Islin

Islin (Arabic: عسلين‎) was a Palestinian Arab village located 21 kilometers west of Jerusalem. The village had a population of 302 inhabitants and was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. It was occupied by Israeli forces, possibly from the Fourth Battalion of the Harel Brigade, on 18 July 1948 during Operation Dani, causing its inhabitants to leave.Eshtaol, a moshav, was built on the village's land.

History

In 1596, Islin appeared as Islit in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Ramla of the Liwa of Jaffa. It had a population of 14 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, and goats or beehives.

In the later 1870s the place was uninhabited, with ruins still visible. It was probably re-established at the beginning of the century.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Islin had a population 132, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 186; in a total of 40 houses.

In 1945 the population was 260, all Arabs, while the total land area was 2,159 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 104 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 830 for cereals, while 20 dunams were classified as built-up areas.