During British Mandate rule in Palestine, al-Birwa was home to local power brokers, who mediated disputes in neighboring villages.

By the 1940s, many of the village's agrarian inhabitants lost their lands due to debt, and shifted to labor jobs in nearby cities, such as Haifa.

Afterward, its inhabitants, including future Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, fled to nearby villages or Lebanon.

Al-Birwa stood on a rocky hill overlooking the plain of Acre, with an average elevation of 60 meters above sea level.

Finds included a large building, numerous potsherds from the Late Roman period, a bronze coin from the 1st or 2nd century CE, remains of an ancient olive press, glass vessels such as a wine goblet and bottles dated to the Late Byzantine and Umayyad periods (7th and first half of 8th centuries CE) and an underground water reservoir.

[11] In 2008, the remains of a large olive oil refinery dating from the Byzantine era was uncovered, together with items belonging to a church.

The mound abounds with Graeco-Roman potsherds, showing that it was occupied down to Roman times when it was abandoned, as no distinctively Arab pottery could be found there.

[17] Al-Birwa was mentioned as part of the Acre-based Crusaders' domain in the 1283 hudna (truce agreement) with the Mamluks under Sultan al-Mansur Qalawun.

[23] American biblical scholar Edward Robinson visited al-Birwa in 1852 and noted that it was one of 18 villages in Palestine with an operating Christian (Eastern Orthodox) church.

[22] The French explorer, Victor Guérin, who visited in 1875, described the Christians of Birwa as Greek Orthodox, and noted that they had a "fairly new" church.

[30] A number of women from al-Birwa participated in the revolt by transporting arms, water and food to rebels positioned among the hills in the vicinity.

[10] According to intelligence gathered by the Haganah (a Jewish paramilitary organization in Palestine), the traditional, local power brokers of the central Galilee were residents of al-Birwa, who "resolved all conflicts in the nearby villages".

[33] However, the main source of income remained agriculture, and the village's principal crops were olives, wheat, barley, corn, sesame, and watermelons.

[34] Israeli forces from the Carmeli Brigade first captured al-Birwa and positions overlooking it on 11 June 1948 as part of Operation Ben-Ami, a day before the first truce of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

The rifle-armed force charged first across the front lines, followed by the men armed with axes, shovels, and sticks, and then the women who carried water to assist the wounded.

The New York Times reported that there was fighting in the village for two days and that United Nations (UN) observers were there investigating truce violations.

It added that "a small Israeli garrison held al-Birwa prior to the [first] truce", but it fell to ALA troops based in Nazareth who launched a surprise attack.

[3] On 20 August 1948, the Jewish National Fund called for building a settlement on some of al-Birwa's lands, and on 6 January 1949, Yas'ur, a kibbutz, was established there.

According to Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, one of al-Birwa's schools, two shrines for local sages, and three houses remained standing as of 1982.

[3] Most of al-Birwa's inhabitants fled to nearby Arab towns and villages, including Tamra, Kabul,[36] Jadeidi, Kafr Yasif,[37] and other localities.

[38] Some fled to Lebanon, and ended up in the Shatila refugee camp, in the outskirts of Beirut, where Palestinian historian Nafez Nazzal interviewed them in 1973.

[43] Al-Birwa is among the Palestinian villages for which commemorative Marches of Return have taken place, typically as part of Nakba Day, such as the demonstrations organized by the Association for the Defence of the Rights of the Internally Displaced.