In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Lazzaza, while under Ottoman rule, as a village of 70 people built of adobe bricks and situated on a plain near a river.[6]
British Mandate era
It was incorporated into the British Mandate of Palestine in 1922. Under the British, Lazzaza had an elementary school, in which 26 students were enrolled in 1945. The residents, mostly Muslims, took advantage of the village's fertile lands, and agriculture became the basis of its economy. The primarily cultivated crops were onions, corn, and fruits, but the beehives were also kept, in addition to some livestock. Some of Lazzaza's inhabitants also fished in the Hasbani River.[5]
In the 1945 statistics, Lazzaza was counted with the nearby Jewish settlement of Beit Hillel which together constituted a population of 330; 230 were Muslims of Lazzaza, the remaining 100 were Jewish of Beit Hillel.[2][3]
Types of land use in dunams in the village in 1945:[8][9]
Land Usage
Arab
Jewish
Irrigated and plantation
235
805
Cereal
95
119
Cultivable
330
924
Urban
27
18
Non-cultivable
20
0
The land ownership of the village before occupation in dunams:[3]
Owner
Dunams
Arab
377
Jewish
942
Public
267
Total
1,586
1948, aftermath
The Arabs of Lazzaza fled their village during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on May 21, 1948.[4] The village was not attacked by Israeli forces, and the probable cause of its depopulation was a "whispering campaign" devised by Palmach commander Yigal Allon during Operation Yiftach, in which rumor would spread about massive Jewish reinforcements approaching the Galilee. According to Walid Khalidi, "only a few scattered houses remain on the village site", and that the residents of Beit Hillel cultivate the surrounding fields.[5]
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