Al-Shajara, Palestine
Al-Shajara
الشجرة al-Shajera | ||
---|---|---|
Etymology: "the Tree"[1] | ||
Geopolitical entity Mandatory Palestine | | |
Subdistrict | Tiberias | |
Date of depopulation | May 6, 1948[4] | |
Area | ||
• Total | 3,754 dunams (3.754 km2 or 1.449 sq mi) | |
Population (1945) | ||
• Total | 770[2][3] | |
Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces | |
Current Localities | Ilaniya |
Al-Shajara (
The village was the fourth largest by area in Tiberias district. Its economy was based on agriculture. In 1944/45 it had 2,102 dunams (505 acres) planted with cereals and 544 dunams (136 acres) either irrigated or fig and olive orchards.
Al-Shajara was the home village of the cartoonist Naji al-Ali.
History
Ceramics from the Byzantine era have been found here,[5] while the Crusaders referred to al-Shajara by "Seiera".[6] The Arabic name of the village ash-Shajara translates as "the Tree".
Ottoman era
In 1596, al-Shajara was part of the
A party of French cavalry was apparently stationed in the village during Napoleon's invasion of 1799.[8] A map from the same campaign by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as Chagara.[9]
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss traveler to Palestine who passed through the area around 1812, noted that the plain around the village was covered with wild artichoke,[10][11] while William McClure Thomson said that al-Shajara (Sejera) was one of several villages in the area which was surrounded by gigantic hedges of cactus.[12] He also noted the great oak woods in the vicinity.[13]
Victor Guérin visited in 1875, and "discovered the ruins of a rectangular edifice built of cut stones, and oriented from west to east. Its height is 31 feet, and its breadth 18 feet 8 inches. Six monolithic columns decorated the interior, which they divided into two naves. Capitals are lying about on the ground, apparently of Byzantine style. This church was used for a mosque, for the traces of a mihrab are to be seen at the south end. On a fine slab, lying on the ground, are read the Greek letters ΔΟΚΙ, each about four and a half inches high, and on a second slab the letter Δ placed above a I."[14]
Gottlieb Schumacher found old graves and other antiquities when he explored the area in the 1880s.[15] In the late nineteenth century, the village of al-Shajara was a stone-built village and had about 150 residents. The village was surrounded by arable land on which there were fig and olive trees, and there was a spring to the south.[16]
In 1907, the residents of the nearby Jewish settlement of
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, the population of Sjajara was 543 residents; 391 Muslims, 100 Jews, and 52 Christians.[18] where the Christians were all Orthodox.[19] By the 1931 census, Esh Shajara had 584 persons; 559 Muslims and 28 Christians, in a total of 123 houses.[20]
This had increased to 770 Muslims when the last census was made in the 1945 statistics.[2][3][21] There were 720 Muslim and 50 Christians.[22] In 1944/45 the village had 2,102 dunams of land used for cereals, and 544 dunams irrigated or used for orchards,[21][23] while 100 dunams were built-up (urban) area.[24]
1948, and aftermath
During the 1948 War, the Arab Liberation Army defending al-Shajara battled Israeli forces in the village in early March.[25] It was captured by Israel on May 6, 1948, by the 12th Battalion, Golani Brigade — the entire population fled leaving twenty dead.[26][4][27]
The Palestinian historian
People from al-Shajara
- Naji al-Ali, cartoonist, assassinated in London 1987
- "Abu Arab" Ibrahim Mohammed Saleh, Poet and Singer of the Palestinian Revolution, fled to Syria in 1948, returned in 2011, died in Homs, Syria in April 2014
See also
- Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel
References
- ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 134
- ^ a b Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 12
- ^ a b c Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 73
- ^ a b Morris, 2004, p. xvii, village #100. Also gives the cause of depopulation.
- ^ Dauphin, 1998, p.725
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p.540
- ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 190.
- ^ Thomson, 1860, p.216
- ^ Karmon, 1960, p. 166 Archived 2017-12-01 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Burckhardt, 1822, p. 333
- ^ Also cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 541
- ^ Thomson, 1860, p.117
- ^ Thomson, 1860, p.136
- ^ Guérin, 1880, pp. 183 -184, as given in Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 414
- ^ Schumacher, 1889, pp. 75-79
- ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p.361. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.541
- ^ Khalidi, 2010, pp. 103-106.
- ^ Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tiberias, p. 39
- ^ Barron, 1923, Table XVI, p. 51
- ^ Mills, 1932, p. 85
- ^ a b c Khalidi, 1992, p.541
- ^ Village Statistics April 1945, The Palestine Government, p. 7 Archived 2012-06-09 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 123
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 173
- ^ Tal, 2004, pp. 338-340
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p.541. Quoting New York Times. Also, according to the Haganah 'inhabitants fled leaving their dead behind.'
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. 186, note #179, p. 275
Bibliography
- Alexandre, Yardenna (2011-12-19). "Ilaniyya Final Report" (123). Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel. Archived from the original on 2013-05-18. Retrieved 2013-05-10.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Burckhardt, J.L. (1822). Travels in Syria and the Holy Land. London: J. Murray.
- Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 1. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- ISBN 0-860549-05-4.
- Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
- Guérin, V. (1880). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 3: Galilee, pt. 1. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
- Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center. Archived from the original on 2018-12-08. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
- 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.
- Karmon, Y. (1960). "An Analysis of Jacotin's Map of Palestine" (PDF). Israel Exploration Journal. 10 (3, 4): 155–173, 244–253. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2015-04-20.
- ISBN 978-0231521741.
- ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
- 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.
- Saulcy, L.F. de (1854). Narrative of a journey round the Dead Sea, and in the Bible lands, in 1850 and 1851. Vol. 2, new edition. London: R. Bentley. (p. 384)
- .
- ISBN 1135775133.
- Thomson, W.M. (1859). The Land and the Book: Or, Biblical Illustrations Drawn from the Manners and Customs, the Scenes and Scenery, of the Holy Land. Vol. 2 (1 ed.). New York: Harper & brothers.
External links
- Welcome to al-Shajara
- al-Shajara, Zochrot
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 6: IAA, Wikimedia commons
- Shajara from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
- Al-Sajarah, from Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh
- Tour to A-Shajra[usurped], November 25, 2006 Zochrot
- Booklet about Shajara, downloadable, from Zochrot