al-Qastal -القسطل

 Al Qastal was a village 10 km away from Jerusalem. The village was named after a Roman castle that was built in the village 

Nakba Survivor, Hisham Miflah Udwan, says that the village was located in high mountains. He said that you could see the ocean in Haifa all the way from the mountains. There was also a well known tree, a بطم/cashew tree and everyone in the village called it the batmeh tree/شجره البطمه. It sat on the highest mountain in the village and was a popular location for locals to chill. Many enjoyed watching the sunset and sunrise under the batmeh tree. hisham also mentioned that the village was always cold, and it was freezing under the batmeh tree no matter the season.
 

 Nakba Survivor Husni Mattar, says that not many villagers focused on farming like other Palestinians, they relayed on the city of Jerusalem for many resources. Their main resource of water came from a place called Wady ein al 3asfoot. Wady means lower ground between mountains, and ain means spring water, and asfour means bird. It was the responsibility of young women to bring water from ein al asfour to the village, they used vases and sometimes brought a donkey along to carry the water. Wady al Qasta was filled with olive trees 

 British colonizers kept a very close eye of the village. They arrested many folks from the village with no evidence, just based on suspicions and rumors from informants and British police. Husni matar recalls how his father and many of his relatives were arrested and placed in a camp close to a village called qashoo3, he visited the camp many times to see his father. The British colonizers also conducted searches every two weeks, once they arrived, everyone in the village had to be home to answer questions and wait outside till the search was complete. The British also raided the village many times at night, there were also reports of British police harassing girls and women in the village.
 

 The village was used as a base for the holy war, which was led by Jerusalem commander Abd al qader al Hussieni. The village was captured by zionists on April 3, but Palestinians took it back in the battle of Al Qastal 

However during that battle, leader, Jerusalem commander ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni was martyred. This caused a loss of morale between Palestinian revolutionaries so on April 9th, during his funeral in al aqsa, Palestinian fighters left their positions to attend. That is when zionists came back to find the village deserted. They then bombed the houses, destroyed the village, and occupied it.