Margaliot
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Margaliot (מרגליות in Hebrew, هونين in Arabic) is a moshav in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, located along the border with Lebanon, near the town of Kiryat Shmona. It is part of the Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council.
Margaliot was established over the Lebanese town of Hunin, which is part of the Seven Lebanese Villages across the Lebanese/Palestinian border, in 1951 by Jewish immigrants from Yemen and Iraq. It was named after Chaim Margaliot Klaverisky, who headed the Jewish Colonization Association in the Galilee in the early twentieth century, and participated in the establishment of several Jewish settlements in the region. Today the residents number around 300-400, most of them being Jews from Iranian Kurdistan. Today the name Hunin refers to the whole area covering moshav Margaliot and the kibbutz Misgav Am. The town of Margaliot, is however still referred to as Hunin by neighboring Arab states (especially Lebanon and Palestine). At the side of the road leading to the moshav, Château Neuf (New Castle) stands. A Crusader fortress which was erected during the Crusader period (1099-1291 CE), that was used during the fighting against Muslim. From Château Neuf, it's possible to view Nimrod Fortress and several other fortresses in the area.
[edit] Arab identity of Margaliot
This city was, during a meeting between the colonial powers of France and Britain known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1923 annexed from the French Mandate of Lebanon to the British Mandate of Palestine, along with 7 other villages and a total estimate of about 20 settlements.
Margaliot was a disputed city; while Israel claimed the city legally belongs to them, the Lebanese government along with Hizbullah had asked this city be returned to Lebanon.
The latter later dropped the demands, leaving Hunin to Israel. The Arab descendants of Hunin had made clear that they were Lebanese, hereby removing any claims to myths about them being ethnically Palestinians rather than Lebanese.
During a meeting in August 10 1948, when only 400 of about 1800 Huninites remained in Hunin, the two mukhtars of Hunin, Fares Shaker Chahrour and Mohammed Waqed along with two other Huninites, Mohammed Sha'er and Mohammed Berjawi and four Jews from kibbutz Kfar Giladi agreed that the Huninites would live as a minority under Jewish rule, but as equal citizens and that the expelled family members be returned.
A report of the meeting was later sent to the prime minister- and foreign minister's office.
Unfortunately, on September the 3rd 1948, shots were fired from Hunin at a military unit of the Israeli army[citation needed]. The unit retalliated by blowing up 20 houses, killing a son of the mukhtar and expelling the rest of the remaining 400 Huninites. The Israeli Government has not given up on the issue though, and the status of Hunin as an Arab-Israeli village is still as of 2007, a possibility.
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