PLace

Jahula

Place
Jahula — جاحُولا
District
Galilee
Subdistrict
Safad
Average Elevation
150 m
Distance from Safad
19 km
Population
Year Arab Total
1931 357
1944/45 420
Land Ownership (1944/45) in dunums
Year Arab Jewish Public Total
1944/45 1991 583 1295 3869
Land Use (1944/45) in dunums
Use Arab Jewish Public Total
Non-Cultivable & Built-up (Total)
Use Arab Jewish Public Total
Non-Cultivable 301 92 1295 1688
Built-up 64 64
365 92 1295 1752 (45%)
Cultivable (Total)
Use Arab Jewish Total
Cereal 1626 391 2017
Plantation and Irrigable 100 100
1626 491 2117 (55%)
Number of Houses (1931)
90

The village was situated in the foothills of the Galilee Mountains and overlooked the al-Hula Plain on the western side. It was laid out in a north-south direction along the Tiberias-al-Mutilla highway. In 1596, Jahula was a village in the nahiya of Jira (liwa' of Safad) with a population of twenty eight. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, as well as on other types of produce, such as goats, beehives, and water buffalos. The village mosque, built about 1 km north of the village site, surrounded the shrine for Shaykh Salih, a local religious teacher. Its population was predominantly Muslim. The houses in Jahula were made of masonry. A spring on the northern edge of the village supplied it with drinking water. Although most villagers worked in agriculture, some were employed in the stone quarries north of the village. In 1944/45 a total of 1,626 dunums was used for cultivating grain. Archaeological excavations in 1986 near 'Ayn Jahula revealed that the site had been occupied from the seventh through the third millennium B.C.

Although the exact date of the village's occupation cannot be determined, Jahula was probably taken towards the end of Operation yiftach (see Abil al-Qamh, Safad sub-disctrict), around the same time as the seizure of al-Zawiya, 4.5 km to the northeast, and Mallaha, 3.5 km to the southeast, on 24 and 25 May, respectively.

There are no settlements on village lands. Yiftach (202281) is 2 km northwest of the village site.

The only remains of the destroyed village are a few stone terraces. The site is enclosed by barbed wire, and cactuses and trees grow on it. The village spring is still in use by Israelis. Parts of the village land are planted in cotton and watermelons, while other parts are wooded and hilly.