Zikrin
| Zikrin | |
  Zikrin |
|
| Arabic | |
| Also spelled | Dhikerin[1] |
| Subdistrict | Hebron |
| Coordinates | 31°39′48.30″N 34°51′38.25″E / 31.6634167°N 34.8606250°ECoordinates: 31°39′48.30″N 34°51′38.25″E / 31.6634167°N 34.8606250°E |
| Population | 960[2] (1945) |
| Area | 17,195[2] dunams |
| Date of depopulation | 22–23 October 1948[3] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
Zikrin was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Hebron, depopulated in the 1948 Palestine War.
History
The village was called Kefar Dikrina in Roman times.[4]
In 1596, Zikrin was part of the Ottoman Empire, nahiya (subdistrict) of Gaza under the liwa' (district) of Gaza with a population of 220. It paid taxes on a number of products, including wheat, barley, sesame and fruits, and on vineyards.[5]
In the late 19th century, the village was described as being built of stone, surrounded by gardens. It was had "numerous" wells below it.[1][4]
The modern village had an elementary school, and a number of small shops. The villagers, who were Muslim, worked in agriculture and animal husbandry.[4] In 1944/45 15,058 dunams (15.058 km2; 5.814 sq mi) of village land was planted with cereals,[4][6] while trees, shrubs, and wild grass grew on the south and southeast sides and serves as pastures.[4]
1948, and aftermath
On 6 August 1948, in the middle of an official truce, two squads from the 53rd Battalion of the Givati Brigade raided Zikrin, lobbing grenades and torching three or four houses. About 10 adult males, two children and one woman were killed in the village, according to IDF sources. The last three were killed accidentally, according to the report, while IDF suffered one soldier "slightly injured."[7]
Zikrin was finally depopulated on 22–23 October 1948 during the third stage of Operation Yoav under the command of Yigal Allon.[4] According to Morris, most of the villagers fled before the troops arrived, those who remained were expelled eastwards.[8] According to Morris, Yigal Allon was so successful in completely driving out the local population during Operation Yo'av, that the villagers found it almost impossible to "reinfiltrate" to their old villages, as there was no longer any local Arab population to help them resettle. During a military "sweep" of the villages in early 1949, they found most villages empty. In Zikrin it is reported that the troops found "two Arabs" who "managed to escape."[9]
Presently, there are no settlements on village land. The kibbutz, Beit Nir, is about 3 km south of the village site.[4]
The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the village site in 1992 as being overgrown with tall weeds, scrub, and other wild vegetation, containing a number of olive and carob trees. Truncated stone terraces, partially overgrown with cactuses, further marked the site. Some of the surrounding lands was cultivated by Israeli farmers for wheat. and the rest used as rangeland.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Conder and Kitchener, 1883, p. 258.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hadawi, 1970, p.51
- ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xix, village #297. Also gives cause of depopulation
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Khalidi, 1992, p.228
- ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 147. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 228
- ↑ Hadawi, 1970, p94
- ↑ Morris, 2004, p. 447, note 213
- ↑ Morris, 2004, p.466
- ↑ Morris, 2004, p.518-9
Bibliography
- Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Conder, Claude Reignier; Kitchener, H. H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Guérin, Victor (1869). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine. Vol 1; Judee, pt. 2. (p. 107 -108)
- Hadawi, Sami (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
- Hütteroth,, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (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. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
- 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.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00967-7.