# Al-Damun

Al-Damun (Arabic: الدامون, al-Dâmûn), was a Palestinian Arab village located 11.5 kilometres (7.1 mi) from the city of Acre that was depopulated during 1948 Arab-Israeli war. In 1945, the village had 1,310 inhabitants, most of whom were Muslim and the remainder Christians. Al-Damun bordered the al-Na'amin River (Belus River), which the village's inhabitants used as a source of irrigation and drinking water from installed wells.

## History

Excavations at the site has shown pot sherds dating from the Late Bronze Age, up to and including Early Islamic, Crusader, Mamluk and Ottoman times. It might be the village Damun in lower Galilee, noted in Roman times.
Al-Damun is mentioned in early Arab and Persian sources from the 11th century CE. Local tradition identified the village as containing the tomb of the prophet Dhul-Kifl, who is mentioned in the Qur'an twice. Despite Islamic tradition claiming the tomb to be in al-Kifl near Najaf or Kifl Hares near Nablus, Nasir Khusrawl, who visited the region in 1047, wrote "I reached a small cave, which is in Damun where I performed the ziyarat too, for it is said to be the tomb of Dhul-Kifl."
Al-Damun was captured by the Crusaders, who referred to it as "Damar" or "Damor", during their invasion of the Levant in 1099; and it remained in their hands unlike most of Palestine, which was conquered by the Ayyubidss under Sultan Saladin in 1187. In 1253 John Aleman, Lord of Caesarea, sold several villages, including al-Damun, to the Knights Hospitaller. It was mentioned as part of the Crusaders' domain in the hudna (truce agreement) between the Acre-based Crusaders and the Mamluks under Sultan al-Mansur Qalawun in 1283.

### Ottoman Empire

Al-Damun, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1596 the village was located in the Akka Nahiya (Subdistrict of Acre), part of the Safad Sanjak (District of Safed). The population consisted of 33 households and two bachelors, all Muslim. The inhabitants paid a fixed tax rate of 20% on wheat, barley, fruit trees, cotton, goats and beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues"; total revenue was 6,045 akçe.
Until the late 18th century the village was ruled by the local Zaydani clan, which rose to prominence in the Galilee through the campaigns of Sheikh Zahir al-Umar. The village mosque was built by its multazim (tax farmer), Zahir's uncle Ali ibn Salih, in 1722–23. Inscriptions on the mosque gave the genealogy of the Zaydani family and included a poem dedicated to Ali. In the late 18th century, Giovanni Mariti noted that around al-Damun and Mi'ar were two "delightful valleys, ornamented with groves and wild shrubs. The peasants who live in the hamlets around, enjoy a most pleasant situation." A map by Pierre Jacotin from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 showed the place, named as Damoun.
In 1875, al-Damun was prosperous and had roughly 800, mostly Muslim inhabitants and two mosques. In addition to the possible tomb of Dhul-Kifl, there was a shrine dedicated to a certain Sheikh Abdallah on an adjacent hill. An elementary school for boys was founded by the Ottomans in 1886. A population list from about 1887 showed that Khirbet al-Damun had about 725 inhabitants, all Muslims.

### British Mandate

At the time of the 1922 census of Palestine, al-Damun had a population of 727, of whom 687 were Muslims and 40 were Christians. All the Christians were Roman Catholic. The population increased in the 1931 census to 917: 870 Muslims and 47 Christians, living in 183 houses.
At the beginning of the 20th century al-Damun's houses were clustered along one road, and starting in 1935 the residents started to build them with reinforced concrete. The inhabitants drew their drinking water from nearby springs and irrigated some of their crops from the Na'amin River. They also engaged in allied activities, particularly plaiting mats and baskets from esparto grass. The chief crops of al-Damun were wheat, sorghum, barley, and olives, but it was also well known for its watermelons and cantaloupes.
In the 1945 statistics the population of al-Damun was 1,310; 1,240 Muslims and 70 Christians, The village's total land area was 20,357 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey. 709 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 17,052 used for cereals, while 111 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
Before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War the Haganah kept files on all the Palestinian villages. The 1947 entry for al-Damun listed 25 individuals suspected of involvement with the Palestinian nationalist movement. In April 1948 Haganah reports say that the son of the main local land-owner, Sadiq Karaman, paid the local ALA garrison P£5000 to leave, presumably in an attempt to keep the village from getting involved with the hostilities in the 1948 Palestine war.

### Israel

After the initial Israeli successes in the central Galilee during the first stage of Operation Dekel, units of the Haganah's Sheva Brigade moved westward and captured al-Damun, among other Arab localities, in the second stage of the operation on July 15–16, 1948. However, Palestinian historian, Aref al-Aref, dates its capture earlier in May 1948, following the fall of Acre. Israeli historian Benny Morris said that inhabitants were demoralized by the fall of Acre and then Nazareth, and so fled during the bombardment that preceded the attack on the village. The remaining residents were expelled and al-Damun itself was completely destroyed according to both historians.
Following the war the area was incorporated into the State of Israel. The village's land is used for agriculture by residents of the Yas'ur kibbutz, which itself was built on the land of al-Birwa. Al-Damun is among the Palestinian villages for which commemorative Marches of Return have taken place, typically as part of Nakba Day, such as the demonstrations organized by the Association for the Defence of the Rights of the Internally Displaced.
According to Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi in 1992, the site was "overgrown with thorns, cacti, olive trees, and pines. Stone and concrete rubble is scattered around it. The structure that formerly protected the central water source and regulated its flow stands untended and is collapsing in several places. The cemetery is extant, although the markers over a few graves are collapsing." British historian Andrew Petersen writes that the village had a number of eighteenth or nineteenth-century stone houses, some which had decorated facades.