Iqrit

Info

District: Akka (Acre)

Population 1948: 570

Occupation date: 31/10/1948

Occupying unit: 9th brigade (Oded)

Jewish settlements on village/town land after 1948: Granot Hagalil, Goren

Background:

The village was located on a steep hill a few kilometers from the Lebanese border. It overlooked uneven terrain on the east and Wadi al-Bassa on the west. I was located 25.5 km northeast from Acre, and a secondary road linked it to the Acre-Ra's al-Naqura coastal highway.

The History of the War of Independence states that Iqrit was one of the villages captured at the very end of Operation Hiram, after most of northern Galilee had already fallen. In a scramble to seize the rest of the region, the Israeli army's 'Oded Brigade contniued to advance along the road parallel to the border with Lebanon, taking Iqrit and Tarbikha on 31 October 1948. The account adds that the villages surrendered to the Israeli army, and the villagers apparently remained in their homes.

They did not remain there for long, however. Some ten days after the end of the battles on the northern front, they were summarily expelled. Along with several other villages, Iqrit fell prey to the "principle of an Arab-less border strip," according to Israeli historian Benny Morris. This was approved by the General Staff of the Israeli army in the second week of November 1948. At Iqrit, the soldiers told the villagers that their eviction would be temporary and that they would soon be allowed to return. Some were dispersed to Lebanon; others were trucked by the Israeli to the Palestinian village of al-Ramla, some 20 km to the south. For some years thereafter, and together with the inhabitants of several other villages that had received similar treatment, the people of Iqrit continued to plead with the Israeli authorities that they be alowed to return to their villages, to no avail. Morris writes that the case of Iqrit and two other border vilalges in particular "illustrates how deeply rooted the IDF's [Israel Defense Force] determination from November 1948 onwards to create a northern border strip free of Arabs."

The settlement of Shomera, founded in 1949, and Even Menachem, founded in 1960, are on the border between the village lands and the lands of Tarbikha, northeast and east of the village site. Goren, established in 1950, is on village lands west of the site. Gornot ha-Galil was established in village lands in 1980.

The only extant landmark is the Greek Catholic Church – a stone structure with a flat roof from wich a rectangular belfry rises. It has a rectangular doorway with a decorative round arch and carvings atop the lintel. An assortment of crosses is placed in niches of the front facade, includinga cross above the arch and a large Latin cross on the (locked) door, flanked by two smaller crosses on the upper quadrants of the door. The church is untended and discolored. Otherwise the site contains nothing but stone rubble, and is overgrown with fig and pomegrenate trees and other flora. There is a cow shed on village lands.

Videos

Testimony by Sultana Diab Sbait
Panel: Return Now! Local Models (Part 2)
Closing ceremony of "Udna" project and presentation of presentation of Return Models
Udna – Iqrit
Three Returning Bouquets
Returning to Iqrit / A representative of the Iqrit returnees
Panel - Return Now! Reports from the Field
Tour to Iqrith

Booklets

Remembering Iqrith 10/2010

Others

Publications
Refugees drew their destroyed villages and cities 2016
Fifth Symposium and Closing Night at Zochrot's Exhibition “Towards Return of Palestinian Refugees”: Planners Respond to the Exhibition 05/2012
Locality events
Tour and screening in Iqrit
48mm Film Festival
Nakba in Christmas: Tour at the destroyed Palestinian village of Iqrit and participation in the mass at the village church
Locality tours
Return to Iqrit in Christmas
Iqrit tour - Report