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Barfiliya () was a Palestinian village located east of Ramla that was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Located on a tell, excavations conducted there by archaeologists beginning in 1995 found artifacts dating back to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) period (circa 9,500-8,000 BCE).
Barfiliya lay on a road between Jerusalem and Lod that was built in Roman times. In the early Ottoman Empire era, it was a small village of 44 inhabitants. By 1945, before the end of the Mandatory Palestine and the outbreak of 1948 Arab–Israeli War, its population had grown to 730. Depopulated on July 14, 1948, Barifiliya was subsequently destroyed.
In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village, Burfilia, in the Ibn Humar area in the District of Er-Ramleh.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 121Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, p. 57 In 1863, Victor Guérin found the village to have 150 inhabitants.Guérin, 1868, p. 336
An official Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that "Berfilija" had 28 houses and a population of 175, though the population count included only men.Socin, 1879, p. 145Hartmann, 1883, p. 140 also noted 28 houses In the late 19th century, Barfiliya is described as a small hamlet, situated on a slope, above a valley. The villagers cultivated .Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 15 Quoted in Khalidi, p.361
During the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I, in the lead up to the 1917 Battle of El Burj, the Australian Light Horse Brigades led by Major-General Hodgson reached Barfiliya on November 28–29 in an effort to relieve Commonwealth troops in their battles against German and Turkish troops.
Still under Mandatory rule in the 1945 statistics, the village comprised a total area of 7,134 Dunam, and the population was entirely Muslim. A large number of inhabitants were employed in cereal farming. However, some land was allocated to irrigation and plantation as well as the growing of olives.
Types of land use in by Arabs in 1945:Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 114Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 164
The land ownership of the village before occupation in :
17 dunams were classified as built-up public areas.
Barfiliya itself was depopulated as a result of a military assault by forces on July 14, 1948. It was captured by the 8th Armoured Brigade and by elements of the Kiryati Brigade along with other villages in the area north of the Latrun enclave.Herzog and Gazit, 2004, p. 83. On September 13, David Ben-Gurion requested the destruction of Barfiliya, among other Palestinian villages whose inhabitants fled or were expelled.Sa'di and Abu-Lughod, 2007, p. 37. Ben-Gurion wrote: "because of a lack of manpower to occupt the area in depth ... there was a need to partially destroy the following villages: 1. Al-Safiriyya 2. Al-Haditha 3. Innaba 4. Daniyal 5. Jimzu 6. Kafr 'Ana 7. Al Yahudiya 8. Barfiliya 9. Al Barriya 10. Al-Qubab 11. Beit Nabala 12. Dayr Tarif 13. At Tira 13. Qula." Also quoted in Morris, 2004, p. 354. All 58 Palestinian villages in the al-Ramla district that came under Israeli control were depopulated in 1948, and those mentioned in Ben-Gurion's memorandum were either partially or totally destroyed.Sa'di and Abu-Lughod, 2007, p. 37
241 191 2,739 17 2,980 4,137 7,130 0 4 7,134
1948 war and aftermath
During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Barfiliya briefly became a destination for Palestinian refugees from Lydda. One survivor of the 1948 Palestinian expulsion from Lydda and Ramle, Haj As'ad Hassouneh, reports that when Jews came to Lydda in July 1948, they called the people together and told them to, "Go to Barfiliya," where the Arab Legion was still stationed.Shapira and Abel, 2008, p. 229. Only one or two knew where Barfiliya was, and though the distance could usually be travelled in about 4 hours, it took the group made up of men, women, children, the elderly, the sick, among others, three days to make the journey. In the hot, dry summer, without adequate provisions, many died of thirst along the way.Benvenisti et al., 2007, pp. 70-71.
Archaeology
The village of Barfiliya stood on a large tell, considered one potential site for ancient Be'eroth (the other possibilities being the tells of Daniyal or Jimzu).Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Congress of Orientalists, p. 595. Since 1995, Shimon Gibson and Egon Lass have conducted salvage excavations in the hills of Modi'in in units of land belonging to "one of the main ancient settlements in the region," identified by Gibson as having been in "Khirbet el-Burj (Titura), Bir Ma'in (Re'ut) and Berfilya." Archaeological remains of ancient human activities are designated 'features' and numbered accordingly. The landscape archaeology survey and excavations to date have idenitifed the following features: "farm buildings, towers, , sherd scatters, PPNA flint scatters, roads, terraces, stone boundaries, stone clearance heaps, threshing floors, caves, tombs, , cupmarks, stone quarries, lime , and charcoal burners."Gibson, Spring 1999, pp. 16-17.
Bibliography
(2025). 9781853675850, Greenhill. ISBN 9781853675850
(1977). 9783920405414, Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. . ISBN 9783920405414
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