The depopulated village of Fara / District of Safed

Subdistrict: Safad

Population in 1948: 371

Date of occupation: 30 October 1948

Military operation: Operation Hiram; units of the Israeli Seventh Brigade probably occupied the village

Settlements established on village land before 1948: None

Settlements established on the village site after 1948: None. Yir'on lies nearby but was not established on Fara's land.

Fara was a Palestinian village in the Safad Subdistrict, situated 11.5 kilometres north of Safad.

The village stood on a relatively high rocky hill facing southeast and overlooking Wadi Fara. Its inhabitants were Muslims who earned their livelihoods primarily through agriculture and animal husbandry. Grain was the principal crop, while fruit trees were cultivated in orchards west and southwest of the village.

Boundaries of Fara

Fara was surrounded by the following villages and localities:

• Saliha to the north.
• Rihaniya and ‘Alma to the east.
• The Lebanese border to the west.
• Al-Ras al-Ahmar to the south.
• Rihaniya to the southeast.
• Kafr Bir‘im and the encampments of Arab al-Hayb to the southwest.

The Built Environment of Fara

Fara had a compact, roughly rectangular plan extending from northeast to southwest. Its built-up area covered 38 dunams, and the 1931 census recorded 42 inhabited houses.

Population of Fara

The official 1922 census recorded 218 inhabitants: 217 Muslims and one Christian. In 1931, the village had 229 residents, all Muslim, living in 42 houses. Its population was estimated at 320 in 1945 and 371 in 1948. A later demographic projection estimated the number of refugees from Fara and their descendants at 2,280 in 1998.

Landownership in Fara

Land Use in Fara, 1944/45

* One dunam equals 1,000 square metres (approximately 0.247 acres). The village total also included four dunams of public land; accordingly, total non-cultivable land across all ownership categories was 3,280 dunams.

Population of Fara by Year

Economic Life in Fara

Agriculture formed the basis of the village economy. In 1944/45, 3,911 dunams were classified as cultivable: 173 dunams consisted of plantations and irrigable land, while 3,738 dunams were devoted to cereal crops such as wheat and barley. Olive trees occupied 86 dunams within the cultivated area. Residents also raised sheep, goats, cattle, and poultry.

The Occupation of Fara

Israeli forces occupied Fara on 30 October 1948 during the final phase of Operation Hiram. The village lay along the route taken by units of the Seventh Brigade as they advanced from Sa‘sa‘ toward al-Malikiyya near the Lebanese border. The surviving record does not establish the precise sequence of the villagers’ departure. They were probably expelled or fled as Israeli forces approached; reports of killings in nearby villages during Operation Hiram may also have contributed to their flight.

Fara Today

Most of the village was destroyed after its occupation. A stone structure, probably the former mosque, and several stone terraces remain. Grass, fig trees, and other wild vegetation cover parts of the site, while some surrounding land is cultivated with fruit trees.

Editorial and Factual Corrections

• The 1922 population was corrected from 217 to the official census total of 218: 217 Muslims and one Christian.
• The unsupported statement that part of Bar‘am was established on Fara’s land was removed. Standard village references list no Israeli settlement on Fara’s land; nearby Yir’on lies outside it.
• The likely military formation was identified cautiously as units of the Seventh Brigade within Operation Hiram, because the exact unit entering Fara is not conclusively documented.
• The account of displacement was qualified because available sources do not establish whether every resident fled or was directly expelled.
• The land-use figures were clarified to avoid double-counting olive groves and to distinguish Palestinian-owned non-cultivable land from the four dunams of public land.

Sources

• Institute for Palestine Studies, All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, village entry for Fara.
• PalQuest, “Fara,” Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question.
• Government of Palestine, Census of Palestine, 1922 and Census of Palestine, 1931.
• Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, Village Statistics, April 1945.
• PalestineRemembered.com, “Fara, Safad.”