Dayr al-Hawa

Dayr al-Hawa () was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. The village was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on October 19, 1948, by the Fourth Battalion of the Har'el Brigade of Operation ha-Har. It was located 18.5 km west of Jerusalem.

History Ottoman era Dayr al-Hawa is not mentioned in 16th century records, and was likely first settled in a later period.Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 364

In 1838, Edward Robinson called it a "lofty" village, on the brink of a valley.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, pp. 326, 340, 342, 426 It was further noted as a Muslim village, located in the District of el-Arkub, southwest of Jerusalem.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 125 In 1856 the village was named D. el Hawa on Kiepert's map of Palestine published that year.Kiepert, 1856, Map of Southern Palestine

Victor Guérin, visiting the village in 1863, wrote that Dayr al-Hawa "probably owes its name, monastery of the wind, to its high position".Guerin, 1869, p. 321

An Ottoman village list from around 1870 showed that Der el-Hawa had 32 houses and a population of 103, though the population count included men, only.Socin, 1879, p. 152 It was noted in the Hebron districtHartmann, 1883, p. 145 also showed 32 houses

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described it as "a village standing high, on a knoll rising from a high ridge, with a deep valley to the north. It has several high houses in it. On the west is a good spring. The ground is covered with brushwood all round the place."Conder and Kitchener, 1883, p. 24

In 1896 the population of Der el-hawa was estimated to be about 162 persons.Schick, 1896, p. 125

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted i by the British Mandate authorities, Dair al-Hawa had a population of 38 residents; all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramleh, p. 21 increasing in the 1931 census to 47 inhabitants, in 11 houses.Mills, 1932, p. 19

In the 1945 statistics the village had a population of 60 Muslims, with a total of 5,907 dunums of land. Of this, 58 dunams were for irrigable land or plantations, 1,565 for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 102 while 4 dunams were built-up land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 152

A mosque was located in the western part of the village and there was a shrine for a local sage known as al-Shaykh Sulayman. Near the ruins of the old village now stands the Israeli moshav, Nes Harim,Zvi Dror, Har'el: Palmach brigade in Jerusalem, Ha-kibbutz ha-meuchad 2005, p. 269 (Hebrew) however, it is not on village land. (It is on the land of Bayt 'Itab.)Khalidi, 1992, p. 286

During the 1948 it was defended by the local militia and the Egyptian Army/Muslim Brotherhood Battalion.

Archaeology Coins and ceramics from the Byzantine era have been found here.Dauphin, 1998, p. 908

Dayr al-Hawa

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