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Al-Qastal, Jerusalem

January 26, 2023

Al-Qastal ("Kastel", Arabic: القسطل) was a Palestinian village located eight kilometers west of Jerusalem and named for a Crusader castle located on the hilltop. Used in 1948 during the Arab-Israeli War as a military base by the Army of the Holy War, virtually all of its residents fled during the fighting and the village was eventually captured by the Palmach.

al-Qastal
القسطل
al-Qastal hill
Etymology: "castellum" or castale[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Qastal, Jerusalem (click the buttons)
al-Qastal
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°47′44″N 35°8′39″E / 31.79556°N 35.14417°E / 31.79556; 35.14417Coordinates: 31°47′44″N 35°8′39″E / 31.79556°N 35.14417°E / 31.79556; 35.14417
Palestine grid163/133
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictJerusalem
Date of depopulation3 April 1948[3]
Area
 • Total1,446 dunams (1.4 km2 or 0.5 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total90[2]
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces
Current LocalitiesMevaseret Zion[4] Castel National Park

History

Crusader period

A Crusader castle called Belveer or Beauverium (in Latin Videbelum) was built there around 1168 CE. It is listed among the castles destroyed by Sultan al-Adil I in 1191–92 CE. No trace remains today of the castle.[5]

Belveer is mentioned in a letter from Eraclius, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, written in the aftermath of the catastrophic Crusader defeat at the Battle of Hattin and dated September 1187, in which he describes the capture by the Muslims of a long list of towns of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the slaughter of Christians "by the sword of Mafumetus the Unbeliever and his evil worshipper Saladin".[6]

Ottoman period

In 1838 el-Kustul was noted as a Muslim village, part of Beni Malik area, located west of Jerusalem.[7][8]

In 1863, Victor Guérin found modern buildings on ancient ruins. He noted that the village belonged to the Abu Ghosh clan.[9] An Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that Kastal had a population of 10, in 5 houses; the population count included only men.[10][11]

In 1883, in the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine, al-Qastal was described as "a small stone village in a conspicuous position on a rocky hill-top" with springs to the east.[12]

In 1896 the population of El-kastal was estimated to be about 39 persons.[13]

British Mandate period

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Qastal had a population 43, all Muslims,[14] increasing in the 1931 census to 59; 55 Muslims and 4 Christians, in a total of 14 houses.[15]

In the 1945 statistics, the village, with a population of 90 Muslims,[2] had a total of 42 dunums of land allocated to cereals. 169 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, including 50 dunams of olive trees.[4][16]

1948 war

In 1948, al-Qastal was a key position on the Jaffa-Jerusalem road and was used by Arab forces to attack Jewish relief convoys so as to prevent them from reaching the besieged Jewish parts of Jerusalem.[17] For this purpose, it was occupied by the Army of the Holy War led by Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, the commander of the Jerusalem Hills sector.[18]

The village was assaulted by the Palmach's Harel Brigade and two squads of the Haganah during Operation Nachshon, after a previous minor clash had already caused most civilian inhabitants to flee.[4][19] Palmach troops occupied the village on April 3, but its commander was refused permission to blow up the houses.[19]

Forces under Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni attacked and besieged the Haganah-held village on 7 April 1948. During the following, foggy night Al-Husayni himself was killed by a Haganah sentinel in a bizarre incident. On April 8, armed Arabs from the entire area, motivated by the disappearance of their leader, attacked and recaptured al-Qastal.[19] However, Al-Husayni's death is said to have led to a loss of morale among his forces.[20] Most fighters left their positions to attend al-Husayni's funeral at the Masjid Al-Aqsa on Friday, April 9. Palmach troops retook the almost fully deserted village on the night of April 8-9th; they blew up most of the houses and made the hill a command post, which they managed to hold on to.[19][21]

Israel

Parts of the Israeli town of Mevaseret Zion are located on the former lands of Al-Qastal.[4]

The remains of the village at the hilltop has been fitted out by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority as Castel National Site, "a symbol of the struggle to break through to Jerusalem during the War of Independence", where one can visit the 1948 trenches and a monument to the fallen, see a movie, and descend along a scenic trail.[22]

Gallery

  •  

    View of Qastal before Operation Nachshon

  •  

    View of the road from Qastal

  •  

    Palestinian irregulars moving to counterattack Haganah positions in Al-Qastal, 7–8 April 1948

  •  

    Approach to Qastal from the air, 1948

  •  

    Harel Brigade mortar in action during battle for Qastal

  •  

    Castel, the "Mukhtar's House" lookout (2006)

See also

References

  1. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 322
  2. ^ a b Village Statistics, Government of Palestine. 1945, p. 25
  3. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xx, village #356. Also gives cause of depopulation.
  4. ^ a b c d Khalidi, 1992, p.311
  5. ^ Pringle, 1997, p. 118: Qastal (R15): "No trace of any Frankish structures, despite contrary claims"
  6. ^ Barber & Bate (2010), p. 79.
  7. ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 123
  8. ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, p. 328
  9. ^ Guérin, 1868, p. 264
  10. ^ Socin, 1879, p. 156
  11. ^ Hartmann, 1883, p. 118, also noted 5 houses
  12. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, III:18. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.310
  13. ^ Schick, 1896, p. 125
  14. ^ Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p. 14
  15. ^ Mills, 1932, p. 32
  16. ^ Village Statistics (1945) via Hadawi (1970), pp. 58 3 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine, 103 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 3 March 2016.
  17. ^
  18. ^ Morris, 2008, p. 123
  19. ^ a b c d Morris, 2004, pp. 234–235.
  20. ^ Morris, 2008, p. 125
  21. ^ Benvenisti, 2002, p. 111
  22. ^ Castel National Site, Israel Nature and Parks Authority website. Accessed 5 Oct 2021.

Bibliography

  • Barber, M.; Bate, Keith (2010). Letters from the East: Crusaders, Pilgrims and Settlers in the 12th-13th Centuries. Crusade texts in translation. Vol. 18. Ashgate Publishing. p. 79. ISBN 9780754663560. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  • Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
  • Benvenisti, M. (2002). Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-23422-2.
  • Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1883). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 3. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
  • Guérin, V. (1868). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 1: Judée, pt. 1. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
  • Hartmann, M. (1883). "Die Ortschaftenliste des Liwa Jerusalem in dem türkischen Staatskalender für Syrien auf das Jahr 1288 der Flucht (1871)". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. 6: 102–149.
  • Khalidi, W. (1992). All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
  • Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
  • Morris, B. (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
  • Morris, B. (2008). 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-15112-1.
  • Palmer, E.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
  • Pringle, D. (1997). Secular buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: an archaeological gazetter. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521-46010-7.
  • Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838. Boston: Crocker & Brewster.
    • Volume 2
    • Volume 3
  • Schick, C. (1896). "Zur Einwohnerzahl des Bezirks Jerusalem". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. 19: 120–127.
  • Socin, A. (1879). "Alphabetisches Verzeichniss von Ortschaften des Paschalik Jerusalem". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. 2: 135–163.
  • Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. 1945.
    • Copy at the National Library of Israel (from microfilm)
    • Reproduced in Hadawi, S. (1970). . Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center. Archived from the original on 8 December 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2015.

External links

January 26, 2023
qastal, jerusalem, qastal, kastel, arabic, القسطل, palestinian, village, located, eight, kilometers, west, jerusalem, named, crusader, castle, located, hilltop, used, 1948, during, arab, israeli, military, base, army, holy, virtually, residents, fled, during, . Al Qastal Kastel Arabic القسطل was a Palestinian village located eight kilometers west of Jerusalem and named for a Crusader castle located on the hilltop Used in 1948 during the Arab Israeli War as a military base by the Army of the Holy War virtually all of its residents fled during the fighting and the village was eventually captured by the Palmach al Qastal القسطلal Qastal hillEtymology castellum or castale 1 1870s map 1940s map modern map 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Al Qastal Jerusalem click the buttons al QastalLocation within Mandatory PalestineCoordinates 31 47 44 N 35 8 39 E 31 79556 N 35 14417 E 31 79556 35 14417 Coordinates 31 47 44 N 35 8 39 E 31 79556 N 35 14417 E 31 79556 35 14417Palestine grid163 133Geopolitical entityMandatory PalestineSubdistrictJerusalemDate of depopulation3 April 1948 3 Area Total1 446 dunams 1 4 km2 or 0 5 sq mi Population 1945 Total90 2 Cause s of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forcesCurrent LocalitiesMevaseret Zion 4 Castel National Park Contents 1 History 1 1 Crusader period 1 2 Ottoman period 1 3 British Mandate period 1 4 1948 war 1 5 Israel 1 6 Gallery 2 See also 3 References 4 Bibliography 5 External linksHistoryCrusader period A Crusader castle called Belveer or Beauverium in Latin Videbelum was built there around 1168 CE It is listed among the castles destroyed by Sultan al Adil I in 1191 92 CE No trace remains today of the castle 5 Belveer is mentioned in a letter from Eraclius Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem written in the aftermath of the catastrophic Crusader defeat at the Battle of Hattin and dated September 1187 in which he describes the capture by the Muslims of a long list of towns of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the slaughter of Christians by the sword of Mafumetus the Unbeliever and his evil worshipper Saladin 6 Ottoman period In 1838 el Kustul was noted as a Muslim village part of Beni Malik area located west of Jerusalem 7 8 In 1863 Victor Guerin found modern buildings on ancient ruins He noted that the village belonged to the Abu Ghosh clan 9 An Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that Kastal had a population of 10 in 5 houses the population count included only men 10 11 In 1883 in the PEF s Survey of Western Palestine al Qastal was described as a small stone village in a conspicuous position on a rocky hill top with springs to the east 12 In 1896 the population of El kastal was estimated to be about 39 persons 13 British Mandate period In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities Qastal had a population 43 all Muslims 14 increasing in the 1931 census to 59 55 Muslims and 4 Christians in a total of 14 houses 15 In the 1945 statistics the village with a population of 90 Muslims 2 had a total of 42 dunums of land allocated to cereals 169 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards including 50 dunams of olive trees 4 16 1948 war In 1948 al Qastal was a key position on the Jaffa Jerusalem road and was used by Arab forces to attack Jewish relief convoys so as to prevent them from reaching the besieged Jewish parts of Jerusalem 17 For this purpose it was occupied by the Army of the Holy War led by Abd al Qadir al Husayni the commander of the Jerusalem Hills sector 18 The village was assaulted by the Palmach s Harel Brigade and two squads of the Haganah during Operation Nachshon after a previous minor clash had already caused most civilian inhabitants to flee 4 19 Palmach troops occupied the village on April 3 but its commander was refused permission to blow up the houses 19 Forces under Abd al Qadir al Husayni attacked and besieged the Haganah held village on 7 April 1948 During the following foggy night Al Husayni himself was killed by a Haganah sentinel in a bizarre incident On April 8 armed Arabs from the entire area motivated by the disappearance of their leader attacked and recaptured al Qastal 19 However Al Husayni s death is said to have led to a loss of morale among his forces 20 Most fighters left their positions to attend al Husayni s funeral at the Masjid Al Aqsa on Friday April 9 Palmach troops retook the almost fully deserted village on the night of April 8 9th they blew up most of the houses and made the hill a command post which they managed to hold on to 19 21 Israel Parts of the Israeli town of Mevaseret Zion are located on the former lands of Al Qastal 4 The remains of the village at the hilltop has been fitted out by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority as Castel National Site a symbol of the struggle to break through to Jerusalem during the War of Independence where one can visit the 1948 trenches and a monument to the fallen see a movie and descend along a scenic trail 22 Gallery View of Qastal before Operation Nachshon View of the road from Qastal Palestinian irregulars moving to counterattack Haganah positions in Al Qastal 7 8 April 1948 Approach to Qastal from the air 1948 Harel Brigade mortar in action during battle for Qastal Castel the Mukhtar s House lookout 2006 See alsoCastel National Park Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel List of villages depopulated during the Arab Israeli conflictReferences Palmer 1881 p 322 a b Village Statistics Government of Palestine 1945 p 25 Morris 2004 p xx village 356 Also gives cause of depopulation a b c d Khalidi 1992 p 311 Pringle 1997 p 118 Qastal R15 No trace of any Frankish structures despite contrary claims Barber amp Bate 2010 p 79 Robinson and Smith 1841 vol 3 Appendix 2 p 123 Robinson and Smith 1841 vol 2 p 328 Guerin 1868 p 264 Socin 1879 p 156 Hartmann 1883 p 118 also noted 5 houses Conder and Kitchener 1883 III 18 Quoted in Khalidi 1992 p 310 Schick 1896 p 125 Barron 1923 Table VII Sub district of Jerusalem p 14 Mills 1932 p 32 Village Statistics 1945 via Hadawi 1970 pp 58 Archived 3 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine 103 Archived 2016 03 03 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 3 March 2016 War for the Jerusalem Road Time Apr 19 1948 Morris 2008 p 123 a b c d Morris 2004 pp 234 235 Morris 2008 p 125 Benvenisti 2002 p 111 Castel National Site Israel Nature and Parks Authority website Accessed 5 Oct 2021 BibliographyBarber M Bate Keith 2010 Letters from the East Crusaders Pilgrims and Settlers in the 12th 13th Centuries Crusade texts in translation Vol 18 Ashgate Publishing p 79 ISBN 9780754663560 Retrieved 5 October 2021 Barron J B ed 1923 Palestine Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922 Government of Palestine Benvenisti M 2002 Sacred Landscape The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948 University of California Press ISBN 978 0 520 23422 2 Conder C R Kitchener H H 1883 The Survey of Western Palestine Memoirs of the Topography Orography Hydrography and Archaeology Vol 3 London Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund Guerin V 1868 Description Geographique Historique et Archeologique de la Palestine in French Vol 1 Judee pt 1 Paris L Imprimerie Nationale Hartmann M 1883 Die Ortschaftenliste des Liwa Jerusalem in dem turkischen Staatskalender fur Syrien auf das Jahr 1288 der Flucht 1871 Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina Vereins 6 102 149 Khalidi W 1992 All That Remains The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948 Washington D C Institute for Palestine Studies ISBN 0 88728 224 5 Mills E ed 1932 Census of Palestine 1931 Population of Villages Towns and Administrative Areas Jerusalem Government of Palestine Morris B 2004 The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 00967 6 Morris B 2008 1948 A History of the First Arab Israeli War Yale University Press ISBN 978 0 300 15112 1 Palmer E H 1881 The Survey of Western Palestine Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener R E Transliterated and Explained by E H Palmer Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund Pringle D 1997 Secular buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem an archaeological gazetter Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521 46010 7 Robinson E Smith E 1841 Biblical Researches in Palestine Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea A Journal of Travels in the year 1838 Boston Crocker amp Brewster Volume 2 Volume 3 Schick C 1896 Zur Einwohnerzahl des Bezirks Jerusalem Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina Vereins 19 120 127 Socin A 1879 Alphabetisches Verzeichniss von Ortschaften des Paschalik Jerusalem Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palastina Vereins 2 135 163 Village Statistics April 1945 Government of Palestine Department of Statistics 1945 Copy at the National Library of Israel from microfilm Reproduced in Hadawi S 1970 Village Statistics of 1945 A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center Archived from the original on 8 December 2018 Retrieved 7 February 2015 External linksWelcome To al Qastal al Qastal Zochrot Survey of Western Palestine Map 17 IAA Wikimedia commons Al Qastal from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center Al Qastal Palestine Family net Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Al Qastal Jerusalem amp oldid 1101597489, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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