# Dayr Tarif

Dayr Tarif was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on July 10, 1948.

## History

The site is identified with Bethariph, a place mentioned in Eusebius' Onomasticon, which was composed in the early 4th century CE. According to SWP; "South-west of the village are traces of ruins, cisterns, and 'rock-sunk' tombs, evidently Christian again, as connected with a monastery." Ceramics from the Byzantine era have been found here.

### Ottoman era

Dayr Tarif, 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 nahiya (subdistrict) of al-Ramla under the Liwa of Gaza, with a population of 49 households, an estimated 270 persons, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, vineyards, fruit trees, sesame, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 9,000 akçe.
According to Marom, in the 18th or early 19th centuries, residents of Qibya affiliated with the Yamani camp during the Qays and Yaman conflicts, alongside residents of Qibya and part of the residents of Bayt Nabala. They fought several skirmishes against rivals from Deir Abu Mash'al and Jayyous.
In 1838 Deir Tureif was among the villages Edward Robinson noted from the top of the White Mosque, Ramla.
In 1870, Victor Guérin estimated that the village had 400 inhabitants. He further noted ancient columns by the mosque. An Ottoman village list from about the same year found that the village had a population of 374, in a total of 93 houses, though the population count included men, only.
In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described the village as "A very small hamlet at the edge of the plain. This would seem to be the place called Betariph in the 'Onomasticon,' near Diospolis (Lod)."

### British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Dayr Tarif had a population of 836; all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 1,246, still all Muslims, in a total of 291 houses.
An elementary school was founded in 1920 and by 1947, it had 171 students.
In the 1945 statistics the population was 1,750, all Muslims, while the total land area was 8,756 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, a total of 1,410 dunams were used for citrus and bananas, 486 dunums were plantations or irrigated, 5,989 for cereals, while 51 dunams were classified as built-up public areas.
* Deir Tarif 1942 1:20,000
* Deir Tarif 1945 1:250,000
* Depopulated villages in the Ramle Subdistrict

### 1948, aftermath

Dayr Tarif was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on July 10, 1948, by the Ninth Commando Battalion of the Armored Brigade of Operation Dani. The village, with a population of 2,030, was defended by the Jordanian Army, but Dayr Tarif was mostly destroyed with the exception of its school, which serves as a stable. After it was conquered, the Palestinian population was expelled. The IDF asked for permission to destroy this village and a cluster of over a dozen others, after the commander Zvi Ayalon noted that they lacked sufficient manpower to occupy the area.
In 1992 the village site was described: "The site, covered with the debris of destroyed houses, is overgrown with thorns and other wild plants. A number of old olive and cypress trees are scattered across the site. The school building serves as a stable. Cotton and citrus are cultivated by Israelis on the surrounding lands."