Al - Birwa Al - Birwa ( , " al - Birweh " ) was a Palestinian Arab village , located east of Acre ( Akka ) . Mentioned by Arab geographers in the 11th century , it was known to the Crusaders as " Broet " . Al - Birwa was captured from the Mamluk s by the Ottomans in the 16th century . In the 19th century , it had a mosque , a church , and an elementary school for boys . A school for girls was built during the British Mandate . During the 1948 Arab - Israeli war , al - Birwa was occupied by the Israel Defense Forces . The inhabitants fled to nearby villages or refugee camps in Lebanon . Kibbutz Yas ' ur and Moshav Ahihud were established on the lands of al - Birwa in 1949 and 1950 . History . The Persian geographer Nasir Khusraw visited al - Birwa in 1047 while it was under Fatimid rule . He describes it as lying " between Acre and Damun , " and reports having visited what he described as the tombs of Simeon and Esau there . While under Crusader rule , al - Birwa was called " Broet " . It was mentioned as part of the domain of the Crusaders during the hudna between the Crusaders based in Acre and the Mamluk sultan al - Mansur ( Qalawun ) declared in 1283 . In the late 12th and early 13th centuries , it came under Mamluk rule after the defeat of the Crusaders . The Ottomans ruled from 1517 , after the village was captured in the Battle of Marj Dabiq . In 1596 , al - Birwa was a small village in the " nahiya " ( " subdistrict " ) of Akka , part of the " sanjak " ( " district " ) of Safad . Most of the houses were built of stone and mud . The village paid taxes on wheat , barley , fruit , beehives , and goats . In the 19th century , al - Birwa grew to be a large village , with a well in its southern area . To the north , lay " beautiful olive - groves and fruitful wheatfields , " as they were described by one Western traveller to the region in the mid - 19th century . Edward Robinson , also writing at this time , lists al - Birwa as one of 18 villages in Palestine with an operating ( Eastern Orthodox ) Christian church . In 1888 , the Ottomans built an elementary school for boys . British Mandate period . 130 Christians lived in the village during the British Mandate period . Cement roofs were added at this time and the main source of income was agriculture . Cultivated crops included , olives , wheat , barley , corn , sesame , and watermelons . There were three olive presses , a mosque and a church . In 1936 , the inhabitants of al - Birwa participated in the 1936 - 1939 Arab revolt in Palestine . The commander of the revolt in the Lower Galilee region , Sheikh Yihya Hawash , was from al - Birwa . He was arrested by the British and sentenced to life imprisonment . The British also executed eight villagers from al - Birwa who had participated in the revolt . Prominent families and landowners included the Saads , Darwiche , Abdullah , Kayal , Sakas , al - Wakid , al - Joudi , Najm , al - Dabdoub , Khalid , Akawi , Hissian , Hawash and al - Sheikha . The Mougrabis , Adlabis and al - Zayyats were tenant farmers who served as mediators for nearby villages when feuds occurred . In the late 1940s , Birwa had 600 head of cattle , 3 , 000 goats and 1 , 000 chickens . An elementary school for girls was established in 1943 . Al - Birwa was the birthplace and childhood residence of the poet Mahmoud Darwish . 1948 war and aftermath . Israeli forces of the Carmeli Brigade first captured al - Birwa and positions overlooking it on June 11 , 1948 in the wake of Operation Ben - Ami , a day before the first truce of the 1948 Arab - Israeli War . During the fighting , 45 elderly residents hid in the church with the priest . The defenders of the village surrendered after losing men and running out of ammunition . The residents took refuge in nearby villages for thirteen days . Nevertheless , clashes continued during the truce . According to local militiamen from al - Birwa , 96 men from the village all armed with rifles , and an equal amount of unarmed men and women assembled near the front lines of the Arab Liberation Army ( ALA ) . They claimed the ALA did not participate since they were not ordered to by their superiors . The rifle armed local force charged first across the front lines shouting , then the unarmed men with axes , shovels , and sticks , followed by the women who carried water to help the wounded . They took the small Haganah force by surprise and forced them back a kilometer west of al - Birwa , and then harvested their crops . They remained in the village until June 24 , when ALA commanders suggested they join their families in the nearby villages . Israelis announced that they had battled ALA units in the area , inflicting 100 casualties on June 25 . The " New York Times " reported there was fighting in the village for two days and United Nations observers were there investigating truce violations . It added that " a small Israeli garrison held al - Birwa prior to the [ first ] truce " , but it fell to ALA troops based in Nazareth who launched a surprise attack . Some residents camped in the outskirts of the village and occasionally managed to enter and gather personal belongings . After the end of the first truce in mid - July , al - Birwa was captured by Israel in Operation Dekel . The ALA continued to fight Israeli forces for its recapture , but by July 18 , it was firmly behind Israeli lines . On August 20 , 1948 , the Jewish National Fund called for building a settlement on some of the village lands , and on January 6 , 1949 , Yas ' ur , a kibbutz , was established . In 1950 , the moshav of Ahihud was inaugurated on the western village lands . According to Walid Khalidi , one of the schools , two shrines for local sages , and three houses remained standing today . One of the shrines is made of stone and has a dome . Most of the structures stand amid cactuses , weeds , olive and fig groves , and mulberry trees . Most of al - Birwa ' s inhabitants fled to the nearby Arab towns and villages including Tamra , Kabul and other localities . Some fled to Lebanon , and ended up in the Shatila refugee camp , Beirut , where Palestinian historian Nafez Nazzal interviewed them in 1973 . After the establishment of Israel , in 1950 , Arab Knesset member Tawfik Toubi raised the issue of the internally displaced refugees of al - Birwa in the Israeli Knesset , demanding that they be allowed to return to their homes . David Ben - Gurion , then Prime Minister of Israel , replied in the negative , stating , " The questioner presented the facts inaccurately . Birwa is an abandoned village which was destroyed in the fighting . Its inhabitants cooperated with Kaukji ' s gangs . The Israel Defense Forces and the government did not treat them as they deserved , but permitted them to remain in villages near Birwa , and to become residents of Israel . The government of Israel treats them as it does the other residents of Israel and those lacking means of subsistence . A special body was established to deal with these refugees , to resettle and rehabilitate them , not necessarily in their former villages , and the resettlement of the refugees in Nazareth has already begun . " In December 1951 , the village site was declared to be a closed area by the Military Government . The area remained under Martial Law until 1966 . Geography . Al - Birwa stood on a rocky hill , with an average elevation of 60 meters above sea level , overlooking the Acre plain . It was situated at the intersection of two highways — one leading to Acre and one towards Haifa . Located 10 . 5 kilometers east of Acre , other nearby localities include the destroyed village of Damun to the south , the surviving Arab towns of Jadeida to the northwest , Julis to the north , Sha ' ab to the east , and Majd al - Kurum to the northeast . It consisted of a total of 13 , 542 dunam s , of which 59 dunams were built - up areas . Cultivable land accounted for 77 % of the total land area . Orchards were planted on 1 , 548 dunams of which 1 , 500 were used for olive groves , while 8 , 457 were allotted to grains . The residents of the town sold 536 dunams to Jews , and most of the rest was Arab - owned . Demographics . According to Ottoman authorities , in 1596 , al - Birwa had 121 residents and Van Guerin recorded approximately 900 inhabitants in the 1880s . At the time of the 1922 census of Palestine , al - Birwa had a population of 735 Muslims and 72 Christians , mostly Orthodox Christians with a few Anglicans . By the 1931 census , this had increased to 904 Muslims and 92 Christians , in 224 occupied houses . The British land and population survey of 1945 counted 1330 Muslims and 130 Christians . Meron Benvenisti claimed there were 240 families living in the village , most of them Muslims , however , there were 100 Palestinian Christians . Of the families , 140 worked for the tenant farmers . At that time there were approximately 300 houses in al - Birwa . The main clans ( a group of families ) of the village were Kayyal , Darweesh , al - Moughrabi , al - Zayyat , and Idilbi . Archaeology . In October 2002 , a salvage excavation was conducted at the site on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority . Finds include a large building , numerous potsherds from the Late Roman period , a bronze coin from the first or second century CE , remains of an ancient olive press , glass vessels such as a wine goblet and bottles dated to the Late Byzantine and Umayyad periods ( seventh and first half of eighth centuries CE ) and an underground water reservoir A few potsherds from the Crusader and Mamluk periods were also found .