Al-Qastal
| al-Qastal | |
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al-Qastal hill
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 al-Qastal
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| Arabic | القسطل |
| Name meaning | "castellum" or castale |
| Subdistrict | Jerusalem |
| Coordinates | 31°47′44″N 35°8′39″E / 31.79556°N 35.14417°ECoordinates: 31°47′44″N 35°8′39″E / 31.79556°N 35.14417°E |
| Palestine grid | 163/133 |
| Population | 90 (1945) |
| Area | 1,446 dunams 1.4 km² |
| Date of depopulation | April 3, 1948 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
| Current localities | Mevaseret Zion |
Al-Qastal ("Kastel", Arabic: القسطل) was a Palestinian village located eight kilometers west of Jerusalem named for a Crusader castle located on the hilltop. Used as a military base by the Army of the Holy War, the village was captured by the Palmach in the lead up to the Arab-Israeli War and depopulated of its residents.
A Crusader castle called Belveer or Beauverium was built there around 1168 CE. It is listed among the castles destroyed by Sultan al-Adil I in 1191–2 CE. No trace remains today of the castle. Belveer is mentioned in a letter from Eraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, dated September 1187, in which he describes the slaughter of Christians "by the sword of Mafumetus the Unbeliever and his evil worshipper Saladin" and the Arab conquest of the town, which was renamed Qastal.
In 1863, Victor Guérin found modern buildings on ancient ruins. He noted that the village belonged to the Abu Ghosh clan.
In 1883, al-Qastal was described as "a small stone village in a conspicuous position on a rocky hill-top" with springs to the east.
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Qastal had a population 43, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 59; 55 Muslims and 4 Christians, in a total of 14 houses. In 1944/45, the village, with a population of 90 Muslims, had a total of 42 dunums of land allocated to cereals. 169 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, including 50 dunams of olive trees.
In 1948, al-Qastal was a key position on the Jaffa-Jerusalem road and was used by Arab forces to attack Jewish relief convoys so as to prevent them from reaching the besieged Jewish parts of Jerusalem. For this purpose it was occupied by the Army of the Holy War led by Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, the commander of the Jerusalem Hills sector.
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