Tarbikha
| Tarbikha | |
 Tarbikha
|
|
| Arabic | تربيخا |
| Sub-district | Acre |
| Coordinates | 33°04′57.45″N 35°17′03.45″E / 33.082625°N 35.2842917°ECoordinates: 33°04′57.45″N 35°17′03.45″E / 33.082625°N 35.2842917°E |
| Population | 1,000[1] (1945) |
| Area | 18,563[1] dunums |
| Date of depopulation | Early November 1948[2] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Expulsion by Yishuv forces |
| Current localities | Shomera,[3] Even Menachem, Shtula, Zar'it |
Tarbikha (Arabic: تربيخا) is a former Palestinian village. It was located 27 km northeast of Acre in the British Mandate District of Acre that was captured and depopulated by the Israel Defence Force during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Contents |
[edit] History
Tarbikha was located on the site of the Crusaders Tayerebika, from which it derived its name.[4]
In 1596, Tarbikha was part of the Ottoman Empire, nahiya (subdistrict) of Tibnin under the Liwa of Safad, with a population of 88. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat olives and barley, as well as on goats, beehives and a press that was used for processing either olives or grapes.[5]
In the late nineteenth century, the village of Tarbikha was described as being built of stone and situated on a ridge. The population was estimated at being around 100, and they lived by cultivating olives.[6] During this period Tarbikha was a part of the Beirut province. Only after World War I, when the borders between Lebanon and Palestine were delineated by the British and French, did Tarbikha come under Palestinian administration.[4]
The village had two mosques, and an elementary school, founded after 1938, which had an enrollment of 120 students in the mid-1940s. It also had a cusoms office and a police station for monitoring the Lebanese border.[4] In 1944/45 the village had a total of 3,200 dunums allocated to cereals, while 619 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.[7][8]
[edit] 1948, and aftermath
The town was assaulted during Operation Hiram by the Oded Brigade on 30 October 1948.[9] The population was ordered to leave for Lebanon in early November.[10] The military did not let the Arabs gather the crops they planted; rather the military allowed the Jews of the kibbutz Tarbikha to gather the crops and left the villages unguarded, which allowed any passerby access to the items in the unguarded village.[11] The village lands of Tarbikha were settled by Jewish immigrants from Hungary and Romania as part of the policy of Judaisation of Northern Israel.[12]
The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, described the village remaining structures in 1992: "About twenty houses from the village are now occupied by the residents of Moshav Shomera. Some of the roofs have been remodeled and given a gabled form. Stones from the original houses embellish the roof of the central shelter of the moshav."[13]
In 1994, the refugees from the 7 villages, who had been classified as Palestinian refugees since 1948, were granted Lebanese citizenship.[14]
[edit] See also
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
- Metawali
- Seven Lebanese Villages
[edit] References
- ^ a b Hadawi, 1970, p.41
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. xvii village #66 Also gives cause of depopulation. Also see p. 474
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. xxii settlement #154
- ^ a b c Khalidi, 1992, p.33
- ^ Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter and Kamal Abdulfattah (1977), Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. p. 183. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 33
- ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP, Vol. I, p.150. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 33
- ^ Hadawi, 1970, p.81
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 33-34
- ^ Morris, 2006, p. 474
- ^ Morris 2006, pp 506-507
- ^ Totah, Khalil (1955), Dynamite in the Middle East, Philosophical Library, p. 192
- ^ Morris, 2006, p 381-382: By mid-June 1949, [Yehoshua] Eshel wrote, the whole northern border area had been Judaised through the ‘absorption settlements’-moshavim and development towns - such as at Tarshiha, Suhmata, Deir al Qasi, Tarbikha, Meirun, Sammu’i, Safsaf, Ras al Ahmar’.
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 34
- ^ Peteet, 2005, p. 177
[edit] Bibliography
- Conder, Claude Reignier and H.H. Kitchener (1881): The Survey of Western Palestine: memoirs of the topography, orography, hydrography, and archaeology. London:Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. vol 1
- Hadawi, Sami (1970), Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center, http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html
- Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0-88728-224-5
- Morris, Benny (2004), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6, http://books.google.com/?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=benny+morris&q
- Peteet, Julie Marie (2005), Landscape of hope and despair: Palestinian refugee camps, University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 978-0-8122-3893-8
[edit] External links
- Welcome to Tarbikha
- Tarbikha, at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
- Tarbikha photos, Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh
