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Imwas or Emmaus (), known in classical times as Nicopolis (), is a former Palestinians village Ethnic cleansing by Israel, located southeast of the city of Ramla and from Jerusalem in the Latrun salient of the West Bank.Wareham and Gill (1998), p. 108. It is traditionally (possibly from as early as the 3rd century, but probably incorrectly) identified with the biblical Emmaus. In 1967, the village's population was expelled and its buildings razed by Israeli forces as part of the Naksa during the Six-Day War.
After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Imwas fell under Jordanian rule. Its population at the time was predominantly Muslim although there was a Palestinian Christian minority. During the 1967 Six-Day War, IDF troops ethnically cleansedMundinger, Ulla (2017). "Walking on Ruins: The Untold Story of Yalu." Jerusalem Quarterly 69: 22.Davis, Uri (2004). Apartheid Israel and the Jewish National Fund of Canada: The Story of 'Imwas, Yalu, Beit Nuba and Canada Park, lecture held on 24 September 2004 at Carleton University. Posted with a foreword on 24 September 2004. Re-accessed 8 July 2025.Petersen, Kim. "Canada: The Honest Broker?"Kanj, Jamal Krayem (2010). Children of catastrophe: Journey from a Palestinian refugee camp to America. Garnet Publishing Ltd. Emwas and the village structures were destroyed, forming a part of the larger Naksa. Imwas and the area surrounding Latrun were unilaterally 'annexed' by Israel along with the neighbouring villages of Yalo and Bayt Nuba. Today the area of the former village lies within Canada Park, which was established by the Jewish National Fund in 1973.
In the time of Jerome, the Semitic name of Emmaus Nicopolis was ʿAmmaôs or ʿEmmaus, both beginning with an ayin (ʿ). Following Clermont-Ganneau, Moshe Sharon argued that the Arabic language name more faithfully approximates the town's original ancient name when compared against the name as transcribed in the Talmud, where it begins with an aleph (ʾ). Kitchener and Conder suggested the name Emmaus is derived from the Biblical Hebrew ḥammat, a thermal spring.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP III, p. 36-37
According to a tradition held by local in the 19th century, the village's name is related to an epidemic that killed the ancient Jews inhabitants of the village, but they were miraculously brought back to life after Uzair's visited the place and prayed to God to revive the victims. The fellahin described the pestilience as amm-mou-asa, which according to Clermont-Ganneau, roughly means "it was extended generally and was an affliction". Clermont-Ganneau thought this local etymology was "evidently artificial".C. Clermont-Ganneau, "Letters: VII-X," Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement 6.3 (July 1874): p. 162
Edward Robinson relates that its inhabitants were enslaved by Gaius Cassius Longinus while Josephus relates that the city, called Άμμoὺς, was burned to the ground by Publius Quinctilius Varus after the death of Herod the Great in 4 BCE.Robinson and Smith, 1856, p. 147Bromiley, 1982, p. 77.
Imwas has been identified as the site of ancient Emmaus, where according to the Gospel of Luke (24:13-35), Jesus appeared to a group of his disciples, including Cleopas, after his death and resurrection.Pringle, 1993, p. 52
Reduced to a small market town, its importance was recognized by the Emperor Vespasian, who established a fortified camp there in 68 CE to house Legio V Macedonica, populating it with 800 veterans.Josephus, The Jewish War Bk 7,6:6. In 131 CE, the city was destroyed by an earthquake. It was rebuilt and renamed Nicopolis ("City of Victory") by Elagabalus in 221 CE, becoming the chief polis in a region that bore its name.Negev and Gibson, 2005, p. 159. Robinson writes that the town was rebuilt "by the exertions of the writer Julius Africanus." In 222 CE, a basilica was erected there, which was rebuilt first by the Byzantines and later by the Crusaders.
In the 4th century, the city served as an episcopal see. Remains of a Samaritan synagogue — including a limestone capital carved with two inscriptions, one in Hebrew (ברוך שמו לעולם, "Blessed be His Name forever") and the other in Greek (EIC ΘEOC, "One God")Barag, 2009, pp. 311–314 — indicate the presence of a Samaritan community in Emmaus-Nicopolis.
Described by Eusebius in his Onomasticon, Jerome is also thought to have referred to the town and the building of a shrine-church therein, when he writes that the Lord "consecrated the house of Cleopas as a church." In the 5th century, a second tradition associated with Emmaus emerges in the writings of Sozomen, who mentions a fountain outside the city where Jesus and his disciples bathed their feet, thus imbuing it with curative powers.
The governmental framework of the Byzantine rule was preserved, though a commander-in-chief/governor-general was appointed from among the new conquerors to head the government, combining executive, judicial and military roles in his person.Hitti, 2002, p. 424]
In 639, the Plague of Amwas began and spread from there, killing some 20,000 people, including the commander-in-chief Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah and his successor, Yazid. The Rashid Caliph Umar appointed Yazid's younger brother Mu'awiya to the position of commander-in-chief in 640, and he served as the governor of Syria for 20 years before becoming the Umayyad caliph.Hitti, 2002, p. 425Al-Baladhuri, 1916, p. 215 Studies on the impact of the plague note that it was responsible for a massive depopulation of the countryside, with the consequence that the new Arab rulers, particularly under the subsequent Umayyad Caliphate, were prompted to intervene more directly in the affairs of these areas than they had intended.Bray, 2004, p. 40 Until as late as the 19th century, a well in the village was known locally as "The Plague Well" (بئر الطاعون), its name suggesting a derivation from these events.Sharon, 1997, p. 80
In 723, Saint Willibald visited Imwas. He was the son of West Saxon Richard the Pilgrim and Wuna of Wessex, brother of Winnibald and Saint Walpurga, all of them canonised by the Church. Later Willibald's uncle (his mother's brother), Saint Boniface, recruited his nephews in Rome to assist him in evangelizing the still-pagan Germans. Willibald eventually became the first bishop of Eichstätt. In his writings, he notes that the church, which he thought lay over the house of Cleopas, was still intact; he also recalls and describes the miraculous water source mentioned by Sozomen.Thiede and D'Ancona, 2005, p. 59. Hygeburg of Heidenheim, Bavaria, a nun who visited Palestine in the 8th century, mentions both the church and the fountain in Imwas in her work on The Life of St. Willibald.
By 1009, the church in Imwas had been destroyed by Yaruk, the governor of Ramla, after the Fatimid caliph of Egypt, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, ordered the destruction of Christian sites, affecting some 30,000 churches in the territory under his rule. Carsten Peter Thiede describes this destruction and other acts of suppression against Christian worship as one of the main impetuses behind the First Crusade, in which, "Saving Christian sites and guaranteeing access to them was paramount."
Imwas was likely abandoned by Crusaders in 1187 and unlike the neighboring villages of Beit Nuba, Yalo, Yazur and Latrun, it is not mentioned in chronicles describing the Third Crusade of 1191-2, and it is unclear whether it was reoccupied by the Hospitallers between 1229 and 1244. The village was re-established just north of where the church had been located.
In 1863, Victor Guérin visited and identified it as ancient Emmaus Nicopolis.Guérin, 1868, pp. 293-308
Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau also visited Imwas in the late 19th century and describes a local tradition centered around a Thermae dating to the Roman era. The upper part of the structure, which protruded above the ground, was known to locals as "Sheikh Obaid" and was considered to be the burial place of Abu Ubayd who succumbed to the plague in 639. The site served as both a religious sanctuary and cemetery until the town's Nakba.Clermont-Ganneau, 1899, pp. 483-493
In 1875, the of Bethlehem acquired the site containing the ruins of the church of Imwas. The debris was removed in 1887-8, and excavations were conducted intermittently from November 1924 to September 1930 by the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem. In 1884, Conrad Schick discovered a baptistry with a well-preserved font dating to the 4th century. The square building housed an apse and a shallow cruciform basin where it is thought that those undergoing baptismal rites would stand.Schick, 1884, p. 15; cited in Driver et al., 2006, p. 325
In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Imwas as an adobe village, of moderate size.Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 14
In the 1945 statistics the population of Imwas was 1,450, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 29 while the total land area was 5,151 , according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 66 Of this, 606 dunams were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 3,612 for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 115 while 148 dunams were classified as built-up areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 165 By 1948, the population had dwindled to 1,100 Arabs.
After the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Imwas came under Jordanian control.
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,955 inhabitants in Imwas.Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 24
Villagers from Imwas, together with those of Yalo and Beit Nuba, numbering some 8,000, were ordered by megaphone to abandon their homes and march towards Ramallah, 32 kilometres away. Ten elderly villagers refused to leave and were never heard of again, and were presumed to have been shot or to have been buried under the demolition rubble. This exodus from the Latrun zone, during which 4 villagers died, presented a public relations problem. According to one oral account by a refugee, one week after the expulsion, villagers heard over Israeli radio that they would be allowed to return to the enclave in peace. Those in the West Bank who tried to get back found the villages surrounded by tanks, and heard that a military order had rescinded the earlier decision, and could only stand by and watch as their houses were razed. The order, in violation of Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, came from Yitzhak Rabin. In his memoirs Dayan recalled that "(Houses were destroyed) not in battle, but as punishment . . in order to chase away the inhabitants." In response to the public relations problem, Dayan eventually agreed to allow those from Qalqiliya, Habla and Zeta to return to their homes if it was agreed in turn to block the return of the inhabitants of the Latrun villages.Tom Segev, 1967, Abacus Books 2007 pp.489-490. Israel newspapers of the day depicted the flight as voluntary. Israel further justified the decision by claiming that its residents had taken part in the Siege of Jerusalem two decades earlier, and that they had been present in an attack by commandos on Lod just days before the village was taken. Dayan stated that the Latrun area fellahin were themselves not responsible for Jordanian shelling from that area during the Six Day War. The decision to destroy the houses was explained to soldiers operating there as necessary in order to "punish the nest of murderers" and stop housing infrastructure from being used in future for terrorist bases. Central Command orders issued to soldiers at the time described the 1948 failure, and the 1967 success in the following way, by writing of:
In August of that year, villagers were told that they return could pick up their stored harvests with trucks. The residents of the three villages then formed a committee to negotiate their return. The villagers' request that Israel allow their leaders, who had fled to Amman, to return and negotiate on their behalf, was turned down by Dayan. Israel offered monetary compensation for the destruction of homes and the expropriation of lands. One committee leader, the father of Abu Gaush replied:
Since 2003, the Israeli NGO Zochrot ('Remember' in Hebrew) has lobbied the Jewish National Fund for permission to post signs designating the Palestinian villages in Canada Park. After petitioning the Israeli High Court,, Zochrot permission was granted. However, subsequently the signs have been stolen or vandalized. On June 23, 2007, Zochrot joined the refugees of the village Imwas for a tour of the remains of their village., Zochrot
The destruction of Imwas and the other Latrun villages of Yalo and Beit Nuba is mentioned by Palestinian novelist Emile Habibi in his famous novel The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist.Habibi, Emile, The Secret Life of Saeed the Pessoptimist, Arabia Books, London, 2010 ( Chapter 36)
Emwas, restoring memories is a recent documentary film in which the filmmaker makes a 3D model of the town using expertise and interviews with people who survived the exodus.Maude Girard, 25 May 2018, Orient XXI, Le festival Ciné Palestine s’engage auprès des réalisateurs
History
Classical antiquity
Emmaus is mentioned in the first Book of the Maccabees as the site where Judas Maccabeus defeated the Syrian Seleucid general Gorgias in the 2nd century BCE and subsequently fortified by General Bacchides in 160 BCE. It replaced Gezer as the head of a toparchy in 47 BCE.
Early Muslim period
Rashidun and Umayyad periods
After the conquest of Palestine by forces of the Rashidun Caliphate in the 7th century, a military camp was established at ʿImwas, which formed part of the newly created administrative district of Jund al-Urdunn. This jund or military camp, among others established in Tiberias and Homs, was made up of Arab soldiers, who were soon to become citizens of the newly conquered areas. The soldiers brought their wives and to the camps, some of whom, according to Philip K. Hitti, were no doubt captured native women.
Abbasid and Fatimid periods
By the 9th century, the administrative districts had been redrawn and Imwas was the capital of a sub-district within the larger district of Jund Filastin.Gil, 1997, p. 111 The geographer al-Maqdisi (c. 945-1000) recalls that ʿImwas had been the capital of its province, while noting, "that the population was removed therefrom to be nearer to the sea, and more in the plain, on account of the ."Al-Maqdisi quoted in le Strange, 1890, p.393.
Crusader period
William of Tyre, describing the arrival of the armies of the First Crusade to Imwas from Ramla in 1099, notes the abundance of water and fodder available at the site. Throughout the 12th century, Imwas continued to be identified as the Biblical Emmaus by Eastern Orthodox Christians. For example, in 1106-7, Daniel Kievsky writes of Imwas: "Once there was a large village here, and a church was built here, but now all is destroyed by the pagans and the village of Emmaus is empty. It was near the road beyond the mountains on the right hand as you go from Jerusalem to Jaffa." John Phocas (c. 1185) also located Emmaus in the same position. Conversely, Western sources in the late 12th century identified Biblical Emmaus with another village closer to Jerusalem: Qaryat al-'Inab or Abu Ghosh. Denys Pringle and Peter E. Leach attribute the reasons for this shift as stemming from a difference in the description of the distance between Emmaus and Jerusalem in the Gospel texts, versus the distance as transcribed in the earliest Greek Gospel codices. In the Gospel texts, more widely embraced by the West, the distance is transcribed as 60 stades, whereas the Codex Sinaiticus, which was known to Eusebius and Jerome, places the distance at 160 stades.Pringle, 1993, p. 53Brownrigg, 2001, p. 49.
The identification of Biblical Emmaus with two villages in the 12th century has led to some confusion among modern historians when apprehending historical documents from this time. Generally speaking, however, Abu Ghosh was referred to by the Latin Biblical name for Emmaus, Castellum Emmaus, whereas Imwas was referred to simply as Emmaus. In 1141, Robert of Sinjil leased the "land of Emmaus", which included Imwas and six other villages, to Raymond of Le Puy, the master of the Hospitallers for 500 a year.Röhricht, 1893, RRH, p. 50, No 201; cited in Pringle, 1993, p. 53 The same year, William, the Patriarch of Jerusalem granted half of the tithes from six surrounding villages to the Hospitallers, one of these villages was nearby Khulda.de Roziére, 1849, pp. 219-220, No. 117; cited in Röhricht, 1893, RRH, p. 51, No 205; cited in Pringle, 1993, p. 53 In February 1151 or 1152 the Hospitallers were still leasing, but the terms of the lease were modified.Röhricht, 1893, RRH, pp. 61-62, No 244; p. 65, No 257; p. 69, No 274; all cited in Pringle, 1993, p. 53 An 1186 reference to a "bailiff of Emmaus" named Bartholomew suggests that the Hospitallers had a commandery in Imwas.Röhricht, 1893, RRH, p. 172, No 649; cited in Pringle, 1993, p. 53 There is also archaeological and documentary evidence that suggests that the local Eastern Christian population continued to live in Imwas during this time, and likely attended services alongside the Crusaders at the parish church dedicated to St. George which was constructed in the village by the latter on the site of the ruins of the earlier churches.Levy, 1998, p. 508.Thiede and D'Ancona, 2005, p. 60
Mamluk period
The Maqam of Sheikh Mu'alla had an endowment text (now lost), dating it to 687 AH/1289-1290 CE.Sharon (1997), p. 84 Clermont-Ganneau described it:
Ottoman period
Early Ottoman period
Imwas came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the early 16th century and by the end of that century, the church built by the Crusaders had been converted into a mosque, which itself stood for almost a century before falling into ruin. In the 1596 Defter its population was reported as 24 Muslim families. They paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 3,600 akçe. Part of the revenue went to a waqf.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 153
Late Ottoman period
Edward Robinson visited Imwas during his mid-19th century travels in Ottoman Syria Syria and Palestine. He describes it as "a poor hamlet consisting of a few mean houses." He also mentions that there are two fountains of living water and that the one lying just beside the village must be that mentioned by Sozomen in the 5th century, Theophanes in the 6th, and by Willibald in the 8th.Robinson and Smith, 1856, p. 146 The ruins of the "ancient church" are described by Robinson as lying just south of the built-up area of the village at that time.
British Mandate period
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Imwas had a population of 824, all Muslim.Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p. 15 This had increased by the time of the 1931 census to 1,029, 2 Christians and 1,027 Muslim, in 224 houses.Mills, 1932, p. 40.
Jordanian period
During the 1948 Palestine War, the village held strategic importance due to its location on the Latrun salient, affording control over the road to Jerusalem. Arab Liberation Army forces were there from April to the middle of May until the arrival of the Arab Legion. Israeli forces attacked the position several times but failed to gain control during the Battle of Latrun.Morris, 2008, see Latrun and Imwas in the index.
Destruction and expulsion of residents
The town, defended by a few Jordanian and Egyptian units, was overrun in June 1967. It's residents were expelled as part of the 1967 Palestinian expulsions and the village was destroyed on the orders of Yitzhak Rabin.
'terms of disappointment, terms of a long and painful account, which has now been settled to the last cent. Houses suddenly left. Intact. With their potted geraniums, their grapevines climbing up the balconies. The smell-of wood-burning ovens still in the air. Elderly people who have nothing more to lose, slowly straggling along.,'
"We will not accept all the money in the world for one dunam in Imwas, and we will not accept one dunum in heaven for one dunam in Inwas!"
According to his son, he was told by his Israeli interlocutors that he had three choices: to share the fate of Sheikh Abdul Hameed Al Sayeh, the first Palestinian to be exiled by Israel after the beginning of the 1967 occupation, after he spoke up for the inalienable right of return of Palestinians; or he could choose to go to prison, or, finally, he could suck on something sweet and keep quiet; In all cases no one was allowed to return.Rich Wiles, " Behind the Wall: Life, Love, and Struggle in Palestine," Potomac Books, Inc., 2010, pp. 17-24. One descendant of the expelled villagers said her father told her they were threatened with prison if they did not agree to compensationOren, 2002, p. 307Mayhew and Adams, 2006.Tom Segev, 2007, pp. 407–409 An Imwas Human Society now campaigns for the expelled villagers' rights and publicizes what they call the war crimes committed in the Latrun Enclave.
Aftermath and the site today
In 1973 the Jewish National Fund in Canada raised $5 million to establish a picnic park for Israelis in the area, which it created and still maintains. It descrfibes the area as:-
"one of the largest parks in Israel, covering an area of 7,500 acres in the biblical Ayalon Valley. At peak season, some 30,000 individuals visit the site each day,. enjoying its many play and recreational facilities and installations."
Artistic representations
Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour made Imwas the subject of one of his paintings. The work, named for the village, was one of a series of four on destroyed Palestinian villages that he produced in 1988; the others being Yalo, Bayt Dajan and Yibna.Ankori, 2006, p. 82
See also
Bibliography
(2026). 9780415260367, Routledge. ISBN 9780415260367
(1977). 9783920405414, Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. . ISBN 9783920405414
(2026). 9781904955191, Signal Books. ISBN 9781904955191
(2026). 9780826485717, Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 9780826485717
(2026). 9780826467973, Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 9780826467973
(1998). 9781853112126, SCM-Canterbury Press Ltd.. ISBN 9781853112126
External links
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