Ma'dhar
| Ma'dhar | |
| Arabic | |
| Subdistrict | Tiberias |
| Population | 480 (1945) |
| Area | 11666 dunams |
| Date of depopulation | April 6, 1948[1] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Abandonment on Arab orders |
| Current localities | Kefar Qish[2] |
Ma'dhar was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Tiberias. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 12, 1948 by the Golani Brigade of Operation Gideon. It was located 12.5 km southwest of Tiberias.
History
The Crusaders referred to Ma'dhar as Kapharmater.
Ma'dhar was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and by 1596, it was a village of 94 inhabitants under the administration of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Tiberias, part of the sanjak of Safad. It paid taxes on wheat, barley, goats, beehives and orchards.[3]
By the end of the 19th century, it was described as having about 250 Muslim residents, in a village made of basalt and other stone. Water was supplied from cisterns an springs.[4]
In 1945 it had a population of 480. Ma'dhar had a school founded by the Ottomans, but closed during the British Mandate period. Ma'dhar contained a mosque and still has the ruins of a church, a burial ground, and ruined Crusader fortress called Casel de Cherio.
References
- ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xvii village #105. Also gives cause of depopulation
- ↑ Khalidi, 1992, p. 529
- ↑ 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. 190. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.528
- ↑ Conder and Kitchener: SWP I, 1881, p.361. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 528
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
- Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, 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