Ma'alul

Ma'alul lay in the Jezreel Valley, southwest of Nazareth, near the moshav of Nahalal.[2][1] It is cataloged as "north of Migdal HaEmek" and lies east of Timrat.[6][1] Today the former village site is blanketed by Keren HaHoresh Forest, and the physical remains are difficult to distinguish among the trees.[1]

Archaeological evidence in the area indicates settlement over a long span of time. The earliest finds date to approximately five thousand years ago, with further remains extending through the Byzantine period.[1] Finds mentioned in the available account include winepresses and a Hebrew inscription.[1] Reference entries describe Roman-period remains at Ma'alul, including a mausoleum known as Qaṣr al-Deir or Qaṣr al-Dayr.[2][7]

Several ancient identifications have been proposed for the site, though none is definitively settled. The Talmud identifies Nahalal—a town mentioned in the Hebrew Bible within the territory of the tribe of Zebulun—with Mahalol, which it associates with Ma'alul.[2] The precise site of biblical Nahalal remains disputed.[2][7]

Geographer Zev Vilnay, in his Legends of Galilee, Jordan and Sinai, identified Ma'alul with the ancient city of Nahalal, an identification reported by the Jerusalem Post.[8] Mako presents the connection to biblical Nahalal as a theory rather than an established fact and separately reports a tradition that the settlement carried the name Mahlul during the Mishnaic period.[1] Xnet/Ynet identifies the predecessor as the Jewish village of Mahlul mentioned in the Book of Joshua as a northern boundary marker of Zebulun's territory, a framing that differs from the more cautious reference accounts.[5]

The Vilnay account also preserved a local legend about a pious Ma'alul resident named Tartori, said to have traveled to Jerusalem every Sabbath to pray at the Temple.[8]

Ma'alul's land tenure under the British Mandate was complex and extensively documented. In 1921, the Palestine Land Development Company (Hakhsharat HaYishuv) purchased most of the village's land from the Sursuq family. A Central Zionist Archives catalog entry describes an arrangement for installment payments for the purchase of Ma'alul.[3][1] Mako reports that approximately 2,000 of the village's roughly 4,700 dunams remained outside that purchase.[1]

The 1945 Village Statistics recorded Ma'lul's total land area as 4,698 dunams, broken down as 1,949 dunams under Arab ownership, 2,719 under Jewish ownership, and 30 classified as Public, as of April 1, 1945.[9] Thus, approximately 58 percent of the village's land was recorded under Jewish ownership.[9] The British Mandate's 1945–46 Survey of Palestine cited "the case of the Ma'lul Arabs" as an illustration of the complexity of the land problem, without elaborating on the case's substance.[4]

The Central Zionist Archives catalogs numerous files related to Ma'alul from the 1920s through the early 1950s. These include 1927 correspondence concerning land leases and tenant lists; 1929–1930 correspondence between the Palestine Land Development Company and tenants who had not paid land rent; 1931 correspondence mainly concerning matters brought before courts; and files from 1932 to 1947 containing claims, receipts, correspondence, and legal proceedings involving the Jewish National Fund and Ma'alul residents.[3][10] Files dated 1945–1947, 1947–1949, and 1949–1951 are cataloged under headings concerning land transfer, but the entries do not specify the circumstances or parties involved.[10] An undated entry describes resident lists, a review of village lands, and court rulings concerning rights to them.[11] The catalog summaries do not establish the merits or outcomes of the disputes.

Ma'alul was captured and depopulated on or around July 15, 1948, during Israel's War of Independence.[1][5] The Jerusalem Post reports that the village's residents put up "harsh resistance" before the Golani Brigade broke the stalemate and recaptured the village on that date.[8] Residents subsequently moved primarily to Nazareth and nearby Yafia.[8][5]

Accounts of how the departure occurred differ significantly. Xnet/Ynet describes the events as an expulsion during Operation Dekel, followed by the destruction of the village houses.[5] Mako recounts the testimony of Ali Salah, a descendant, who said armed forces took control of the village's water sources, after which nearly all residents left on July 15 for Yafia, about two kilometers away, having been told they could return; he said the houses were blown up two days later.[1] Salah also said that five elderly residents who remained to watch the homes were killed in the demolition.[1] Mako additionally quotes a local heritage advocate who characterizes the residents as having fled rather than been expelled and states that there was no massacre, while acknowledging that the boundary between flight and expulsion is unclear in many cases.[1]

Writer Odeh Bisharat, born in 1956 to a family displaced from Ma'alul and resettled in Yafiah, recalled the community's delayed grief: the residents had not had time to mourn immediately, and only some six months later, once they had begun to settle in Yafiah, did the women go to a hilltop to rend their garments, throw dust on themselves, and weep.[12]

By the early twentieth century, Ma'alul was a mixed community of Muslim and Christian Arab residents. A British Mandate-era village plan recorded streets, houses, vegetation, and olive trees.[5] The village grew organically along the hillside: winding streets followed the natural slope, houses were grouped around internal courtyards, the small mosque stood on the northern edge, and two churches occupied large plots at the eastern edge.[5]

The 1945 Village Statistics listed the village as "Ma lal" and recorded an estimated population of 690, all classified as Arabs, a category encompassing Muslims, Christians, and Others.[9] The report cautions that locality-level estimates were less reliable than broader totals. Mako cites a British census conducted roughly a decade after the 1921 land purchase as recording 390 residents and 90 dwellings.[1] Xnet/Ynet reports that 800 Muslims and Christians lived in the village until 1948.[5]

Many of Ma'alul's residents were tenant farmers who remained in the village after most of its land was purchased in 1921.[1] The community included Muslims and Christians and had a mosque and two churches.[1][5] The churches' denominations are reported inconsistently: Xnet/Ynet identifies them as Catholic and Protestant, whereas Mako identifies them as Catholic and Orthodox.[1][5]

After the village was depopulated, the Jewish National Fund planted Keren HaHoresh Forest over the ruins.[5] Surviving landmarks include two churches, a deteriorating mosque, a spring, cemetery remains, and scattered building stones.[1][5] A military camp was established beside the remains, and Mako reports that an air-force base was later established on the village's outskirts and over part of the cemetery.[1][5] Xnet/Ynet states that the religious buildings and cemetery were initially left standing, while Mako reports the later encroachment on part of the cemetery.[1][5]

Descendants of former residents have continued to hold religious services and gatherings at the surviving churches.[1] Xnet/Ynet describes the restoration of one church with funding from village families and says the restored building was permitted to open once a year at Easter, subject to army authorization.[5] Mako reports an annual march and prayer around Easter and a separate commemoration of the day residents departed, when security conditions allow.[1] As of Mako's August 2025 publication, gatherings had not been held for the preceding two years because of war and security restrictions on access to the area.[1] Younger descendants have also prepared a proposed return plan based on the British Mandate-era village plan, though this remained a proposal rather than an implemented project.[5]

Ma'alul's history touches on several contested historical questions. The identification of the site with biblical Nahalal or Talmudic Mahalol is uncertain, with the precise location of Nahalal remaining disputed.[2][7] The official 1945 statistics give an estimated population of 690, while a British census cited by Mako recorded 390.[9][1] Xnet/Ynet reports 800 residents up to 1948.[5] These figures refer to differing or imprecisely stated dates and cannot be directly reconciled from the available reports. The denomination of the second church is likewise reported as Orthodox by Mako and Protestant by Xnet/Ynet.[1][5]

The circumstances of the July 1948 departure are the most sensitive contested dimension. The available reports range from describing an expulsion during a military operation, to a departure following the loss of water access and a promise of return, to flight prompted by wartime conditions.[1][5] Central Zionist Archives land-transfer files spanning 1945 to 1951 are cataloged but not reproduced, so their precise legal and administrative circumstances cannot be established from the catalog entries.[10][11] The 1945–46 British survey described the Ma'lul Arabs' situation as an illustration of the complexity of the land problem without elaborating further.[4]