page_title: Kafr Bir'im
section_title: Israeli rule
hierarchical_section_title: Kafr Bir'im / History / Israeli rule
caption_attribution_description: Some considerably newer ruins across the lawn from the ancient synagogue we went to visit in Bar Am, 3 km (2 mi) from the Lebanese border. Until 1948, this was the home of Aramean Maronite Christians, friends and allies of the Jews. During fighting with Arab armies here in the War of Independence, the Israeli commander asked them to evacuate, promising that they would be allowed to return in 2 weeks. They’re still waiting. And this even though the Israeli Supreme Court finally ruled in their favor. That was 6 years ago. We learned the story from a man who left his family picnic on the park lawn and came over to talk when he saw our interest in the unmarked ruins. Now, my husband loves to schmooze. One of his great joys in traveling is striking up conversations with the locals and learning a little about their lives. So here was a golden opportunity: a local who struck up a conversation with him. Our new friend, Shadi Khalloul, told us this used to be his family’s village. He identified himself as a Semitic Aramean Maronite Christian, and explained each of those terms in turn. His people aren’t Arabs, he told us. They’re a Semitic people who have lived since antiquity in the area that is now northern Israel and southern Lebanon. They have defended their land and kept their faith for 1,500 years. They held out against the Arabs -- newcomers to the Levant, who invaded from the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century CE, converting everyone in their path to Islam at the point of a scimitar and extending hegemony across the entire Middle East and North Africa. They held out against the the Ottomans from Turkey; and so on. The Aramaic alphabet was the ancestor of the present Hebrew one, and independently of Arabic script (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramaic_alphabet ). Arameans still worship in Aramaic, the language spoken here at the time their religion began, and have kept that language alive, just as Jews have kept Hebrew alive. In daily life, however, most of them use the local language of the country in which they live -- which means, for those remaining in this part of the Middle East, Arabic (indeed, they are often called Christian Arabs -- mistakenly, says Shadi). However, there is a recent movement to revive the use of Aramaic in daily life, which Shadi has been active in. He pointed us at his organization’s website, aramaic-center.com/aramaic.html . I wasn’t clear on why the villagers were not allowed to return after evacuating. I get the impression it was basically a case of ‘the fog of war’. And I can well imagine the villagers’ claim being unfairly lumped (both legally and in the popular perception) with the right of return for Palestinians, many of whom deserted their land with every expectation that after the Jews were “driven into the sea” by the overwhelming might of the surrounding Arab armies, they would get to return and reclaim not only their own land but the Jews’ too. We ran this story by various Israeli friends and family during the rest of our trip. Invariably they not only were familiar with the case (not surprisingly; see more of the saga at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kafr_Bir'im ) but agreed that it was a terrible injustice. The website of present-day Kibbutz Bar-Am also mentions the situation ( www.baram.org.il/public/htmls/articleeng.aspx?C2047=12329... ). When we toured the Israeli Supreme Court building (which included an excellent briefing on the Israeli legal system, as well as on the striking architecture), I asked our tour guide about the case. “How is it possible that the Supreme Court has ruled and yet the ruling hasn’t been carried out?” The idea that law enforcement personnel would -- or could -- simply choose to ignore an order of the Supreme Court was downright bewildering to us Americans. In the US, judges, although in many respects more limited in their scope and power than judges in the British legal system, have ample teeth to enforce their decisions -- up to and including jailing people for contempt of court. Her candid answer was that this is indeed a weakness of the Israeli system: the court just doesn’t have the muscle it needs. We stood and talked with our new Aramean Maronite friend at Bar Am until park closing time. His people will wait as long as it takes, he assured us. Meanwhile, I guess they come here to picnic, and visit the ruins of their homes, and tell their story to anyone who’ll listen.
context_page_description: Kafr Bir'im, also Kefr Berem, was a Palestinian Christian village in Mandatory Palestine, located in modern-day northern Israel, 4 kilometers south of the Lebanese border and 11.5 kilometers northwest of Safed. The village was situated 750 meters above sea level, with a church overlooking it at an elevation of 752 meters. The church was built on the ruins of an older church destroyed in the earthquake of 1837. In 1945, 710 people lived in Kafr Bir'im, most of them Christians. By 1992, the only standing structure was the church and belltower.
context_section_description: Kafr Bir'im was captured by the Haganah on October 31, 1948 during Operation Hiram. In November 1948 most of the inhabitants were expelled until the military operation was complete, and none were subsequently permitted to return. Today the villagers and their descendants number about 2,000 people in Israel. In addition, there are villagers and descendants in Lebanon and in western countries.
  In 1949, with cross-border infiltration a frequent occurrence, Israel did not allow the villagers to return to Bir'im on the grounds that Jewish settlement at the place would deter infiltration. Kibbutz Bar'am was established by demobilized soldiers on the lands of the village.
  In 1953, the residents of former Kafr Bir'im appealed to the Supreme Court of Israel to return to their village. The court ruled that the authorities must answer to why they were not allowed to return. On September 16, 1953 the village was razed and 1,170 hectares of land were expropriated by the state.
  The leader of Melkite Greek Catholics in Israel, Archbishop Georgios Hakim, alerted the Vatican and other church authorities, and the Israeli government offered the villagers compensation. Archbishop Hakim accepted compensation for the land belonging to the village church.
  In the summer of 1972, the villagers of Kafr Bir'im and Iqrit went back to repair their churches and refused to leave. Their action was supported by archbishop Hakim's successor, Archbishop Joseph Raya. The police removed them by force. The government barred the return of the villagers so as not to create a precedent. In August 1972, a large group of Israeli Jews went to Kafr Bir'im and Iqrit to show solidarity with the villagers. Several thousand turned out for a demonstration in Jerusalem. The Israeli authorities said most of the inhabitants of the village had received compensation for their losses, but the villagers said they had only been compensated for small portions of their holdings. In 1972, the government rescinded all "closed regions" laws in the country, but then reinstated these laws for the two villages Kafr Bir'im and Iqrit.
  This was met with criticism by the opposition parties. In the 1977 election campaign Menachem Begin, then leader of the right-wing Likud party, promised the villagers that they could return home if he was elected. This promise became a great embarrassment to him after he had won, and a decision on the issue was postponed as long as possible. It was left to his agriculture minister to reveal to the public that a special cabinet committee had decided that the villagers of Kafr Bir'im and Iqrit would not be allowed to return.
  The operational name of the Munich massacre of Israeli athletes in 1972 was named after this village and Iqrit.
  On the occasion of official visits to Israel by popes John Paul II in 2000 and Benedict XVI in 2009, the villagers made public appeals to the Vatican for help in their endeavour to return to Kafr Bir'im, but have so far remained unsuccessful.
caption: Ruins of the depopulated village
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