Info

District: Nazareth

Population 1948: 2200

Occupation date: 15/07/1948

Jewish settlements on village/town land before 1948: None

Jewish settlements on village/town land after 1948: Yifat

Background:

Like neighboring Ma'lul, al-Mujaydil was occupied by a unit of the Golani Brigade. That occurred on 14 or 15 July 1948, during the second stage of operation Dekel, as the Israeli army closed in on Nazareth. The attack on this village misled the defenders of Nazareth into believing that the city would be attack from the south. The History of the Haganah states: "It seems that the Arabs of Nazareth were confident of their ability to repulse any attack from that direction (i.e. the south)", but it goes on to describe how the assault on Nazareth proceeded from the northwest, by Israeli units concentrated in the previously occupied town of Shafa 'Amr.

Al-Mujaydil was one of the villages in lower Galilee that was completely emptied of its inhabitants and the razed to the ground. About 1,200 refugees from al-Mujaydil had reportedly reached Nazareth by the end of July 1948, but it is not clear whether they remained there.
Jewish immigrants from Iran established the settlement of Migdal ha-Emeq in 1952 on village land, less than 1 km southwest of the village site. The older settlement of Yif'at, on what were traditionally village lands, is 2 km west of the site.

Today, most of the site is covered with a pine forest that serves as an Israeli park. The monastery and parts of the (destroyed) church are the only remaining buildings on the site; monks still live in the monastery. Remnants of the destroyed houses and the walls of a cemetery are visible. Cactuses and pomegranate, olive and fig trees grow around the site, which is dotted with wells.

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