Al Qastal, Palestine
From MedBib.com - Medicine & Nature
| al-Qastal | |
  al-Qastal
|
|
| Arabic | القسطل |
| Name Meaning | "castle" |
| District | Jerusalem |
| Coordinates | 31°47′43.73″N 35°8′39.04″E / 31.7954806°N 35.1441778°ECoordinates: 31°47′43.73″N 35°8′39.04″E / 31.7954806°N 35.1441778°E |
| Population | (1945) |
| Area | 1,446 dunums
1.4 km² |
| Date of depopulation | April 3, 1948[1] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Jewish forces |
Al-Qastal (Arabic: القسطل, derived from the Latin castellum for "castle" and named for the Roman ruin located there) was a Palestinian village that was depopulated in the lead up the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.[2]
Located 8 kilometers west of Jerusalem, al-Qastal was defended by the Arab Liberation Army and the Army of the Holy War, led by Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni.[2] The village was assaulted by pre-state Israeli forces from the Palmach's Fourth Battalion during Operation Nachshon.[2] Its inhabitants fled as a result of the assault.[2] It was a key position on the Jaffa-Jerusalem road that was used by Arab forces to besiege the Jews of Jerusalem.[3]
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni was killed during hand-to-hand fighting for control of Qastal Hill overlooking the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road, on April 8, 1948; his death was a factor in the loss of morale among his forces. Forces under al-Husayni had recaptured Qastal from the Haganah, who had occupied the village at the start of Operation Nachshon six days earlier with a force of about 100 men.[4] The Jewish forces retreated to the Jewish settlement of Motza.[5] Palmach troops retook the village on the night of April 8-9th; they blew up most of the houses of the village and made the hill a command post.[6][7]
The Jerusalem area neighbourhood of Mevaseret Zion is located on the former lands of Al-Qastal.[2]
Contents |
See also
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
- List of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict
References
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. xx, village #356. Also gives cause of depopulation.
- ^ a b c d e "Welcome to Al-Qastal". Palestine Remembered. http://www.palestineremembered.com/Jerusalem/al-Qastal. Retrieved 2007-12-03.
- ^ War for the Jerusalem Road, Time, Apr. 19, 1948.
- ^ Morris, 2003, p. 234.
- ^ Dana Adams Schmidt, 'Arabs Win Kastel But Chief is Slain', New York Times, 9 April, 1948, p. 8 (A brief biography and account of the battle).
- ^ Benveniśtî, 2002, p.111.
- ^ Morris, 2003, p. 235.
Bibliography
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Al Qastal, Palestine |
- Benvenisti, Meron (2002), Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, University of California Press, http://books.google.com/books?id=7itq6zYtSJwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPP9,M1
- Morris, Benny (2004), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521009677
External links
- Welcome To al-Qastal
- Al-Qastal, Palestine Family.net
|
|||||
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
All material adapted used from Wikipedia is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
Seeking health information online: does Wikipedia matter?