Jarash, Jerusalem

Jarash
جرش
Ruins of Jarash
Ruins of Jarash
Etymology: Jerash; personal name[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Jarash, Jerusalem (click the buttons)
Jarash is located in Mandatory Palestine
Jarash
Jarash
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°43′47″N 35°00′58″E / 31.72972°N 35.01611°E / 31.72972; 35.01611
Palestine grid151/126
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictJerusalem
Date of depopulation21 October 1948[4]
Area
[3]
 • Total
3,518 dunams (3.518 km2 or 1.358 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total
190[2][3]
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces

Jarash (Arabic: جرش) was a Palestinian village that was depopulated over the course of 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Located 25 kilometers west of Jerusalem, Jarash was a wholly Arab village of 220 inhabitants in 1948. The village was built of stone houses on the spur of a hill, 411 metres (1,348 ft) above sea-level, and lay about 1 km. eastward of the traffic circle opposite Moshav Zanoah, on regional road 3855 that bypasses Beit Shemesh to its east, and which road runs in a northerly-southerly direction along Wadi en Najil (now called Naḥal Zanoah). The immediate region to the west of the site of Jarash, upon two hills separated by a valley, grew orchards belonging to the village inhabitants consisting of carobs, figs, almonds and olives. Cave dwellings dot the landscape of this region.

  1. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 296
  2. ^ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 24
  3. ^ a b Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 57
  4. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xx, village #341. Also gives the cause for depopulation