Iqrit

Iqrit (Arabic: إقرت or إقرث, Iqrith; sometimes romanized as Ikret) was a Palestinian Christian village, located 25 kilometres (16 miles) northeast of Acre, in the western Galilee. In October 1948, the village's Palestinian Arab inhabitants were expelled by Zionist forces during the 1948 Palestine war, and the territory later became part of the new State of Israel. All of its Palestinian Christian inhabitants were forced to flee to Lebanon or the Israeli village of Rameh, and, despite the promise that they would be returned in two weeks' time, the villagers were not allowed to return, and the Israeli army destroyed the village. In 1951, in response to a plea from the Iqrit villagers, the Israel Supreme Court had ruled that the former residents of Iqrit be allowed to return to their homes. However, before they could, the IDF, despite awareness of the Supreme Court decision, destroyed Iqrit on Christmas Day 1951. Descendants of the villagers maintain an outpost in the village church, and bury their dead in its cemetery. All attempts to cultivate its lands are uprooted by the Israel Lands Administration.