Imwas 2.08

Imwas was a Palestinian Arab village located 12km southeast of the city of Ramla and 26km from Jerusalem in the Latrun salient of the West Bank. It is traditionally identified with the biblical Emmaus.After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Imwas fell under Jordanian rule. Its population at the time was predominantly Arab Muslim, though there was an Arab Christian minority. Captured by the Israeli Defense Forces during the Six-Day War on June 7, 1967 along with the neighbouring villages of Yalo and Bayt Nuba, the villagers of Imwas were expelled and the village destroyed on the orders of Yitzhak Rabin. Today the area of the former village lies within Canada Park, which was established by the Jewish National Fund in 1973.EtymologyThe name of the modern village was pronounced by its inhabitants as 'Imwās. Arabic literary sources indicate the name was formerly pronounced 'Amwās and 'Amawās, the latter being form transcribed by the Syrian geographer Yakut (1179–1229).