Danna, Baysan
| Danna | |
|---|---|
  Danna | |
| Arabic | دنه |
| Name meaning | the Amphora[1] |
| Subdistrict | Baysan |
| Coordinates | 32°36′46.5″N 35°28′27.5″E / 32.612917°N 35.474306°ECoordinates: 32°36′46.5″N 35°28′27.5″E / 32.612917°N 35.474306°E |
| Palestine grid | 194/224 |
| Population | 190 (1945) |
| Area |
6,614 dunams 6.6 km² |
| Date of depopulation | 28 May 1948 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Expulsion by Yishuv forces |
Danna (Arabic: دنه) was a Palestinian village 13 kilometres north of Baysan that was captured by the Israel Defense Forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.[2]
History
In 1596, Danna was part of the Ottoman Empire, nahiya (subdistrict) of Shafa under the liwa' (district) of Lajjun with a population of 5 Muslim families, (estimated 28 people). It paid taxes to the Ottoman government on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, and other types of produce, such as goats and beehives.[3]
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss traveler to Palestine who passed through the area around 1817, mentioned the village without providing an description.[4][5]
In the late nineteenth century, the village of Danna was situated on a slope, and was surrounded by farmland. There was a spring with a watering trough to the west. The village houses were built of stone and adobe.[6]
At the time of the 1931 census, Danna had 28 occupied houses and a population of 149 Muslims.[7]
The village was shaped like a rectangle whose longer sides were aligned in a north-south direction. During the British Mandate the village expanded and new houses, constructed of stone and adobe brick, were built along the road to the nearby village of Kafra. It was classified in this period as a hamlet in the Palestine Index Gazetteer. There were a few shops and a mosque which contained the shrine of a Shaykh Daniyal. The village spring provided water for all the residents, who all were Muslim. The villagers worked primarily in rainfed agriculture. In 1944/45 a total of 5,097 dunams was allotted to cereals; 14 dunams were irrigated or used for orchards. Grass and leafy vegetation grew on the slopes and peaks of the neighboring mountains and were used for grazing.[8]
The village today
According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, 1992, the remaining structures on the village land are:
"Bushes, cactus plants, thorns, and grass now grow around piles of rubble on the village site. Thick weeds grow in the wadi and near the springs. The lands in the area are cultivated by Israeli farmers."[8]
See also
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
References
- ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 160
- ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xvii village #111. Also gives cause of depopulation.
- ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 157, also cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 45
- ↑ Burckhardt, 1822, p.342.
- ↑ Also cited in Khalidi 1992, p. 46 (wrongly cited to p. 842)
- ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p.83. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.46
- ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 78
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Khalidi, 1992, p.46
Bibliography
- Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922 (PDF). Government of Palestine.
- Burckhardt, John Lewis, 1784-1817 (1822): Travels in Syria and the Holy Land Edition: reprint, Published by J. Murray, 668 pages.
- Conder, Claude Reignier; Kitchener, Herbert H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology 2. 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.
- 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. 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 (PDF). Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Morris, Benny, (second edition 2004 third printing 2006) 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.
External links
- Welcome To Danna
- SWP map IX, IAA
- SWP map 9, Wikimedia commons
- Danna, from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
