In the modern era, the town was the birthplace of Ahmed Jibril, the founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC).

[7] According to scholars, the name my derive from Semitic root ’-Z-R “to gird, encompass, equip”, originally in Hebrew but with cognates in Jewish Aramaic and Arabic.

[8] The Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi (1179–1229) described Yazur as a small town[9] that was the birthplace of several important figures during the Fatimid period.

The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% for the crops that they cultivated, which included wheat, barley, fruit, and sesame, as well as on other types of property, such as goats and beehives; a total of 19,250 akçe.

[14] In 1051 AH/1641/2, the Bedouin tribe of al-Sawālima from around Jaffa attacked the villages of Subṭāra, Bayt Dajan, al-Sāfiriya, Jindās, Lydda and Yāzūr belonging to Waqf Haseki Sultan.

[8] The village appeared named Jazour on the map that Pierre Jacotin compiled in 1799 during the French campaign in Egypt and Syria.

[17] While the area was still under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in 1870, Charles Netter from Alliance Israélite Universelle founded the Mikveh Israel southeast of Jaffa.

In a Survey of Western Palestine (1882), it is noted that, "Though the land belongs to the Government, the Fellahin, from long usage, have got to look upon it as virtually their own, and resent its occupation by any other person."

[19]The PEF's Survey of Western Palestine reported that in 1882 the village structures were built of adobe brick, there were dispersed gardens and wells, and Yazur contained a domed shrine.

The houses were traditionally made of stone or adobe brick and straw and were built in groups called ahwash (pl.

The boys' school occupied 27 dunums (the bulk of which was allocated for training students in agronomy) and had its own artesian well.

The remains of an old Crusader church built by Richard the Lionheart in 1191, called Castel des Plaines, were visible on a hill inside the village.

[8] The Filastin' newspaper reported that on December 11, 1947, members of a pro-Zionist armed group drove at high speed through the town, throwing bombs at a barbershop and a coffeehouse.

However, Aref al-Aref reports that one week later, on 18 December, more Zionist militia returned, this time disguised as British soldiers.

[28] Though there was no explicit mention of the prospective treatment of the villagers, the order spoke of "cleansing the area" [tihur hashetah].

[28] The final operational order stated: "Civilian inhabitants of places conquered would be permitted to leave after they are searched for weapons."

One house, occupied by a Jewish family, is a two-storey concrete unit that has a rectangular door and a modified gabled roof.

[26] According to Petersen, the small mosque/shrine located at a distance of some 50 meters from Maqam Imam ´Ali, on the opposite side of the road, was known as Shaykh al-Katanan.