![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Deir-al-Qassi-1.webp\")
<\/p>\n\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The village of\u202fDeir al-Qasi\u202fwas situated on a rocky hill in the central part of the\u202fArab Upper Galilee, approximately five kilometers south of the\u202fLebanese border. A paved road, constructed during World War II, connected the village to\u202fFassuta\u202fin the north and\u202fTarshiha\u202fto the southeast.<\/p>\n
The prefix \u201cDeir\u201d (Arabic for \u201cmonastery\u201d) suggests that the site may have once included a\u202fmonastic settlement\u202fand a\u202fChristian population. However, by the end of 1948, most of Deir al-Qasi\u2019s residents were\u202fMuslim.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Deir-al-Qassi-2.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
In\u202f1596, Deir al-Qasi\u00a0was part of the\u202fsubdistrict of Jira, in the district of\u202fSafad, with a population of\u202f132 people. The villagers paid taxes on a variety of agricultural products such as\u202fwheat,\u202fbarley,\u202flivestock,\u202fbeehives, and other revenues.<\/p>\n
By the\u202flate 19th century, Deir al-Qasi\u00a0was\u00a0located\u00a0on a mountain slope surrounded by\u202ffig and olive trees\u202fand\u202fcultivated lands, with an estimated population of\u202fapproximately 100.<\/p>\n
During the\u202fBritish Mandate census of 1945, the populations of\u202fDeir al-Qasi,\u202fFassuta, and\u202fal-Mansura\u202fwere combined, with a total of\u202f1,420 Muslims\u202fand\u202f180 Christians.<\/p>\n
A\u202fpaved road\u202fran through the village, dividing it into\u202ftwo quarters: an eastern quarter situated at a higher elevation than the western one.\u00a0The village houses were originally constructed from mudbrick, although some newer homes were built of\u202fstone. A\u202fprimary school\u202fwas\u00a0established\u00a0during the Mandate period.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3.webp\")
The village also\u00a0contained:<\/p>\n
The residents sourced\u202fdomestic water\u202ffrom wells in\u202fFassuta,\u202fal-Mansura, and a\u202flarge rainwater cistern\u202fwithin the village itself. Most villagers were\u202ffarmers, cultivating\u202fgrains,\u202fvegetables, and\u202folives, though some worked in\u202fBritish military bases\u202for held\u202fgovernment jobs in urban centers.<\/p>\n
Land ownership was often\u202fshared\u202fwith residents of\u202fFassuta\u202fand\u202fal-Mansura. In\u202f1944\u20131945, approximately:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4-1.webp\")
According to villagers, during the Ottoman and British periods,\u202farchaeological artifacts\u202ffrom\u202fCanaanite,\u202fIsraelite, and\u202fRoman\u202feras were uncovered in the area, though most have since been lost.<\/p>\n
Occupation and Ethnic Cleansing\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Deir al-Qasi\u00a0came under\u202fIsraeli control\u202fon\u202fOctober 30, 1948,\u00a0likely following\u00a0the fall of\u202fTarshiha, as part of\u202fOperation Hiram\u2014a final offensive aimed at occupying the\u00a0remainder\u00a0of the Galilee toward the end of the war.<\/p>\n According to the\u202fofficial account in the\u00a0Haganah\u2019s\u00a0history<\/i>, defenders from\u00a0Tarshiha\u202fretreated through Deir al-Qasi\u202falong a route known as the\u202f”Qawuqji\u00a0Road”, heading north toward the village of\u202fRmeish\u00a0in Lebanon. This road was considered a\u202fkey supply line\u202ffor the\u202fArab Liberation Army\u202fin the Upper Galilee.<\/p>\n Israeli historian\u202fBenny Morris\u202fnotes that the villagers were\u202fnot expelled during the\u00a0initial\u00a0assault. Reports from\u202fDecember 1948\u2014two months after the attack\u2014indicated\u00a0that approximately\u202f700 residents\u202fwere still living in\u202fDeir al-Qasi, al-Nabi Rubin, and\u00a0Tarshiha.<\/p>\n Some Israeli military circles\u202fobjected to the expulsion\u202fof these villagers for\u202fstrategic reasons, arguing that it was unwise to remove experienced residents and replace them with\u202funtrained “Jewish” immigrants, especially given the village\u2019s\u202fproximity to the Lebanese border.<\/p>\n These objections were raised during an\u202fIsraeli cabinet meeting\u202fon\u202fJanuary 9, 1949, as documented in Israeli archival sources. Nevertheless, the government decided to pursue a policy of “encouraging the resettlement of Jewish immigrants in all abandoned villages in the Galilee.” According to Morris, this policy was implemented in\u202fDeir al-Qasi\u202fon\u202fMay 17, 1949, though the precise date and manner of the villagers\u2019\u202fexpulsion\u202fremains\u00a0unclear.<\/p>\n The Village Today\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Some of\u202fDeir al-Qasi\u2019s stone houses\u202fare still in use as\u202fresidences or storage facilities\u202fby colonists of Elkosh colony. The remainder of the village consists of\u202fruined structures, scattered debris, and\u202fcactus growth.<\/p>\n Zionist Settlements on Village Lands:<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0 The village of\u202fDeir al-Qasi\u202fwas situated on a rocky hill in the central part of the\u202fArab Upper Galilee, approximately five kilometers south of the\u202fLebanese border. A [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,64,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acre","category-dispalced-villages-pages","category-the-displaced-villages"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8517"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8540,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8517\/revisions\/8540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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