The villages that emerged from the ashes
Palestinian villages and agricultural terraces of Beit Umm-el Mis, Saris and Deir Amr, were destroyed on 48’ - exposed by the massive forest wildfire in Jerusalem mountains.
In August 2021, after a long and hot summer affected by global warming, a massive wildfire spread in the Jerusalem mountains. The fire had consumed 14,000 Dunams of the Pine Forest of the Martyrs, planted in 1951 in memory of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust. Pine forests were vastly planted in Israel's early days while conquering the arid landscape. Many Palestinian villages destroyed in 48’ are buried below the greenery.
A day after the fire was set off, I conducted a survey of British Mandate maps to identify the locations of Nakba-destroyed villages within the fire zone - I went to the field, to capture the impressive man-made landscape within the ash - awakened for the first time since 1951. The extent of the emerging terraces was astonishing. Terrace marbled mountain slopes.
While the terraces were used by Palestinian farmers at 48’, their affiliation remains in dispute by the Israeli academy. Some researchers argue that the majority of terraces in Jerusalem mountains were constructed during the Iron Age - associated with the Kingdom of Judah, and therefore are Jewish heritage rather than Palestinian. In contrast, there is archaeological evidence that the early usage of terraces within Palestine occurred much earlier - at the Chalcolithic time in the Levant.
The ethnographic conflict in Israel is currently taking place on the ground at the botanical level. A battle which is a biological reflection of the geopolitical. Who would flourish and occupy the land after the disaster - would it be the tall foreign Pine that spreads its seeds from the crackling acorns? Or would it be the endemic that was hidden beneath the forest roof - the Olive, Fig, Almond, Pomegranate and Arbutus who miraculously started to bloom a few weeks after the fire?
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Full story Hebrew publication on 'Local Call'
A day after the massive wildfire that consumed the Pine Forest of the Martyrs, planted in 1951 in memory of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust - The old terraces, used by Palestinian villages before the Nakba, are exposed after decades. Many Palestinian villages destroyed in 48’ are buried below the Pine forests that were planted in Israel’s early days.
An agricultural terrace wall, below the village of Deir Amr. In 1942, the General Committee for Arab Orphans established an agricultural youth village in the small village. There were about 60 teenagers in the village whose fathers were killed in the Arab revolt against the British between 1936 and 1939. The village residents fled in 48’. Current Israeli Eitanim mental health centre was established over the Palestinian village.
Follow the path. Man Made landscape of agricultural terraces revealed by the fire. Some of the walls were destroyed by erosion over years of abandonment beneath the forest greenery. Israel’s new national open spaces management master plan, notes sites of agricultural heritage as conservation sites for tourism and leisure. No formal decision was made yet about the conservation of this impressive site, rather, the rehabilitation of the Pine Forest of the Martyrs planted in memory of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust is discussed.
Remains of the water factory in Ein esh Shargiya, who used to feed the terrace landscape with fresh spring water throughout the year. The spring is still sprouting.
A mountain slope marbled with terraces, which were last in use by the Palestinian village of Beit Umm El Meis -revealed from the lush cover of the forest due to the massive Jerusalem mountains wildfire, for the first time since 1951.
Cornerstones of a building in Beit Umm El Meis. The agricultural village population was 70 people in 1945, according to the British Mandate Villages Survey, and spread over 1013 Dunams. The residents fled in 48’. The destruction and erasure of hundreds of derelict villages abandoned in 48 occurred during the war as well as in operations in the 1950s designated to prevent their habitants to come back.
The geological Soreq formation is characterized by horizontal stone layers, forming natural terrace infrastructure. The construction of a stone wall over its edge allowed farmers to decrease soil erosion and increase rainwater penetration to the ground. The Soreq formation is common in most areas where terraces were identified in the Jerusalem mountains. Nature has a patent on terraces, at least in Jerusalem mountains - rather than humans, Jewish or Muslim.
Man Made landscape of agricultural terraces emerge from the burned landscape, stretching to the extent of the field of view. The terraces were used by the Palestinian village of Beit Umm El Meis and were supplied with water from Ein esh Shargiya, located nearby the white shed in the picture, at the outskirts of Israeli village Ramat Raziel built over the ridge line.