 1992, the Palestinian historian [[Walid Khalidi]] wrote: "The village has been completely  covered with Israeli citrus orchards, making it difficult to distinguish from the surrounding lands. Citrus and cypress trees grow on the village land."<ref name="Khalidi 1992, p. 562"/>
The estimated number of [[Palestinian refugee]]s from Tabsur in 1998 was 2,406.<ref name=PR/>
==See also==
*[[Azzun]]
*[[Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel]]
==References==
{{reflist|25em}}
==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book | editor =Barron, J. B. | title = Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922 |url=https://archive.org/details/PalestineCensus1922   |publisher = Government of Palestine | year = 1923}}
*{{cite book|last1=Conder|first1=C.R.|author-link1=Claude Reignier Conder|last2=Kitchener|first2=H.H.|author-link2=Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|year=1882|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp02conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology|location=London|publisher=[[Palestine Exploration Fund|Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund]]|volume=2}}
*{{cite book|title=Village Statistics, April, 1945 |url=http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/Hebrew/library/Pages/BookReader.aspx?pid=856390|author=Department of Statistics|year=1945|publisher=Government of Palestine}}
*{{cite book|title=Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html|first=S.|last=Hadawi|author-link=Sami Hadawi|year=1970|publisher=Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center}}
*{{cite book|title=All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_By7AAAAIAAJ |first=W.|last=Khalidi|author-link=Walid Khalidi|year=1992|location=[[Washington D.C.]]|publisher=[[Institute for Palestine Studies]]|isbn=0-88728-224-5}}
*{{cite book | editor = Mills, E.| title = Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas |url=https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas | publisher = Government of Palestine | location = Jerusalem | year = 1932}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C  |first=B.|last=Morris |author-link=Benny Morris |year=2004 |title=The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited|isbn=978-0-521-00967-6 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
*{{cite book|last=Palmer|first=E.H.|author-link=Edward Henry Palmer|year=1881|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer|publisher=[[Palestine Exploration Fund|Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund]]}}
{{refend}}
==External links==
*[https://www.palestineremembered.com/Tulkarm/Tabsur/index.html Welcome To Tabsur]
*[https://www.zochrot.org/en/village/49499 Tabsur (Khirbet 'Azzun)], [[Zochrot]]
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 10: [http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8372  IAA], [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.10.jpg Wikimedia commons]
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Arab villages depopulated prior to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War]]
[[Category:District of Tulkarm]]