Ayn Hawd

The village was spread along the slope of a high hill amid the western slopes of Mount Carmel. It overlooked the coastal plain and the Mediterranean Sea. A secondary road, about one kilometer long, connected the village to the main coastal road. The villagers believed that Ayn Hawd was established by Abu al-Hija, one of the prominent commanders of Sultan Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi (Saladin), who died after the Battle of Hattin in 1187.

In 1996, Ayn Hawd was a village in the Shafa subdistrict (Lajjun district), with a population of 14 people. The village paid taxes on several crops such as wheat and barley, in addition to other sources of livelihood including goats and beehives.

In the late nineteenth century, Ayn Hawd was a small village located on the edge of a ridge, with approximately 50 inhabitants cultivating three feddans (one feddan equals 100-250 dunams). The village had a rectangular shape, with houses scattered from east to west. The houses in the village center were mostly built of stone and closely grouped, while those farther from the center were more spread out. As the village expanded, it split into two quarters: Al-Raqaba and Arabia. Several springs were located within the village itself. There was also a café and a guesthouse that served as a meeting place for residents, especially in winter when agricultural work was limited.

The inhabitants were Muslims who had a mosque situated in the center of the village, as well as an elementary school for boys established in 1888 during the Ottoman era. The villagers earned their living through livestock breeding, grain cultivation, and olive farming. Olive trees covered an area of 845 dunams of village land by 1943, with some olives pressed in a traditional Bedouin olive press. The village was also known in the area for its carob, which had a distinctive flavor and from which a type of molasses (diss) was made. Carob trees covered a wide area of land, and eucalyptus and pine trees were also planted on village lands.

The villagers marketed their produce, which included wheat, carob, and sesame, in Haifa and Acre. They were also skilled stone masons, sourcing building stones from three quarries, as well as limestone. In total, 4,223 dunams were allocated to grain cultivation, and 1,503 dunams were irrigated or used for orchards. Khirbat Hajla (site number 149232), located southwest of the village, contained foundations of buildings, carved stones, and rock-cut cisterns.

Occupation of the Village and Ethnic Cleansing

The newspaper Filastin reported that a force of 150 Jewish fighters attacked Ayn Hawd and the neighboring village of Ayn Ghazal on the night of April 11, 1948. The villagers repelled this attack as well as a more serious one the following month. The residents remained in Ayn Hawd after the fall of Haifa in late April, but Israeli forces stormed the village in late May 1948 after Arab snipers stopped traffic on the Tel Aviv–Haifa road. An Associated Press correspondent reported that Ayn Hawd and Ayn Ghazal were attacked on May 20. It appears that the inhabitants of Ayn Hawd were expelled after this attack. It is likely that Ayn Hawd was among the southern Haifa villages (including Al-Tira, Kafr Lam, and Al-Sarafand) occupied during a limited operation conducted during the “Ten Days” period (the interval between the two truces).

If this is correct, Ayn Hawd fell to Israeli forces around July 15, 1948, during an operation that featured participation by Israeli naval forces, which assisted ground troops by providing covering fire and bombarding villages, according to The History of the War of Independence. Israeli historian Benny Morris suggests that the fate of Ayn Hawd’s residents was similar to that of Al-Tira’s, who were either expelled southward or sent to prisoner-of-war camps.

The Village Today

The village was not destroyed but, since 1954, has become an artists’ village. It is classified as a tourist site. Its mosque has been converted into a restaurant and café named “Bonanza.” The surrounding lands are cultivated, and nearby forests have been turned into parks. Those few Ayn Hawd residents who did not leave the country as refugees remained nearby and built a new village, also called Ayn Hawd. The Israeli government has not legally recognized this new village, depriving it of municipal services such as water, electricity, and roads. In the 1970s, the government erected a fence around the new village to prevent expansion and threatened to demolish three of its houses in 1986. The roughly 130 residents of the new Ayn Hawd built a mosque, which was constructed by one of the leaders of the old village, as part of their ongoing struggle for municipal recognition.

Zionist Settlements on Village Lands

In 1949, the settlement of Neir Atzion (site number 149233) was established on village lands. Later, in 1954, the settlement of Ein Hod (site number 148238) was established on the site of the original village.