Al-Khalisa

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
al-Khalisa
250px
The mosque of al-Khalisa, currently a museum for the history of Kiryat Shemona
al-Khalisa is located in Mandatory Palestine
al-Khalisa
al-Khalisa
Arabic الخالصة
Name meaning Pure, sincere[1]
Also spelled al-Khalsa
Subdistrict Safad
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Palestine grid 203/290
Population 1,840[2] (1945)
Area 11,280 dunams
11.3 km²
Date of depopulation May 11, 1948[3][4]
Cause(s) of depopulation Influence of nearby town's fall
Secondary cause Whispering campaign
Current localities Kiryat Shemona

Al-Khalisa was a Palestinian Arab village situated on a low hill on the northwestern edge of the Hula Valley of over 1,800 located 28 kilometers (17 mi) north of Safad. It was depopulated in the 1948 Palestine war.

History

Al-Khalisa was founded by the Bedouin from the 'Arab al-Ghawarina clan, who constituted the bulk the village's population. Under the Ottoman Empire, in 1596, it had a population of 160 and was under the administration of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Jira, part of Sanjak Safad. It paid taxes on wheat, barley, orchards, beehives, water buffalo, and a water-powered mill.[5]

In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described al-Khalisa as a village built of stone, surrounded by streams, with a population of 50.[6]

British Mandate era

The houses of the village were built of bricks and basalt stones cut from the hillside. Al-Khalisa had a boys' elementary school which also admitted students from neighboring villages. The residents drew their drinking water from several springs.[3] It was one of five villages in the Galilee to be governed by a village council that administered in local affairs.[7]

The leader of 'Arab al-Ghawarina clan was Sheikh Kamal Hussein, resident of Al-Khalisa, and, according to Meron Benvenisti, he led the raid on Tel Hai in 1920. However, in the years preceding 1948, Sheikh Kamal established close relationships with the Jewish settlers, but, according to Benvenisti, the veterans of Kfar Giladi did not forget or forgive, and cultivated Sheikh Kamal's enemy Emir Faour.[8]

Al-Khalisa, 1946

In the 1931 census of Palestine, the population of El Khalisa was 1,369; 1,340 Muslims, 3 Jews and 26 Christians, in a total of 259 houses.[9]

In 1945, its population was 1,840, of which 20 were Christians, and the total land area were 11,280 dunams.[3][10] Of this, 5,586 dunams were irrigated or used for plantations, 3,775 for cereals,[11] while 20 dunams were classified as urban land.[12]

1948, and after

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, on May 11, 1948, al-Khalisa attempted an "agreement" with the Haganah to save the village from attack, but the Haganah rejected it.[13] Israeli historian Benny Morris reports after this, the villagers felt threatened and fled, while eyewitness accounts state the cause was Safad's fall to Israel on that same day. After its abandonment, Israeli forces moved into al-Khalisa as part of their general offensive in the eastern Galilee. The village's residents stated that after they fled, only the local militia remained, but withdrew after shelling from the Jewish town of Manara and after seeing an armored unit approaching al-Khalisa.[14] Former villagers, interviewed in Tel al-Zaatar camp in Lebanon in 1973, recounted that when they returned to the village;

We found that the Jews had burned and destroyed the houses belonging to Ali Zakayan, Abu Ali Muhammad Hamadih, Mustafa al-Haj Yusif, Issa Muhammad, Ali Salih Ahmad, Muhammad Arab al-Haj Mahmud, Salih Ismail, Sari al-Khadir, Dawud Hussein, Abdul-Raziq Hamid, Qassim Muhammead al-Salih and Ali Hussein Mahmud ... The village was in ruins.[15]

File:Qiryat Shemona City Museum.jpg
The mosque of Al-Khalisa, 2008, now serving as museum for Kiryat Shemona.

According to Walid Khalidi, 1992, "stone rubble from the houses markes the site. The school and the Mandate government´s office guildings stand abandoned, as does the village mosque and minaret. The level land surrounding the site is cultivated by settlement of Qirat Shemona, while the mountainous areas are either used as pastures or are wooded."[3]

According to Meron Benvenisti, 2000, "the mosque of al-Khalsa, one of the few structures that remain of that Galilee Arab village, is situated in a municipal park in the older section of the Jewish town of Kiryat Shemona. It serves as the local museum dedicated to the memory of townspeople who have fallen in Israel's various wars."[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 23
  2. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. 30
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Khalidi, 1992, p.463.
  4. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #10. Also gives cause of depopulation.
  5. ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p.178; cited in Khalidi, 1992, p.463
  6. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 88; cited in Khalidi, 1992, p.463.
  7. ↑ Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, 1945-1946, p.132.
  8. ↑ Benvenisti, 2000, p. 127
  9. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 107
  10. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 70
  11. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 119
  12. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 169
  13. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. 251
  14. ↑ Morris, 1987, pp. 120-124 and Nazzal, 1978, pp. 46-48; cited in Khalidi, 1992, p.463.
  15. ↑ Nazzal, 1978, pp. 47-48.
  16. ↑ Benvenisti, 2000, p. 291

Bibliography

  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (Khalisa, p. 197.)

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Al-Khalisa&oldid=715702635"