Wadi Ara, Haifa

Coordinates: 32°28′31″N 35°01′55″E / 32.47528°N 35.03194°E / 32.47528; 35.03194
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the former Palestinian village in Haifa Sub-district. For the valley, see Wadi Ara. For other uses, see Zababida (disambiguation).
Wadi Ara
وادي عارة
Old Palestinian house of Wadi Ara, now part of Kibbutz Barkai
Old Palestinian house of Wadi Ara, now part of Kibbutz Barkai
Etymology: Khurbet ez Zebadneh=The ruin if the people of Zebdah[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Wadi Ara, Haifa (click the buttons)
Geopolitical entity
Mandatory Palestine
SubdistrictHaifa
Date of depopulationFebruary 27, 1948[4]
Area
[3]
 • Total9,795 dunams (9.795 km2 or 3.782 sq mi)
Elevation
75 m (246 ft)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total230[2][3]
Cause(s) of depopulationFear of being caught up in the fighting
Current LocalitiesEin Iron, Barkai[5]

Wadi Ara (

Arabic: وادي عارة) was a Palestinian village located 38.5 km south of the city of Haifa. It is named after the nearby stream that is known in Arabic as Wadi 'Ara. The village was particularly small with a population of 230 and a land area of approximately 9,800 dunums
.

History and archaeology

En Esur: large Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age settlements

Main article: 'En Esur

At

proto-city, at a much earlier time than though possible in the region.[6]

Above the Chalcolithic settlement, a large walled

Tell el-Asawir, part of the wider En Esur site, contains burial caves dating from the fourth to the second millennium BCE.[7] The press release spoke of "the largest Bronze Age necropolis in the world".[8]

Roman to Late Ottoman periods

Ceramics from the late Roman, Byzantine, and early Muslim and Middle ages have been found at Khirbet ez-Zebadneh.[9][10]

The Muslim geographer

Qalansuwa.[7]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described it a small hamlet known as Khurbet ez Zebadneh.[11]

British Mandate

During the

Muslims,[12] increasing in the 1931 census to 81; still all Muslim, in a total of 18 houses.[13]

The moshav of Ein Iron was built in 1934 on what were traditionally village lands.[14]

In the 1945 statistics Wadi Ara had a population of 230 Muslims,[2] with a total of 9,795 dunams of land.[3] Of this, Arabs used 6,400 dunums of land for cereals,[15] while 1,446 dunams were classified as uncultivable land.[16]

  • Wadi 'Ara 1942 1:20,000
    Wadi 'Ara 1942 1:20,000
  • Wadi 'Ara 1945 1:250,000
    Wadi 'Ara 1945 1:250,000

1948 War and aftermath

During the

official founding of the modern state of Israel
, those remaining were removed by the end of July 1949.

In March 1949 as the Iraqi forces withdrew from Palestine and handed over their positions to the smaller Jordanian legion, three Israeli brigades manoeuvred into threatening positions in Operation Shin-Tav-Shin in a form of coercive diplomacy. The operation allowed Israel to renegotiate the ceasefire line in the Wadi Ara area of the northern West Bank in a secret agreement reached on 23 March 1949 and incorporated into the General Armistice Agreement. The green line was then redrawn in blue ink on the southern map to give the impression that a movement in the green line had been made.[18] Jordan ceded the entire Wadi Ara region to Israel on May 3, 1949.

Following the area's incorporation into Israel, kibbutz Barkai was established on the site of Wadi Ara on May 10, 1949.[14] In 1992 Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the remaining structures on the village land: "Only two village houses remain, both on the eastern edge of the site. One of them has arched windows and a spiral staircase leading up to a room on the roof. The second has a large entrance that is used today as a gate for the kibbutz's swimming pool."[14]

Petersen inspected the remaining buildings in 1994, and described them as "a large rectangular building which appears to be of late Ottoman date. On the ground floor is a long hall (18.8m x 6.9m) roofed by three cross-vaults. On the upper floor is a large terrace and a single cross-vaulted room. South of this building are the remains of a high wall and a monumental gateway which now gives access to the Kibbutz swimming pool. It is likely that both buildings date to the latter part of the Ottoman period (i.e. 1880-1917)".[19]

See also

  • Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel
  • Wadi Ara

References

  1. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 150
  2. ^ a b Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 15
  3. ^ a b c Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 49
  4. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village # 146. Also gives cause of depopulation
  5. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xxii, settlement # 126, 1949
  6. ^ a b c "Gigantic Prehistoric City Found in Israel During Roadworks". Ariel David for Haaretz. 8 October 2019. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  7. ^ a b c Khalidi, 1992, p. 201
  8. ^ "Grösste bronzezeitliche Grabanlage der Welt in Israel entdeckt" [Largest Bronze Age Necropolis in the World Discovered in Israel]. Jesus.ch (in German). 31 July 2003. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  9. ^ Dauphin, 1998, p. 749
  10. ^ Zertal, 2016, p.159
  11. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 42. Quoted in Petersen, 2001, p.310
  12. ^ Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. 34
  13. ^ Mills, 1932, p. 87
  14. ^ a b c Khalidi, 1992, p. 202
  15. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 92
  16. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 142
  17. ^ The Palestinian Nabka: Register of Depopulated Localities in Palestine, Compiled by Salman Abu Sitta The Palestinian Return Centre: London, September 2000, page 18
  18. ^ Shlaim, 2004, pp. 299, 312
  19. ^ Petersen, 2001, p. 310

Bibliography

External links
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