Bayt Nabala

The school is the only remnants of the village

Bayt Nabala was a village situated on a rocky hill that sloped southwestward, overlooking the plain surrounding al-Lydd, east of its airport. It lay east of a main road that connected it to Ramla, Jaffa, and other cities. Its links to urban centers were further reinforced by a railway branch line that connected it to the Rafah-Haifa railway. Another secondary road connected it to neighboring villages to the east and southeast.

In 1596, Bayt Nabala was listed as a village in the subdistrict of Ramla (District of Gaza), with a population of 297. The villagers paid taxes on agricultural products such as wheat, barley, olives, and fruits, in addition to revenues from livestock like goats, beehives, and a press used for olive or grape processing.

By the late 19th century, Bayt Nabala had become a medium-sized village located on the edge of a plain. During the British Mandate period, the British authorities built a military camp nearby. The village was laid out in a rectangular grid-like pattern, with minor roads running parallel to two main streets that intersected at the center. At this intersection, several shops, a mosque, and a primary school were clustered. The school, founded in 1921, had 230 students enrolled by 1946–1947.

The village was inhabited mostly by Muslims, who built homes from stone and mud. Their livelihood came primarily from agriculture—growing wheat, olives, grapes, and fruits like figs and citrus. Most farming was rain-fed, but citrus orchards were irrigated using artesian wells. Agricultural fields surrounded the village, except for a stretch of land between the west and southwest. By 1944/45, 226 dunams were dedicated to citrus and bananas, 10,197 dunams to grain, and 1,733 dunams were irrigated or used for orchards. Two nearby ruins were located south of the village.

The Occupation and Ethnic Cleansing of Bayt Nabala

Bayt Nabala is explicitly mentioned in the operational orders of Operation Dani, the Israeli military campaign launched in July 1948. According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, Israeli forces were ordered to attack Bayt Nabala, which was serving as a second line of defense and was reportedly garrisoned by a company of Arab Legion troops (estimated at 120–150 soldiers), following the seizure of the cities of al-Lydd (Lod) and al-Ramla.

On July 13, 1948, the residents of al-Lydd were expelled from their city. Many were forcibly marched by Israeli soldiers in the direction of Bayt Nabala, which at that time was still under Arab control. It is believed that the village fell within days, shortly before Operation Dani concluded on July 18.

According to The New York Times, an Israeli commando unit stormed the outskirts of Bayt Nabala on July 11, aiming to thwart an Arab attempt to recapture the nearby colony of Wilhelma, a German Templar agricultural settlement founded before World War I. However, a subsequent urgent dispatch reported that Arab forces regained control of the village on July 12, using it as an artillery base to counter Israeli assaults on al-Lydd.

The report stated that Arab Legion armored vehicles entered Bayt Nabala, but arrived too late to defend al-Lydd effectively. On July 13, Israeli forces reportedly captured the village after intense combat, in which Israeli tanks and armored vehicles clashed directly with those of the Arab Legion.

The following day, reports emerged declaring that Bayt Nabala had become a “neutral zone” posing no further threat to the now-Israeli-controlled cities of al-Lydd and al-Ramla. A few days later, The New York Times confirmed that the village was fully occupied by Israeli forces prior to the signing of the second truce on July 18, 1948.

Early Expulsion & the Fate of the Village

Israeli historian Benny Morris claims that the residents of Bayt Nabala were expelled by order of the Arab Legion nearly two months prior to the village’s eventual occupation—specifically on May 13, 1948. However, this claim remains unverified and cannot be definitively proven.

What is documented, however, is that on September 13, 1948, just weeks after the village’s occupation, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion formally requested permission from the Israeli Ministerial Committee on Abandoned Properties to demolish the village—a move emblematic of the broader strategy of depopulating and erasing Palestinian villages.

The Village Today

Today, the site of Bayt Nabala is overgrown with wild grasses, thorny plants, and clusters of cypress and fig trees. The ruins lie on the eastern edge of the Israeli settlement of Beit Nehemia, directly east of the road leading to Lod Airport (Ben Gurion Airport). Scattered around the site are remnants of stone quarries and crumbling village homes. Some walls of these destroyed homes still partially stand as silent witnesses to the past. The surrounding lands are now cultivated by Israeli farmers.

Source: All That Remains, Palestine Remembered