Palestine under occupation

Follow
one place.

Choose a Palestinian village or city. See who lived there before 1948, what happened to them, and what remains today.

  1. 01LiftaOutside Jerusalem
  2. 02Al-Lidd / LyddaCentral coastal plain
  3. 03IqritUpper Galilee
Mediterranean Sea Iqrit Al-Lidd / Lydda Lifta
Approximate locations. Site locator map. Base geography Natural Earth. Place locations Lifta · Al-Lidd · Iqrit.

These stories name the forces and authorities responsible for specific actions. The site rejects antisemitism and collective blame of Jewish people or Israelis.

Lifta

01 / 03

Stone houses stand on the terraced hillside at Lifta
Lifta, photographed in 2024. Bukvoed / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0.

Before 1948

Lifta was a Palestinian village on a hillside at the western approach to Jerusalem. Homes and cultivated terraces surrounded its spring. The Mandate recorded 2,550 people in the village in 1945. Open the Mandate map and population record.

What happened

Armed attacks and fighting in late 1947 and early 1948 drove residents from the village. Read the village history.

What remains

Many of the stone houses survive, alongside the spring and agricultural terraces. Israel documented these features in its 2015 submission to UNESCO’s Tentative List. Read the submission.

Link to Lifta

Al-Lidd / Lydda

02 / 03

A 1932 aerial photograph shows a densely built Lydda surrounded by fields
Lydda from the air, 1932. Matson Photograph Collection / Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons.

Before 1948

Lydda was a Palestinian city and a railway junction. The Mandate recorded 16,780 residents in 1945. Open the Mandate map and population record.

What happened

Israeli forces captured Lydda in July 1948. The army then issued an order to expel Palestinian residents. Read the chronology. Read historian Benny Morris’s account.

What remains

The city is now called Lod. Arab and Jewish residents live there today. Visit the city’s website.

Hear someone who lived it

Palestinian artist Ismāʻīl Shammūṭ recounts the expulsion in his oral history interview. The segment starts at 52:40. The audio is in Arabic and the archive provides an English interview summary. Open the oral history.

Explore Al-Lidd across a centuryCompare two photographs of the same landmark and try the 15-minute lesson.

Link to Lydda

Iqrit

03 / 03

The stone church at Iqrit stands on a wooded hill
Iqrit’s church, photographed in 2020. Bukvoed / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0.

Before 1948

Iqrit was a Palestinian village in the Upper Galilee. The Mandate recorded 490 residents in 1945. Open the Mandate map and population record.

What happened

In 1948 the Israeli army ordered the villagers to leave, telling them it would be temporary. Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in their favour in 1951. Authorities prevented their return and the army destroyed the village’s houses that year. Read the documented account.

What remains

The church still stands. Descendants have returned for religious services and gatherings, maintaining a connection to the village across generations. Read the field research.

Link to Iqrit

Compare the evidence

Use one story in a classroom, reading group or conversation. Start with the map, then follow one source.

  1. What can a population record tell you about a place? What would you still want to know about life there?
  2. What does the oral history from Lydda tell you that the military chronology leaves out?
  3. Read Lifta and Iqrit side by side. What was different about how people left and what remained?
Compare the eight mapsWhat you can do in Australia