On Christmas Eve 1951, the Israeli Army demolished the houses of the Palestinian village of Iqrit completely leaving only the Church and the Cemetery. Mr. David Ben-Gurion, the Zionist Prime Minister and Minister of Defense at the time, denied issuing orders to demolish the houses!
http://www.iqrit.org/eng/chron.htmHistorical Background
Iqrit is 25 km north east of Acre. Like a number of other villages in the neighborhood, Iqrit was linked to the coastal highway from Akka to Ras an-Naqoora via a secondary road leading to Tarbikha.
There were 339 people living in 50 houses in 1931. The number rose to 490 by 1945. At the moment of eviction in Nov. 1948, there were 491 citizens in Iqrit, 432 of them were Greek Catholic who inhabited the entire area of the village.
Recently four families built their houses opposite the village from west, on a side hill of al-Bayad. Few of its 59 Moslems lived by rent within the village, while others built their houses in esh-Shafaya.
Iqrit has a history as ancient as the Canaanites who erected in it a statue for the god Melqart of Tyre. When the Crusaders occupied Iqrit, they called it Acref. This name probably is still common among surrounding Bedouin tribes: Açref! After they left, it remained devastated, until it was re-built and in 1596, it joined the county of Tibnin, district of Safad. Its population then was 374 whose economy was dependent largely on goats, beehives and agriculture. There was a press used for both olives and grapes. The population dropped down to about 100 by late nineteenth century. The village area has numerous archaeological sites.
Only part of the land was cultivated; the rest was covered with woods of oak, laurel and carob trees. By the year 1948 the village owned about 600 dunam private property groves of fig trees which served all inhabitants, of Iqrit and the surroundings, the groves covered mainly, the hill of al-Bayad, the remaining cultivated land served for Crops of Lentils mainly, besides to Tobacco and other fruit trees.
There were an elementary school in the village, 2 water springs, many other water-wells for collected rainwater within the village area, besides to a large pool of rainwater. There were many threshing floors mainly in between the village and the cemetery.
The tragedy of Iqrit started on 31st October 1948 when the offensive of Isarel Defense Forces advanced on the coastal road towards Lebanon.
Iqrit and Tarbikha surrendered and the villagers stayed in their homes. That 'luxury' did not last for long. Iqrit and a number of other villages in the region fell victims to a policy known as "an Arab-less border strip".
Six days after its surrender, the Israeli Army ordered the villagers to evacuate the village, and that they would be returned in two weeks, time when the military operations are over.
Few went to Lebanon and the Israeli Army trucked the majority to al-Rama (Midway between Acre and Safad).
In 1951,the villagers of Iqrit pleaded to the Supreme Court to allow them to return. The court ruled in their favor. However the army destroyed the village in contempt of the courts decision.
In Its third verdict the Court (Feb. 1952) blamed the villagers for depending on promises from the military ruler of Galilee, instead of benefiting from the "legal medication" which was "given" to them by the Court in its first relevant verdict. !!
A number of settlements were built near the village lands. Those are: Shomera (1949 on Tarbikha ruins), Even Menachem (1960) and Granot Ha-Galil (1980).
Today, only the building of Greek Catholic Church still stands. There is rubble from the destroyed houses and some Fig, Grape, Almond, Thorn and other kinds of trees. On the shoulder looking at the road passing by from the north, the cemetery of Iqrit is still located, fenced and annually maintained. There is a cowshed that belongs to the settlement of Shomera, on the western entrance of the village, as well.
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