Barfiliya

During the rule of the Roman Empire in Palestine, a road was built that connected Lydda to Jerusalem and passed through Barfiliya and other villages like Beit Liqya, Biddu and Beit Iksa.[9]

The Crusaders knew Barfiliya by the name Porfylia or Porphiria.[10] Under their rule, it was one of five villages to make up the diocese of Lydda. The village came to belong to the prior and canons of the Holy Sepulchre in November 1136,[11] granted permission to build a church there by their bishop in 1170–1, it is unknown if they ever did in fact do so.[12] The first Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, which ruled over most of Palestine, came to an end after the victory of Saladin's forces over those of the Crusaders in the 1187 Battle of Hattin.

Village ruins today

Barfiliya, like the rest of Palestine, was ruled by the Ottoman Empire between 1517 and 1917/18. In 1596, the village formed part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of al-Ramla under the liwa' (district) of Gaza. It had a population of 8 households, an estimated 44 persons, all Muslim. Villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, sesame and fruit, as well as goats, beehives and vineyards and occasional revenues; a total of 6,000 akçe.[13]

In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village, Burfilia, in the Ibn Humar area in the District of Er-Ramleh.[14][15] In 1863, Victor Guérin found the village to have 150 inhabitants.[16]

An official Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that "Berfilija" had 28 houses and a population of 175, though the population count included only men.[17][18] In the late 19th century, Barfiliya is described as a small hamlet, situated on a slope, 2,000 feet (610 m) above a valley. The villagers cultivated olives.[19]

During the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I, in the lead up to the 1917 Battle of El Burj, the Australian Light Horse Brigades led by Major-General Hodgson reached Barfiliya on November 28–29 in an effort to relieve Commonwealth troops in their battles against German and Turkish troops.[20]

After the war's end, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned and a Palestine mandate was accorded to Britain by the League of Nations. In a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Barfilia had a population of 411 residents; all Muslims,[21] increasing in the 1931 census to 544, still all Muslims, in a total of 132 houses.[22]

Still under Mandatory rule in the 1945 statistics, the village comprised a total area of 7,134 dunums, and the population was entirely Muslim.[4][5] A large number of inhabitants were employed in cereal farming.[23] However, some land was allocated to irrigation and plantation as well as the growing of olives.

17 dunams were classified as built-up public areas.[24]

• 
  Barfiliya 1942 1:20,000
• 
  Barfiliya 1945 1:250,000
• 
  Palestinian villages depopulated in the area around Lydda and Ramla (coloured in green)

During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Barfiliya briefly became a destination for Palestinian refugees from Lydda. One survivor of the 1948 Palestinian expulsion from Lydda and Ramle, Haj As'ad Hassouneh, reports that when Jews came to Lydda in July 1948, they called the people together and told them to, "Go to Barfiliya," where the Arab Legion was still stationed.[25][26] Only one or two knew where Barfiliya was, and though the distance could usually be travelled in about 4 hours, it took the group made up of men, women, children, the elderly, the sick, among others, three days to make the journey. In the hot, dry summer, without adequate provisions, many died of thirst along the way.[25]

Barfiliya itself was depopulated as a result of a military assault by Israeli forces on July 14, 1948.[3] It was captured by the 8th Armoured Brigade and by elements of the Kiryati Brigade along with other villages in the area north of the Latrun enclave.[27] On September 13, David Ben-Gurion requested the destruction of Barfiliya, among other Palestinian villages whose inhabitants fled or were expelled.[28] All 58 Palestinian villages in the al-Ramla district that came under Israeli control were depopulated in 1948, and those mentioned in Ben-Gurion's memorandum were either partially or totally destroyed.[29]