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Eilabun (Arabic: عيلبون Ailabun, Hebrew: עַילַבּוּן, עֵילַבּוּן) is an Israeli-Arab local council in Israel's North District, located in the Bet Netofa Valley. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, Eilabun had a population of 4,400 inhabitants in 2005.[1] The population is predominantly Christian. In 1973, Eilabun achieved local council status by the Israeli government.[2]
[edit] History
Eilabun was built on the the ancient site of Ailabu (Hebrew: עַיְלַבּוּ), a possible variation of the name Ein Levon.[3] The modern town was founded by Christian Arab farmers from the town of Deir Hanna in the 19th Century.[2]
[edit] 1948 War
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Israel's Golani Brigade's 12th Battalion captured Eilabun on October 30, 1948 - during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War - from the Arab Liberation Army (ALA). After the town's surrender, negotiated by four priests, the commander of the Golani troops selected 12 young men and had them executed, in what is known as the Eilabun massacre. The village was then looted.[4] Most of the town residents were marched out to the Lebanese border, while hundreds fled to nearby gullies, caves and villages.[5][6] As part of an agreement between Archbishop Hakim and the leader of the "Arab Section" in the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the Eliabon exiles in Lebanon were allowed to return in summer of 1949.[7]
[edit] People from Eilabun
[edit] References
- ^ Localities with populations over 1,000 Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics
- ^ a b Eilabun (Israel) Dov Gutterman, FOTW
- ^ HaReuveni, Immanuel (1999). Lexicon of the Land of Israel (in Hebrew). Miskal - Yedioth Ahronoth Books and Chemed Books, 739. ISBN 965-448-413-7.
- ^ Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, 2004 pp.479-480
- ^ Morris (2004), p. 480
- ^ Benvenisti, Meron (2000): Sacred Landscape: Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21154-5, p. 153-154.
- ^ Morris (2004), p. 480
[edit] See also
