Arabic عين كارم Palestine grid 165/130 Area 15,029 dunams | Subdistrict Jerusalem Population 3,689 (1948) Local time Friday 9:30 PM | |
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Date of depopulation 10 and 21 April 1948, 16 July 1948 Weather 10°C, Wind W at 10 km/h, 88% Humidity | ||
'Ayn Karim (Arabic: عين كارم) was a Palestinian Arab town in the Mandatory Palestine's Jerusalem Subdistrict.
History
The 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine placed 'Ayn Karim in the Jerusalem enclave intended for international control. In February 1948 the village's 300 guerilla fighters were reinforced by a well-armed Arab Liberation Army force of mainly Syrian fighters, and on March 10 a substantial Iraqi detachment arrived in the village, followed within days by some 160 Egyptian fighters. On March 19, the villagers joined their foreign guests in attacking a Jewish convoy on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road. Immediately after the April 1948 massacre at the nearby village of Deir Yassin (2 km to the north), most of the women and children in the village were evacuated. It was attacked by Israeli forces during the ten-day campaign of July 1948. The remaining civilian inhabitants fled on July 10–11. The Arab Liberation Army forces who had camped in the village left on July 14–16 after Jewish forces captured two dominating hilltops, Khirbet Beit Mazmil and Khirbet al Hamama, and shelled the village. During its last days, 'Ayn Karim suffered from severe food shortages.
Israel later incorporated the village into the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem as Ein Karem. Ein Kerem was one of the few ethnically cleansed Arab localities which survived the war with most of the buildings intact. Palestinian homes were seized and resettled with Jewish immigrants. Over the years, the bucolic atmosphere attracted a population of artisans and craftsmen.