Al-Husayniyya
| Al-Husayniyya | |
|---|---|
  Al-Husayniyya | |
| Arabic | الحسينية |
| Name meaning | Khirbat Al-Husayniyya: The ruin of el Hasanîyeh, named after Hasan ibn Ali[1] |
| Also spelled | Al-Husayniyya |
| Subdistrict | Safad |
| Coordinates | 33°02′23.21″N 35°35′00.53″E / 33.0397806°N 35.5834806°ECoordinates: 33°02′23.21″N 35°35′00.53″E / 33.0397806°N 35.5834806°E |
| Palestine grid | 204/271 |
| Population | 340 (together with Tulayl)[2] (1945) |
| Area | 5,324[2] dunams |
| Date of depopulation | 21 April 1948[3] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Influence of nearby town's fall |
| Current localities | Chulata, Sde Eliezer[4] |
Al-Husayniyya (Arabic: الحسينية) was a Palestinian village, depopulated in 1948.
On 13 May 1948, Haganah paramilitary forces committed a crime by killing more than 30 children and women, which led the rest of the people living in the village to flee and seek shelter in Lebanon and Syria.[5]
Location
The village was located 11 kilometres northeast of Safed, on a slightly elevated hill in the southwestern corner of the al-Hula Plain. It stood along the eastern side of a highway that led to Safad and Tiberias.[6]
History
The Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi noted its ancient buildings and praised one of them, which he claimed had originally been a temple and perhaps was built by Solomon.[5][7]
In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described the place as having "a few ruined cattle-sheds".[8]
In 1945 the population the combined population of Tulayl and Al-Husayniyya was 340, with a total of 5,324 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[2] All the villagers were Muslims.[9] A total of 3,388 dunums was allocated to cereals and 22 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards for Tuleil and Al-Husayniyya. The villagers also kept livestock, especially water buffalo, for ploughing, dairy production, and meat.[5][10]
1948, and aftermath
In March 1948, Palmah's 3rd Battalion raided the village, and blew up five houses and killed several dozen villagers. According to Palmah reports cited by Morris, "the village was completely evacuated".[11] Some of the villagers who escaped the massacres may have remained or returned in subsequent days; according to Israeli military intelligence, the residents of al-Husayniyya did not leave until 21 April.[4]
The settlement of Chulata, established in 1937, is 3 km (2 mi) east of the site, near Tulayl. The settlement of Sde Eliezer is on village land, about 1 km (1 mi) west of the village site.[4]
The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the place in 1992: "Only piles of stone and sections of walls from demolished houses remain. The site itself is overgrown with thorns, grasses, and scattered Christ’s-thorn trees, and is used as pasture. The land in the vicinity is cultivated."[4]
See also
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
- Killings and massacres during the 1948 Palestine War
References
- ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 83
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 71, includes Tuleil
- ↑ Morris, 2004, p.xvi, village #36. Also gives cause of depopulation.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Khalidi, 1992, p. 457
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Khalidi, 1992, p. 456
- ↑ Khalidi, 1992, p. 455-6
- ↑ le Strange, 1890, p.340
- ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 239
- ↑ United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, Appendix B, p. 6
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 121
- ↑ Note 15. Palmah HQ to HGS, "Daily Report", 13 Mar. 1948, IDFA 922\\75\\1066 and Palmah HQ to HGS, "Daily Report", 17 Mar. 1948, HA 105\62. Cited in Morris, 2004, p.344
Bibliography
- Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Conder, Claude Reignier; Kitchener, Herbert H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology 1. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- 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.
- 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.
- Palmer, E. H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Strange, Guy le (1890). Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
External links
- Welcome To al-Husayniyya, Palestine Remembered
- SWP map IV, IAA
- SWP map 4, Wikimedia commons
- al-Husayniyya, Dr. Khalil Rizk.
