In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 70 Muslims[2] with 1,013 dunums of land.[3] Of this, 51 dunams were for irrigable land or plantations, 273 for cereals,[6] while 2 dunams were built-up, urban, land.[7]
Bayt Umm al-Mays 1943 1:20,000 (lower right quadrant)
Bayt Umm al-Mays 1945 1:250,000
1948 and aftermath
Bayt Umm al-Mays was depopulated October 21, 1948.[4]
Following the war, the area was incorporated into the State of Israel. According to Morris, Ramat Raziel was established near Bayt Umm al-Mays,[8] but according to Khalidi there are no Israeli settlements on village land.[9] In 1992 it was noted that "the site is covered with wild grass that grows around the remains of stone terraces. A few almond, olive and fig trees also grow along the terraces. The remains of the demolished house, which include fragments of an archway, stand at the northern end of the village; the ruins of another house stand at a short distance from the southern end, near a well. Two caves can be seen in the west. There are two very large stone slabs standing at the southern edge of the site, surrounded by bushes."[9]
Archaeology
In 1863, Victor Guérin found the remains of a small village, in the middle of which was a Muslim sanctuary. He further noted that the villagers had neither wells nor cisterns, but were obliged to fetch water from a rather distant spring.[10]
^ abGovernment of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 56
^ abMorris, 2004, p. xx, village #344. Also gives cause of depopulation, both with a "?"
^Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 362
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 102
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 152