Arabic تل الشوك Also spelled Tall al Shauk Palestine grid 193/211 | Name meaning the mound of thorns Subdistrict Baysan Date of depopulation 12 May 1948 | |
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Cause(s) of depopulation Influence of nearby town's fall | ||
Tall al-Shawk (Arabic: تل الشوك), was a Palestinian village in the District of Baysan. It was depopulated by the Israel Defense Forces during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 12, 1948 as part of Operation Gideon. It was located five km west of Baysan between the al-Januna'in River to the north and Wadi al-Jawsaq to the south. The village was built above an ancient archeological site and granite columns remain.
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History
In 1882 the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described the southern Tell ash Shok as "an artificial earthen mound, with water on either side."
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the Mandatory Palestine authorities, Tall al-Shawk had a population of 58 Muslims, decreasing in the 1931 census to a population of 41 Muslims in 11 houses.
In 1945, the village had a population of 120 Muslims, while the total land area was 3,685 dunams. Of this, Arabs used 14 dunums for plantations and irrigable land, 33 for cereals, while 18 dunums were classified as non–cultivable land.
1948, aftermath
There are no Israeli settlements on village lands. In 1992, no traces of the village site remained, and the site was covered with weeds and thorns.