Al-Khayriyya
| Al-Khayriyya | |
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 Al-Khayriyya
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| Arabic | الخيْريّة |
| Also Spelled | el-Kheiriyah, Kheiriya |
| Sub-district | Jaffa |
| Coordinates | 32°2′13.54″N 34°49′40.64″E / 32.0370944°N 34.8279556°ECoordinates: 32°2′13.54″N 34°49′40.64″E / 32.0370944°N 34.8279556°E |
| Population | 1420[1] (1945) |
| Area | 13,672[1] dunums |
| Date of depopulation | 25 April 1948 1948[2] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
Al-Khayriyya (Arabic: الخيْريّة) was a Palestinian village located 7.5 kilometers east of Jaffa. Its inhabitants fled as a result of a military assault by the Alexandroni Brigade of the pre-state Israeli forces in the lead up to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.[3] The village lands would later be used by Israel as the Hiriya landfill.[4]
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[edit] History
At the time of Assyrian rule in Israel, al-Khayriyya was known as Banai Berka and during Roman rule, it was known as by Beneberak.[5] Arab villagers had called it Ibn Ibraq, preserving the ancient name.[6][7] In 1596, under Ottoman rule, Al-Khayriyya was a village in the nahiya of Ramla (liwa´ of Gaza), with a population of 154. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, fruits and sesame, as well as on other types of property, such as goats, beehives and vineyards.[8]
At the time of the British Mandate in Palestine the villagers changed the name of the village to al-Khayriyya to distinguish it from the new neighbouring Jewish village of Bnei Brak.[9] During this time the population was mostly Muslim; only twenty of the villagers were Christian. A school for boys was established in 1920, and it had a plot od 8 dunums of land attched to it for agricultural training. A school for girls was founded in 1945. By 1946, there were 183 males and 69 females students in these schools.[10]
The villagers worked primarely in agriculture and animal husbandry. In 1944/45 a total of 3,359 dunums of village land was devoted to citrus and bananas and 2,355 dunums to cereals, while 1,275 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Numerous artesian wells supplied them with irrigation water.[10]
[edit] 1948, and after
The village of Al-Khayriyya was depopulated in the weeks leading up to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, during the Haganah's offensive Mivtza Hametz (Operation Hametz) 28-30 April 1948. This operation was held against a group of villages east of Jaffa, including Al-Khayriyya. According to the preparatory orders, the objective was to "opening the way [for Jewish forces] to Lydda". Though there was no explicit mention of the prospective treatment of the villagers, the order spoke of "cleansing the area" [tihur hashetah].[11] The final operational order stated: "Civilian inhabitants of places conquered would be permitted to leave after they are searched for weapons."[12]
During 28-30 April, the Haganah took Al-Khayriyya without a fight, the HIS attributed the non-resistance of the inhabitants to prior Arab defeats, and later added that "it is clear that the inhabitants [...] would willingly return to their villages and accept Jewish protection."[13]
The Alexandroni Brigade 32nd Battalion reported that they found and buried the bodies of four adult men and three women in the village, and briefly detained a handful of men, women and children. Two of the adult male villagers were charged with having killed a Haganah man, and they were then promptly executed.[3]
The settlement of Kfar Azar was established on what was traditionally village land in 1932. The settlements of Ramat Pinkas and Ramat Ef'al were established north of the village site in 1952 and 1969, respectively. The site now lies within the suburbs of modern-day Giv'atayim.[14]
The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, described the village remains in 1992: "A handful of houses and one of the schools remain. One deserted house, surrounded by shrubs and wild vegetation, has simple architecture: a rectangular door, small side windows, and a flat roof. A two-storey house, identified as having belonged to Ahmad al- Tibi, is used as a store. It has rectangular doors and windows and a gabled roof. Cypress, fig, Christ's-thorn, and orange trees grow on the site. Part of the adjacent land is cultivated and the rest is occupied by buildings."[14]
The village lands would later be designated for a landfill known as Hiriya.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Hadawi, 1970 p.52 Also in Khalidi, 1992, p. 248
- ^ Morris, 2002, p.xviii, village #209 ("Kheiriya, al-") Also gives cause of depopulation.
- ^ a b Morris, 2004, p. 217
- ^ a b Egoz, Shelley (2008), "Deconstructing the Hegemony of Nationalist Narratives through Landscape Architecture", Landscape Research (Routlegde) 33 (1): 37–38, 48
- ^ "Welcome to al-Khayriyya". Palestine Remembered. http://www.palestineremembered.com/Jaffa/al-Khayriyya/index.html. Retrieved 2007-12-04.
- ^ Freedman, 2000, p. 165.
- ^ Cancik et al., 1996, p. 484.
- ^ 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. 153. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 248.
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 248
- ^ a b Khalidi, 1992, p. 248.
- ^ HGS\Operations to Alexandroni, etc., "Orders for Operation "Hametz", 26 Apr. 1948. IDFA 6647\49\\15. Cited in Morris (2004), p. 217, 286
- ^ Operation Hametz HQ to Givati, etc., 27 Apr. 1948, 14:00 hours, IDFA 67\51\\677. See also Alexandroni to battalions, 27 Apr. 1948, IDFA 922\75\\949. Cited in Morris, 2004, p. 217, 286
- ^ Alexandroni to brigades, etc., 8 May 1948, IDFA 2323\49\\6. Cited in Morris, 2004, p. 217, 286
- ^ a b Khalidi, 1992, p.249
[edit] Bibliography
- Cancik, Hubert, Peter Schäfer and Hermann Lichtenberger (1996), Geschichte-Tradition-Reflexion: Festschrift Für Martin Hengel Zum 70. Geburtstag. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 3-16-146675-6
- Freedman, David Noel (2000), Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-2400-5
- 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.
- Walid Khalidi (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 0-521-00967-7
