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Ras Abu 'Ammar

رأس أبو عمار
Ras Abu 'Ammar رأس أبو عمار
	Ras Abu 'Ammar 1948
	Etymology: The hill top of Abu Ammar
	1870s map 1940s map modern map 1940s with modern overlay map A series of historical maps of the area around Ras Abu 'Ammar (click the buttons)
	Ras Abu 'Ammar Location within Mandatory Palestine
	Coordinates: 31°44′17″N 35°05′33″E / 31.73806°N 35.09250°E
Palestine grid	158/127
Geopolitical entity	Mandatory Palestine
Subdistrict	Jerusalem
Date of depopulation	October 21, 1948
Area
• Total	8,342 dunams (8.342 km2 or 3.221 sq mi)
Population (1945)
• Total	620
Cause(s) of depopulation	Military assault by Yishuv forces
Current Localities	Tzur Hadassah

Ras Abu 'Ammar (Arabic: رأس أبو عمار) was a small Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on October 21, 1948, by the Har'el Brigade of Operation ha-Har. It was located 14 km west of Jerusalem, surrounded on three sides by the Wadi al-Sarar.

History

Ras Abu 'Ammar is thought to have been established in the 19th century.^[6]

The nearby Kh. Kafr Sum have remains from the Crusader era, including a court-yard building and rock-cut cisterns. A tower to the south east was later turned into Maqam ash-sheikh Musafar.^[7] Victor Guérin noted that: "There are a lot of rickety houses, which are built of small, almost unhewn stones, near one waly, which stands in the shade of a mulberry tree of several hundreds years old. Not far from it there is a semicircle swimming pool, built in a crude way". And further: "A large structure, partly built of ancient stones with typical projection, served as a mosque, as we can tell from the presence of the mihrab in it. It is very likely that the structure had stood before the Muslims settled here, and they just adopted it for their cult".^[8]

The SWP described it as "a small stone village on a hill; to the east in a small valley is a good spring, with a rock-cut tomb beside it."^[9]

Ottoman era

In 1838, both et-Ras and Kefr Sur were noted as villages in the el-Arkub district, southwest of Jerusalem.^[10]^[11]

In 1863 Victor Guérin was pointed out on a mountain the small village of Ras Abu 'Ammar, which high position had given its name.^[12]

An Ottoman village list from around 1870 showed that Ras Abu Ammar had 6 (?) houses and a population of 92, though the population count only included men.^[13]^[14]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Ras (Abu 'Ammar) as "a large stone village on a spur, with a fine spring in the valley to the north-west. The hill has only a little scrub on it, but the valley, which is open and rather flat, has olives in it."^[15]

In 1896 the population of Ras Abu 'Ammar was estimated to be about 279 persons.^[16]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Ras Abu Ammar had a population 339, all Muslims,^[17] increasing in the 1931 census when it was counted with Aqqur and Ein Hubin, to 488, in 106 houses.^[18]

In the 1945 statistics, the village, with a population of 620 Muslims,^[2] had 8,342 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.^[3] Of the land, 925 dunams were plantations and irrigable land 2,791 were for cereals,^[19] while 40 dunams were built-up (urban) land.^[20]

Ras Abu 'Ammar, Mandate survey, 1:20,000
Ras Abu 'Ammar, 1945, 1:20,000

1948 and aftermath

On 4 August, 1948, two weeks into the Second truce of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestinian nationalist Amin al Husseini noted that ‘for two weeks now . . . the Jews have continued with their attacks on the Arab villages and outposts in all areas. Stormy battles are continuing in the villages of Sataf, Deiraban, Beit Jimal, Ras Abu ‘Amr, ‘Aqqur, and ‘Artuf . . .’^[21]

The village was depopulated on October 21, 1948.^[4] The area was later incorporated into the State of Israel and the village of Tzur Hadassah was established on Ras Abu 'Ammar land in 1960.^[5]

In 1992 the village site was described: "The stone rubble of the village houses is strewn across the site. Wild vegetation grows among the debris, in addition to almond, olive, and carob trees. Cactuses grow on the southeastern and southwestern sides of the site; a two-room stone building that used to be the schoolhouse still stands to the southeast."^[5]

Ras Abu 'Ammar, 2023
Ras Abu 'Ammar, 2023
Ein Abu 'Ammar, 2023

References

^ Palmer, 1881, pp. 324, 268
^ ^a ^b Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 25
^ ^a ^b Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 58
^ ^a ^b Morris, 2004, p. xx, village #347. Also gives cause of depopulation
^ ^a ^b ^c Khalidi, 1992, p. 312
^ Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 364
^ Pringle, 1997, p. 58
^ Guérin, 1869, p. 383
^ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 25
^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 2, p. 327
^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p. 126
^ Guérin, 1869, p. 6
^ Socin, 1879, p. 159
^ Hartmann, 1883, p. 145, noted 330(!) houses
^ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 26
^ Schick, 1896, p. 122
^ Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p. 15
^ Mills, 1932, p. 42
^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 104
^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 154
^ Morris, 2004, p. 447, note #211, p. 461