Al-Barriyya
title: "Al-Barriyya" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["arab-villages-depopulated-during-the-1948-arab–israeli-war", "district-of-ramla"] topic_path: "geography/israel" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Barriyya" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::data[format=table title="Infobox settlement"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Al-Barriyya |
| native_name | البريّة |
| native_name_lang | ar |
| etymology | The desert |
| pushpin_map | Mandatory Palestine |
| pushpin_mapsize | 200 |
| coordinates | |
| grid_name | Palestine grid |
| grid_position | 142/144 |
| subdivision_type | Geopolitical entity |
| subdivision_name | Mandatory Palestine |
| subdivision_type1 | Subdistrict |
| subdivision_name1 | Ramle |
| established_title1 | Date of depopulation |
| established_date1 | July 10–13, 1948 |
| established_title2 | Repopulated dates |
| unit_pref | dunam |
| area_total_dunam | 2,831 |
| area_footnotes | |
| population_as_of | 1945 |
| population_total | 510 |
| blank_name_sec1 | Cause(s) of depopulation |
| blank_info_sec1 | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
| blank3_name_sec1 | Current Localities |
| blank3_info_sec1 | Azarya, Beyt Chashmonay |
| :: |
| name = Al-Barriyya | native_name = البريّة | native_name_lang = ar | settlement_type = | etymology = The desert | pushpin_map = Mandatory Palestine | pushpin_map_caption = Location within Mandatory Palestine | image_map = | map_caption = A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Barriyya (click the buttons) | pushpin_mapsize = 200 | coordinates = | grid_name = Palestine grid | grid_position = 142/144 | subdivision_type = Geopolitical entity | subdivision_name = Mandatory Palestine | subdivision_type1 = Subdistrict | subdivision_name1 = Ramle | established_title1 = Date of depopulation | established_date1 = July 10–13, 1948 | established_title2 = Repopulated dates | unit_pref = dunam | area_total_dunam = 2,831 | area_footnotes = | population_as_of = 1945 | population_total = 510 | blank_name_sec1 = Cause(s) of depopulation | blank_info_sec1 = Military assault by Yishuv forces | blank3_name_sec1 = Current Localities | blank3_info_sec1 = Azarya, Beyt Chashmonay
Al-Barriyya was a Palestinian village in the Ramle Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on July 10, 1948, as part of Operation Dani. It was located 5.5 km southeast of Ramla, on the eastern bank of Wadi al-Barriyya.
The area of the destroyed village has been overbuilt by Beit Hashmonai.
History
The Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) noted in 1882 that: "The name Barriyeh, 'Desert,' applied to a village, is explained by the inhabitants to be due to their ancestors having about 50 years ago lived in Abu Shusheh, whence they were expelled by the other villagers, and had to settle in the 'Desert,' or 'Outer Part.' They own most of the gardens of Abu Shusheh at the present day. This information is obtained from Mr. Bergheim." While the name is recorded already in the 16th century, the literal etymology of "desert, outer part' is confirmed by modern comparative linguistics.
In 1860, Saintine described it as a "modern village", without any antiquities. In 1863 Victor Guérin noted that the village was situated on a low eminence, and "the few houses which compose it consist of roughly constructed huts."
An official Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that it had a total of 20 houses and a population of 72, though the population count included men, only.
In 1882, PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described as a small adobe hamlet, surrounded by cultivated land.
British Mandate era
After the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned and a Palestine mandate was accorded to Britain by the League of Nations. In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bariyeh had a population of 295 residents; all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 388, still all Muslims, in a total of 86 houses.
In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 510 Muslims while 55 dunams were classified as built-up public areas.
File:Innaba 1942.jpg|Al-Barriya 1942 Survey of Palestine 1:20,000 File:Al-Barriyya 1945.jpg|Al-Barriyya. Survey of Palestine. 1945. Scale 1:250,000 File:Lydda and Ramla area - 9 July 1948.PNG|Palestinian villages depopulated in the area around Lydda and Ramla (coloured in green)
1948, aftermath
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Al-Barriyya.jpg" caption="Women from [[Yiftach Brigade]] raising water from a [[cistern]] in Al-Barriyya. [[Operation Danny]], July 1948"] ::
The village was depopulated on July 10–13, 1948, after military assault by Israeli forces, as part of Operation Dani.
The Israeli settlements of Azarya and Beyt Chashmonay was constructed on village land.
In 1992 the village site was described: "The village site is mostly cleared and has been leveled except for one remaining stone house and fragments of the walls of two concrete houses with steel bars protruding from them".
References
Bibliography
References
- Palmer, 1881, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/265/mode/1up 265]
- Morris, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PR19 xix] village #245. Also gives cause of depopulation
- Department of Statistics, 1945, p. [http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p29.jpg 29]
- Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/al-Ramla/Page-066.jpg 66] {{Webarchive. link. (2016-03-03)
- Morris, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PR21 xxi], settlement #26.
- Khalidi, 1992, p. 362
- Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp02conduoft#page/444/mode/1up 444]
- Marom, Roy. (2023). "Early-Ottoman Palestinian Toponymy: A Linguistic Analysis of the (Micro-)Toponyms in Haseki Sultan’s Endowment Deed (1552)". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins.
- Saintine, 1860, p. [https://archive.org/stream/troisansenjude00saingoog#page/n44/mode/1up 31]
- Guérin, 1868, p. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongog01gu#page/56/mode/1up 56]
- Socin, 1879, p [https://archive.org/stream/zeitschriftdesde01deut#page/145/mode/1up 145]
- Hartmann, 1883, p. [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_BZobAQAAIAAJ#page/n948/mode/1up 140]
- Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SWPp.408.png 408]
- Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramleh, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n23/mode/1up 21]
- Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 18]
- with total of 2,831 dunums of land. Of this, 51 dunums of land were used for plantations and irrigable land, 2,627 dunums were used for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20II/al-Ramla/Page-114.jpg 114]
- Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/al-Ramla/Page-164.jpg 164]
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