Bayt Umm al-Mays

Bayt Umm al-Mays was a small Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on October 21, 1948, by the Har'el Brigade of Operation ha-Har. It was located 14 km west of Jerusalem.

Bayt Umm al-Mays
بيت أم الميس
Etymology: The house of the meis-tree (Cordia myxa)[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Bayt Umm al-Mays (click the buttons)
Bayt Umm al-Mays is located in Mandatory Palestine
Bayt Umm al-Mays
Bayt Umm al-Mays
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°46′49″N 35°04′49″E
Palestine grid157/131
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictJerusalem
Date of depopulationOctober 21, 1948[2]
Area
 • Total1,013 dunams (1.013 km2 or 250 acres)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total70[3][4]
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces

History

In 1863, Victor Guérin found the remains of a small village, in the middle of which was a Muslim sanctuary. He further noted that the villagers had neither wells nor cisterns, but were obliged to fetch water from a rather distant spring.[5]

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) noted at Beit Meis: "Ruined walls. No indication of age."[6]

British Mandate era

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 70 Muslims[3] with 1,013 dunums of land.[4] Of this, 51 dunams were for irrigable land or plantations, 273 for cereals,[7] while 2 dunams were built-up, urban, land.[8]

  • Bayt Umm al-Mays 1943 1:20,000 (lower right quadrant)
    Bayt Umm al-Mays 1943 1:20,000 (lower right quadrant)
  • Bayt Umm al-Mays 1945 1:250,000
    Bayt Umm al-Mays 1945 1:250,000

1948 and aftermath

Bayt Umm al-Mays was depopulated October 21, 1948.[2]

Following the war, the area was incorporated into the State of Israel. According to Morris, Ramat Raziel was established near Bayt Umm al-Mays,[9] but according to Khalidi there are no Israeli settlements on village land.[10] In 1992 it was noted that "the site is covered with wild grass that grows around the remains of stone terraces. A few almond, olive and fig trees also grow along the terraces. The remains of the demolished house, which include fragments of an archway, stand at the northern end of the village; the ruins of another house stand at a short distance from the southern end, near a well. Two caves can be seen in the west. There are two very large stone slabs standing at the southern edge of the site, surrounded by bushes."[10]

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 286
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xx, village #344. Also gives cause of depopulation, both with a "?"
  3. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 24
  4. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 56
  5. Guérin, 1869, pp. 9-10
  6. Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 85
  7. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 102
  8. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 152
  9. Morris, 2004, p. xxi, settlement #40
  10. Khalidi, 1992, p. 281

Bibliography
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