In October 1948, three months after the occupation of palestine and Israel's establishment, the displacement of Palestinians intensified with the launch of Operation Hiram, targeting villages in the Upper Galilee, including the Safad district. Despite these villages being designated for the Arab state under the UN Partition Plan, zionist forces invaded the area between 29 October and 2 November. Within just 60 hours, most of the estimated 50,000–60,000 Palestinians were expelled to Lebanon, leaving behind only 12,000–15,000. The swift depopulation was driven by a series of massacres and atrocities in villages like Safsaf, Jish, Aylabun, and others, intended to instill fear and force flight.

Kafr Bir’im was occupied by Israeli forces on 29 October 1948 during the first day of Operation Hiram. The unarmed villagers sought refuge in the church, and after a house search and a three-day curfew, the army allowed them to return home and resume grazing their sheep. On 7 November, a census conducted by israeli officials recorded 1,050 residents, reinforcing the villagers’ belief that they would be allowed to remain. 

Two weeks after Israeli forces occupied Kafr Bir’im, villagers were ordered to evacuate within 48 hours under the pretext of security concerns, with promises that the evacuation would be temporary. In reality, the order was part of a broader Israeli plan to depopulate Arab villages near the Lebanese border, either by transferring inhabitants within Palestine or expelling them to Lebanon. Although the villagers had not resisted, they were displaced, some to nearby caves, others to Lebanese villages like Rmaish, or to the nearby village of Jish. Israeli officials continued to promise the villagers a return, but it never came, and many suffered harsh conditions, with some even dying from illness and hunger during exile. The people of Kafr Bir’im were ultimately never allowed to go back, despite their cooperation and peaceful stance.

Yet despite their forced exile, the people of Kafr Bir’im never gave up. They refused to accept the loss of their village as permanent. Over the decades, they have returned regularly, to pray in the village church, to bury their dead, to hold weddings among the ruins of their ancestral homes, and to raise new generations with a deep connection to the land. Their presence on the land is not symbolic, it is a clear and continuous act of refusal, memory, and belonging.