Ma'alul

Ma'alul
معلول
Ma'lul, Maalul, Maaloul, Mahlul
A restored Catholic Church of Ma'alul in July 2010
Etymology: from personal name
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Ma'alul (click the buttons)
Ma'alul
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°41′44″N 35°14′22″E / 32.69556°N 35.23944°E / 32.69556; 35.23944
Palestine grid172/233
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictNazareth
Date of depopulation15 July 1948
Area
  Total
4,698 dunams (4.698 km2 or 1.814 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
  Total
690
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces
Current LocalitiesMigdal HaEmek, Kfar HaHoresh, Timrat, and an Israeli military base

Ma'alul (Arabic: معلول) was a Palestinian village, with a mixed population of primarily Muslims with a substantial minority of Palestinian Christians, that was depopulated and destroyed by Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Located six kilometers west of the city of Nazareth, many of its inhabitants became internally displaced refugees, after taking refuge in Nazareth and the neighbouring town of Yafa an-Naseriyye. Despite having never left the territory that came to form part of Israel, the majority of the villagers of Maalul, and other Palestinian villages like Andor and Al-Mujidal, were declared "absentees", allowing the confiscation of their land under the Absentees Property Law.

Today, much of the former village's lands are owned by the Jewish National Fund. All that remains of its former structures are two churches, a mosque and a Roman-era mausoleum, known locally as Qasr al-Dayr ("Castle of the monastery").