Yalo
| Yalo | |
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 Yalo
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| Arabic | يالو |
| Name meaning | from personal name, or "Place of the fallow deer" |
| Also spelled | Yalu |
| Subdistrict | Ramle |
| Coordinates | 31°50′25″N 35°01′21″E / 31.84028°N 35.02250°ECoordinates: 31°50′25″N 35°01′21″E / 31.84028°N 35.02250°E |
| Palestine grid | 152/138 |
| Population | 16,441 (1961) |
| Area | 14,992 dunams 15.0 km² |
| Date of depopulation | 7 June 1967 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Expulsion by Israeli forces |
| Current localities | Canada Park |
Yalo (Arabic: يالو, also transliterated Yalu) was a Palestinian Arab village located 13 kilometres southeast of Ramla. Identified by Edward Robinson as the ancient Canaanite and Israelite city of Aijalon, in the Middle Ages it was the site of a Crusader castle, Castrum Arnaldi. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Jordan formally annexed Yalo along with the rest of the West Bank. Yalo's population increased dramatically owing to an influx of Palestinian refugees from neighbouring towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 war.
During the 1967 war, all the inhabitants of Yalo were expelled by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the village was destroyed, and Yalo and the entirety of Latrun were annexed from Jordan by Israel. Subsequently, with donations from Canadian benefactors, the Jewish National Fund built a recreational space, Canada Park, which contains the former sites of Yalo and two other neighbouring villages, Dayr Ayyub, and Imwas.
The area was under contention in the Middle Ages by Christian and Muslim forces. In the Crusader period, there was a castle here called Castellum Arnaldi or Chastel Arnoul. It was destroyed by Muslims in 1106, rebuilt in 1132–3, controlled by the Templar by 1179 and taken by Saladin in 1187. Some of its ruins are still visible.
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