The expulsion of the three Palestinian villages in the Latrun area – Imwas, Bayt Nuba, and Yalo – with their 8,000 residents, was one of the most prominent expulsions during the war. So too was the destruction of the villages immediately afterward and the establishment of Canada Park by the Jewish National Fund in 1971.
The villages were captured without resistance on the second day of the war, and hours later, residents were ordered to evacuate to Ramallah. Israel claimed that a significant portion of the structures in the villages were destroyed during the battles that took place there. This was a false claim.
Ze’ev Bloch, a Six-Day War veteran and a former member of Kibbutz Nahshon, located near the three expelled villages, told Akevot Institute researchers that “no one leaves their home willingly. There’s no debate about that. Certainly, certainly they were expelled. War. There are those who expel them, there are those who leave, there are those who survive, and there are those who die.”
