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DISTRICTS AND SUBDISTRICTS OF PALESTINE
As can be seen from the proclamation of the High Commissioner for Palestine published in the Palestine Gazette No. 1415 of the 7th of June, 1945, there were six districts in Palestine, namely:
1. Galilee District, composed of the five subdistricts of Acre, Beisan, Nazareth, Safad and Tiberias;
2. Haifa District, coextensive with the Haifa subdistrict.
3. Samaria District, composed of the three subdistricts of Jenin, Nablus and Tulkarm;
4. Jerusalem District, composed of the three subdistricts of Hebron, Jerusalem and Ramallah,
5. Lydda District, composed of the subdistricts of Jaffa and Ramle;
6. Gaza District, composed of the subdistricts of Beersheba and Gaza.
In 1948, there were in Palestine four cities and towns that had a mixed Arab and Jewish population, namely, Safad, Haifa, Tiberias, and Jerusalem. There were also 91 cities and towns inhabited only by Arabs, and there were 837 Arab villages as well as 108 villages and localities inhabited by Bedouins in several subdistricts. There were also six cities and towns inhabited by Jews, and there were 287 Jewish settlements.
The 91 cities and towns inhabited only by Arabs were the following: 1. Acre subdistrict - Acre, El Bassa, Sakhnin and Tarshiha; 2. Beisan subdistrict - Beisan; 3. Nazareth subdistrict - Nazareth, Kafr Kanna and Saffuriya; 4. Safad subdistrict - El Khalisa; 5. Tiberias subdistrict - Lubiya, Maghar and Samakh; 6. Haifa subdistrict - Shafa 'Amr and Et Tira; 7. Jenin subdistrict - Jenin, 'Arraba, Umm el Fahm, Ya'bad and El Yamun; 8. Nablus subdistrict - Nablus, 'Agraba, 'Asira esh Shamaliya, Tammun and Tubas; 9. Tulkarm subdistrict - Tulkarm, 'Anabta, 'Attil, Baqa el Gharbiya, Deir el Ghusun, Qalqiliya, Shuweika, Et Taiyiba and Et Tira; 10. Hebron subdistrict - Hebron, 'Ajjur, Bani Na'im, Beit Jibrin, Beit Nattif, Ed Dawayima, Edh Dhahiriya, Dura, Halhul, Idna, Es Samu', Si'ir, Surif and Yatta; 11. Jerusalem subdistrict - Bethlehem, Beit Jala, Beit Sahur, 'Ein Karim, Lifta, Silwan, Et Tur and Jericho; 12. Ramallah subdistrict - Ramallah, El Bira, Bir Zeit and Deir Dibwan; 13. Jaffa subdistrict - Jaffa, Beit Dajan, Kafr 'Ana, Es Safiriya, Salama, El Yahudiya and Yazur; 14. Ramle subdistrict - Ramle, 'Aqir, Beit Nabala, Lydda, El Qubab and Zarnuqa; 15. Beersheba subdistrict - Beersheba; 16. Gaza subdistrict - Gaza, Bani Suheila, Beit Daras, Bureir, Deir El Balah, El Majdal, El Faluja, Hamama, Hirbiya, Isdud, Jabaliya, El Jura, Khan Yunis, El Masmiya, Rafah and Yibna.
ARAB CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES OCCUPIED IN 1948
In 1948 Zionist forces occupied the mixed populated towns and cities, namely, Safad, Tiberias, Haifa and all the modem sections and quarters of Jerusalem, namely: Mamilla, Jaffa Gate, El Maskubia, Bab El Jadid, El Musrara, El Baka El Fuka, El Baqa Altahta, Katamon, Greek Colony and Talbieh. Zionist forces also occupied fifty cities and towns inhabited by Arabs only. They are the following:
1. Acre subdistrict - Acre, El Bassa, Sakhnin and Tarshiha; 2. Beisan subdistrict - Beisan; 3. Nazareth subdistrict -Nazareth, Kafr Kanna and Saffuriya; 4. Safad subdistrict - El Khalisa; 5. Tiberias subdistrict - Lubiya, Maghar and Samakh; 6. Haifa subdistrict - Shafa 'Amr and Et Tirq 7. Jenin subdistrict - Umm el Fahm, El Yamun; 8. Nablus subdistrict - none; 9. Tulkarm subdistrict - Baqa El Gharbiya, Et Taiyiba and Et Tira; 10. Hebron subdistrict- 'Ajjur, Beit Jibrin, Beit Nattif and Ed Dawayima; 11. Jerusalem subdistrict - 'Ein Karim and Lifta; 12. Ramallah subdistrict -none; 13. Jaffa subdistrict - Jaffa, Beit Dajan, Kafr 'Ana, Es Safiriya, Salama, El Yahudiya and Yazur; 14. Ramle subdistrict - Ramle, 'Aqir, Beit Nabala, Lydda, El Qubab and Zarnuqa; 15. Beersheba subdistrict - Beersheba; 16. Gaza subdistrict - Beit Daras, Bureir, El Faluja, El Majdal, Hamama, Hirbiya, Isdud, El Jura, El Masmiya and Yibna. The Zionists also occupied 476 villages in the subdistricts of Acre, Beisan, Nazareth, Safad, Tiberias, Haifa, Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm, Hebron, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Ramle, Beersheba and Gaza.
When the Armistice agreements were signed by Zionist authorities, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, the Zionists were in occupation of 80% of the territory of Palestine, which included all of the subdistricts of Acre, Beisan, Nazareth, Safad, Tiberias, Haifa, Jaffa, Ramle, and Beersheba, and parts of the subdistricts of Jenin, Nablus, Tulkarm, Hebron, Jerusalem and Gaza. They occupied the four cities and towns of mixed Arab and Jewish population, namely Tiberias, Safad, Haifa and Jerusalem. They also occupied 50 Arab towns and 476 Arab villages as well as 108 villages and localities inhabited by Bedouins in the aforementioned subdistricts.
The Zionist terrorist organizations, the Haganah, Irgun and the Stern, practically emptied the subdistricts they occupied of their Arab inhabitants. They expelled by force, massacre and threats over 800,000 Muslim and Christian Palestinians. We shall deal in detail with the expulsion of the Palestinian Arab population in the chapter relating to expulsions. But it is important to state that not more than 100,000 Palestinian Arabs remained in the occupied areas. The Zionists immediately set up a military government in the occupied areas whose task was to prevent Palestinians from returning to their homes and to further expel more Palestinians who remained in their towns and villages. The Zionists acted on the racist principle that there is no room for Arabs and Jews to live in the "Jewish State," and therefore, the "Military Government" was doing everything in its power to further empty the areas of their Arab inhabitants. Yosef Weitz stated: "I marked on my map land areas of one village after another and I should like to swallow it all."(1)
After the great majority of the Palestinian Arab population had been expelled, the Zionist terrorist organizations, together with other Jews, looted more than 200,000 Arab homes and apartments and looted all Arab shops, stores, factories and commercial buildings. After the Zionists declared martial law in the occupied areas, they formed a committee for the allocation of Arab homes and apartments Erasing Arab Towns and Villages and Usurping Arab Houses and Apartments 307 for settling Jews. This committee was composed of representatives of the Jewish Agency, war victims' organization, Ministry of Commerce and Industry of the provisional government, the military governor of each area and a custodian. It assigned new Jewish immigrants and Jews from other areas to live in Arab houses and apartments.(2)
The Zionists expropriated the private property of Arabs who remained in the boundaries of the so-called Jewish State.
Tom Segev recounts:
Yosef Yaakobson - an orange grower, and later an advisor to the Ministry of Defense - suggested to Ben- Gurion that he expropriate a shoe-making plant from its Jaffa owner and turn it over to the shoe-making enterprise Min'al of kibbutz Givat Hashloshah. Ben-Gurion consulted the Minister of Finance and Kaplan expressed the opinion that the private property of Arabs who remained in Jaffa should not be expropiated. Ben-Gurion disagreed; in his opinion only the property found inside private residences should not be expropriated. Yaakobson told him that the army was removing goods from Jaffa property estimated at 30,000 pounds daily.(3)
The abandoned Arab homes in the occupied Arab towns and villages were dealt with in a similar manner. A committee of the Jewish Agency Settlement Department and the Jewish National Fund was established to survey the 528 Arab towns and villages in all the occupied subdistricts. Those villages that contained houses that could be used to settle Jews were immediately converted into Jewish settlements by bringing new Jewish immigrants or Jews from the Kibbutzim. The villages that had either few houses or houses of different styles than Jews would live in were completely demolished. The bulldozers of the Haganah and the Jewish National Fund were sent to these villages to completely demolish their houses. They were erased from the map of Palestine. New Jewish settlements were immediately established on their sites or nearby. The Zionists completely demolished the mosques and cemeteries in all Arab towns and villages converted into Jewish settlements.
Levi Eshkol of the Settlement Department of the Jewish Agency (who later became so-called Premier) and the notorious Yossef Weitz of the Jewish National Fund coordinated the program for Judaization of Arab villages in the latter half of 1948. Eshkol relates in his diaries, "I sent for the engineers, asked the engineer corps for assistance and began to turn the great wheel which enabled us that very winter to transform more than 45 abandoned villages into lively new Jewish settlements."(4)
Yosef Weitz states in his diaries that he had formed a "transform committee" and was travelling about the areas seized by the Haganah working out the implementation of his view on the abandoned villages ... destruction, improvement and settlement.(5)
Tom Segev, a former writer for the Ha' aretz and co-editor of the Israeli Newsweekly Koteret Rashit, describes the destruction of Arab villages and their conversion into Jewish settlements. He states:
In the latter half of 1948, the settlement department
of the Jewish Agency prepared a list of several dozen Arab villages
which it proposed to repopulate with new immigrants. Most
of the villages had been abandoned, but a few were not quite
empty. Some were meant to be demolished and their lands to
be used for new settlements. Some of the Cabinet ministers
criticized the army for demolishing some of the villages it
occupied. The subject was brought up time after time by
Ministers Shitrit, Bentov and Cizling. "As I travel about I hear
rumors about the destruction of property and I should like to
know who gave the order to do this," said Cizling at one
meeting. "I was in Beit Shean and was told by people I trust
that the army commander had received an order to destroy the
place .... These are facts about villages which have been
destroyed. In the Hefer Valley I saw Arab villages which had
been abandoned by their inhabitants and were not destroyed
during the campaign. Now they are in ruins and whoever did
it should be called upon to explain...." Ben-Gurion replied:
"When you say Beit Shean, that is aparticularplace. But when
you mention generally 'ruined villages' -I can't send people
to look for ruined villages." Cizling asked: "Who destroyed
the village of Cherkass in the Hefer Valley? At an earlier
meeting I mentioned Moussa Goldenberg who reported an
order to destroy 40 villages and named you as the source of
that order. I stated then that I did not believe it was really done
in your name. I am not speaking now about the political
aspect, but about things which seem to be happening by
themselves, without control. Even if I agreed with a certain
act - I wouldn't accept it being done by itself."(6)
Not everything happened "by itself": in September Ben-
Gurion informed the Ministerial Committee for Abandoned
Property that the commander of the central front, Tsvi
Ayalon, considered it necessary "to demolish partially" 14
Arab villages, for reasons of security, "As it is extremely
difficult to convene the committees," Ben-Gurion wrote his
ministers, "would you please let me have your opinion (on
the destruction of Arab villages) in writing. I shall await your
answer within three days ... Lack of response will be viewed
as consent." The ministers demanded further information. In
September 1949 the Cabinet debated the destruction of the
old city of Tiberias. Yigael Yadin was quoted as recommending
that the entire city, except for the holy places, be
destroyed, in order to prevent the Arab residents from returning.(7)
The authorities
also included in their plans lands owned by Jews. They were inclined to emphasize
that most of the Arab lands they proposed to expropriate were not cultivated,
and that even after the expropriations the Arab villages would
still have enough lands to sustain them. The army recommended
certain locations and often demanded that they be
settled. The assumption was that the new settlements would
serve to fortify the country's borders and prevent the return
of the villagers who had fled and been driven out in the course
of the war and its aftermath.(8)
On June 27, 1948, Aharon Zisling, Minister of Agriculture, who throughout 1948 criticized Ben-Gurion's policy towards the Palestinian Arabs, asked Ben-Gurion "about the rumoured plans to destroy 40 abandoned Arab villages and about the burning of the standing crops of Arabs in various parts of the country. Ben-Gurion apparently did not reply."(9)
The Haganah forces started moving the Arab population from their homes in the cities to different homes abandoned by the refugees in different sections of the towns. Their objective was to segregate the Arab population in the worst sections of each city. An example of these operations is the one conducted in the city of Haifa.
Tom Segev in his book, 1949 The First Israelis, described what happened when Haganah forces moved Arab inhabitants of Haifa from one area to another. He describes the meeting between the Commander of occupied Haifa with representatives of the Arab community. The commander was Rehavem Amir. He met Tewfik Toubi and Bulus Farah and informed them of the order to remove the Arabs from the Camel Ridge and the German colony area and other more well-to-do areas to the area of Wadi Nisnas, where abandoned houses had been prepared for them. The Military Order stated that the operation was to be carried out by July 5, within four days. Mr. Toubi and Mr. Farah protested vehemently against such a measure, but the Jewish Commander told them, "There is no room for argument," and insisted that the 90 Arab families in Stella Maris, the 180 Arab families in the German colony and the 47 families in Wadi Jamal must be removed to the houses in Wadi Nisnas which were homes of Arabs who had abandoned the city.(10)
THE DESTRUCTION AND RESETTLEMENT OF ARAB VILLAGES
The expulsion of the populations of the Christian villages of Iqrit and Kafr Bir'im and the village of El Khisas and the destruction of their homes are examples of the war crimes committed by Zionist leaders against the Palestinians and their villages. The following developments were related by the Mukhtar of Iqrit village to the late advocate Hanna Nakara of Haifa:
(a) IQRIT (ACRE SUBDISTRICT)
Iqrit is an Arab village in Western Galilee next to the
Lebanese border with an area of 15,650 dunums. It was
occupied by the Haganah on October 3 1,1948. Six days later,
on November 5, the villagers were ordered, for "security
reasons" and on the pretext of safeguarding their lives, to
leave their homes "for two weeks" until military operations
in the area were concluded. They refused to cross the border
to Lebanon, and hence were advised to take only what they
needed for this short period of "two weeks." The Haganah
deceived them by providing locks for the houses and handing
the villagers the keys. Within three days the villagers were
evacuated to Er Rama in central Galilee on the main
Acre/Safad road.
Military operations ceased and an armistice agreement
was concluded between Israel and Lebanon on March 23,
1949, but still the villagers of Iqrit were not allowed to return
to their village, despite what had been promised them. All
appeals to Haganah leaders went unheeded or were rejected.
After more than two years of unabated applications, correspondence,
delegations, meetings and negotiations without
avail, the villagers realized that the Israelis had no intention
of allowing them to return to their homes and lands. Thus they
petitioned the High Court of Justice in High Court Case No.
64/51.
On July 31, 1951, the High Court ruled that "there is no
legal obstacle to petitioners returning to their village."
The villagers, believing that the authorities would honor
the High Court's decision, applied to the Military Governor
to implement it. He referred them to the Minister of Defense,
who referred them back to the Governor. This seesaw continued
for about a month, while the villagers, living in Er
Rama and elsewhere impatiently awaited their return. At the
end of the month the government, incredibly, gave the people
formal orders to leave their village, which they had left about
three years before. These orders were purported to be in
accordance with the provisions of the Emergency Regulations
(Security Zones), 1949.
In spite of the absurdity of these orders, the villagers
appealed at once to the military appeals committee, which,
after a show-hearing lasting until after midnight, ratified the
so-called expulsion orders. The villagers thereupon petitioned
the High Court of Justice once again. An order nisi was issued,
and the case was fixed for hearing on February 6, 1952.
Although the matter was under consideration before the
highest court in the country, the Israeli army, following an
order from the Military Governor or the Minister of Defense,
blew up all the houses of this Maronite Christian Arab village
on Christmas Day, 195 1. The High Court was thus presented
with a fait accompli.
On August 25,1953 (OfficialGazette No. 309 of September
3, 1953, p. 1446), the Minister of Finance issued a
certificate under which the whole of Iqrit, with its area of
15,650 dunums, was requisitioned pursuant to Section 2 of
the Land Acquisition (Validation of Acts and Compensation)
Law, 1953.
(b) KAFR BIR'IM (SAFAD SUBDISTRICT)
The case of Kafr Bir'im, another Maronite Christian Arab
village, is similar to that of Iqrit. The village was occupied on
the same day, October 3 1,1948. The inhabitants were ordered
to evacuate their village and go to the neighboring village of
Jish. Their evacuation was imposed in the same way as that
of the people of Iqrit, under the same circumstances, under
the same pretexts and with the same promises that they would
be allowed to return.
The villagers of Kafr Bir'im petitioned the High Court of
Justice in 1953. The court issued an order nisi to the
authorities concerned to show cause, if any, why the villagers
were prevented from returning to their homes.
Once more the reply was contrary to all principles of
justice and equity, and a direct insult to the authority of the
judiciary. In a display of force and impudence, the infantry
and air force attacked the vacant village on September 16,
1953, bombing and shelling the houses until they were completely
demolished.
Kafr Bir'im, with an area of 11,700 dunums, was also
expropriated under the Land Acquisition (Validation of Acts
and Compensation) Law, 1953. The certificate of the Minister
of Finance was published in the Official Gazette No. 307 of
August 27, 1953, p. 1419.
(c) EL KHISAS
This is a small village in the Hula basin whose
inhabitants numbered 470 Arabs and 60 Jews in 1945. The Arabs owned
1,480 dunums. The village is about six kilometers from the
Lebanese border and ten kilometers from the Syrian border.
In the area there are a number of Jewish settlements closer to
Erasing Arab Towns and Villages and Usurping Arab Houses and Apartments 309
the borders. Only fifty-seven Arabs remained in the village
after 1948. They owned three hundred dunums, most of which
were fruit orchards. The Arabs had friendly relations with
their Jewish neighbors and with the Jewish authorities. Six
youngsters had volunteered for the Jewish Army and served
eight months fighting side by side with Jewish soldiers and
forces.
Israel's peculiar reward for friendly relations and military
cooperation came shortly thereafter. On June 5, 1949, before
sunrise, the village was encircled by army units, the Arabs
were forcibly loaded onto army trucks, their houses were
blown up and the inhabitants were transferred to Mount
Kan'an, near Safad. They were placed in an open area under
the burning June sun.
The people of El Khisas lodged protests against this
unwarranted and inhuman treatment. They petitioned and
approached several military and civil bodies, as well as many
political figures, including the President, Prime Minister and
Chairman of the Knesset. Their only demand was to be
allowed to return to their village.
After nearly six months of living in the open air, with the
approach of the harsh winter months, they were transferred to
a desolate place called Wadi el Hammam in the vicinity of
Tiberias.
They were assured time and again that their case was under
consideration. On one occasion, after they were transferred to
Wadi el Hammam, they were told by the Military Governor,
Elisha Sols, that their evacuation was a mistake. He expressed
his regret at what had befallen them and promised to arrange
for their prompt return. Yet, still nothing was done to help
them.
At last, feeling that all entreaties had gone unheard and
that their stay in Wadi el Hammam was becoming permanent,
and seeing that many other Arabs had been allowed to return
to their villages under the Armistice Agreements concluded
with Lebanon and Syria, the villagers decided to petition the
High Court of Justice.
On June 12, 1952, they lodged their petition (High Court
Case No. 132152). An order nisi was issued on the same day
ordering the Minister of Defense and the Military Governor
of Galilee to show cause within twenty days why they did not
allow the petitioners (thirteen heads of families) to return to
El Khisas.
In their petition the villagers stated inter alia the following:
1. That they were Israeli citizens, held Israeli identity
cards, were born in El Khisas and had lived there with
members of their families (sixty in number) since their birth;
2. That during the Mandate they had cooperated with the
Haganah and the Keren Kayemet Le-Israel Ltd. (Jewish National
Fund), and were on the best of terms with the settlements
surrounding their village.
The Respondents (the Minister of Defense and the
Military Governor of Galilee) were in a very bad situation.
There was no lawful order against the petitioners to evacuate
their village. There were no legal grounds to remove them
from their houses by force, demolish their houses and transfer
the people to Mount Kan'an. The petitioners' case seemed
unanswerable.
But Israel's government had its own crooked ways and
means. The competent authority under the Emergency
Regulations (Security Zones), 1949, issued fraudulent orders
on July 8, 1952, against all the people of El Khisas to leave
the security zone within fourteen days of the date on which
the order was delivered. They were served with these orders
in Wadi el Hammam on July 7 and 8, 1952.
It was maintained in these orders that on November 2,
195 1 -two and a half years after the villagers' expulsion -
the Minister of Defense had published in the Rules Collection
No. 215 an order declaring El Khisas to be in a "security
zone."
The people of El Khisas, as we have seen, were forcibly
removed from their village on June 5, 1949. The area was not
declared a "security zone" until November 2, 1951, and the
orders to leave the village were issued on July 7, 1952, i.e.,
three years after the villagers' forced removal. It is obvious
that the expulsion was ab initio unlawful and illegal.
When they returned to court on March 3, 1953, the
petitioners, finding that their chances of success were weak,
accepted the suggestion of the High Court of Justice that they
lodge an appeal against the order of July 7, 1952, before the
Appellate Commission under the Emergency Regulations
(Extension) (Security Zones) (No.2) Law, 1949. The petition
before the High Court of Justice stood adjourned pending the
decision of the Appellate Commission.
Predictably, the appeal was dismissed on the pretext of "security." Although
the High Court of Justice recommended that the authorities concerned should
do everything possible to find a suitable solution which would meet security
requirements and would also enable the petitioners to go back to their
village, nothing was done, and to this day the villagers of El
Khisas continue to live in Wadi el Hammam under miserable
conditions.
It was clear that the question was not one of security, but
one of grabbing the land and "clearing" the Hula Basin and
Tiberias area of Arabs.
EXPULSION OF THE INHABITANTS OF OTHER VILLAGES AND TOWNS
Dr. Sabri Jiryis, in his book The Arabs in Israel, describes how Israel expelled the inhabitants of several Arab villages from their homes and destroyed the villages:
One of the first incidents of the expulsion of Arabs from
their villages was the evacuation of Iqrit in western Galilee
and the transportation of its inhabitants to the village of Er
Rama, on November 5, 1948. Three months after that, on
February 4, 1949, the inhabitants of Kafr Anan were evicted
from their homes; half were sent to the Triangle where they
were forced to cross the armistice lines into the West Bank.
Three years later, when the villagers submitted a request to
the Supreme Court to be allowed to return to Kafr Anan, all
its houses were destroyed by the Israeli army.
On February 28, seven hundred refugees were expelled
from Kafr Yasif, to which they had fled from nearby villages
during the fighting in Galilee. Most were loaded onto trucks,
driven to the Jordanian border and forced to cross.
The forced removals continued. On June 5,1949, the army
and police surrounded three Arab villages in Galilee -
Khisas, Qeitiya, and Yanuh - and expelled the inhabitants
to the Safad area. In January 1950 an army unit arrived in the
village of El Ghabisiya and told the inhabitants they had to
leave within two days or be expelled across the frontier.
Seeing no alternative, they left their homes and moved to Sheikh Dannun, an
abandoned village. On July 7, after a search in the village of Abu Ghosh near
Jerusalem, some one hundred residents were rounded up and taken to an "unknown
destination."
On August 17, the inhabitants of Majdal in the south (now called Ashkelon)
received an expulsion order and were transported to the border of the Gaza
Strip over a three-week period. At the beginning of February 195 1, the inhabitants
of thirteen small Arab villages in Wadi 'Ara in the Triangle were sent over
the border. And on November 17, 1951, a military detachment surrounded the
village of Khirbat Buweishat (near Umm el Fahm in the Triangle), expelled the
inhabitants, and dynamited their homes.
In addition to these collective expulsions, the Israeli government carried
out "selective" expulsions
in most of the Arab villages in Galilee between 1948 and 195 1. Several dozen
men would be chosen and forced to leave -notably heads of families, the eldest
sons of large families, and the breadwinners - no doubt in the hope that they
would soon be followed by their dependents.
Wholesale expulsions continued well into the early years of the Israeli State.
In September 1953, the villagers of Umm el Faraj (near Nahariya) were driven
out and their village destroyed. In October 1953, seven families were expelled
from Er Rihaniya in Galilee, despite a Supreme Court ruling that the expulsion
was illegal. On October 30, 1956, the Baqqara tribe was forced to cross from
the northern part of Palestine into Syria.
As late as 1959 -eleven years after the establishment of the State - Bedouin
tribes were expelled to Jordan and Egypt; the action was reversed only after
United Nations intervention.
Many other villages were either partly or completely demolished and many of
their inhabitants now live as refugees in various pans of Israel. But the incidents
described are a fair sample of the "redemption
of the land" operations undertaken by the
Israeli authorities during the first years after the creation of the state.(11)
Tom Segev testifies to the settlement of Jews in a total of 350 Arab villages. He states:
The press expressed no qualms in reporting the
resettlement of the abandoned villages, a total of 350. The reports
reflect a solid belief in the right and justification of the
resettlement. Davar: "At the sound of the Israeli soldiers
marching, the Arabs were seized with a great terror and left
their homes, with their heavily loaded camels and donkeys,
en route for the border .... And now in Jasmin - renamed
Givat Amal-livenew residents, recently arrived viacyprus,
survivors of the camps of Europe .... They sit around a long
table, with one remnant of the abandoned furniture, and tell
their tales ..." Ha'aretz: "...Patches of brilliant green are now
surrounding the houses in the abandoned villages, thanks to
the activities of the Ministry of Agriculture that helps the new
immigrants develop their home farms ..." Davar Hashavua:
"...You will not recognize 'Aqir! More than a thousand immigrants
have settled in the abandoned village ..." Similar
descriptions were published about Deir Yasin. The immigrant
camp was later turned over to the Ministry of Health, which
converted it to a sanatorium for the mentally ill. Parts of the
village became one of the neighborhoods of the new city of Jerusalem, other
parts remained deserted.(12)
ZIONIST SETTLEMENTS BUILT ON THE SITES OF PLUNDERED ARAB VILLAGES
The Zionist leadership envisioned the erasing of Arab villages and the settling of Jews on their sites as the way of expanding the borders of the Jewish State. As succinctly. stated by Golda Meir: "The boundary is wherever Jews are living, not a line on the map,"(13)
Levi Eshkol, Head of the Settlement Department of the Jewish Agency, described the sites of such Jewish settlements when he "went on a tour of the Arab villages which had recently been abandoned and captured. As he put it, he saw 'the traces of what had been and was no longer' -the houses broken into, plundered and burned. 'The sight sank through my eyes and nostrils into my head, brain, blood and he art....'"(14)
Zionist leaders have admitted that the settling of Jews on Palestinian lands was not the colonizing of unpopulated lands, but the colonizing of depopulated lands rightfully belonging to their expelled Palestinian Arab inhabitants. General Moshe Dayan stated in 1969:
We came to this country which was already populated by Arabs, and we are establishing a Hebrew, that is, a Jewish State, here. Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you, because those geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahalal arose in the place of Mahalul; Gevat in the place of Jibta; Sarid in the place of Haneifa; and Kefar Yehoshua in the place of Tell Shaman. There is not one place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.(15)
General (Reserve) Rehav'am Zeevi said that "more than 400 Arab localities which were still existence in the late '40s had been replaced by Jewish settlements."(16)
The late Martin Buber, the great Jewish philosopher, professor of Sociology and Philosophy at the Hebrew University, wrote in 1961 an article in the Hebrew magazine Ner, stating:
Only an internal revolution can have the power to heal our people of their murderous sickness of causeless hatred (for the Arabs). It is bound to bring complete ruin on us. Only then will the old and young in our land realize how great was our responsibility to those miserable Arab refugees in whose towns we have settled Jews who were brought from afar; whose homes we have inherited, whose fields we now sow and harvest; the fruits of whose gardens, orchards and vineyards we gather; and in whose cities that we robbed, we put up houses of education, charity, and prayer while we babble and rave about being the "people of the book" and the "light unto the nations"!(17)
An official publication of the Jewish National
Fund stated: "The Jewish National Fund and private Jewish owners possess
under two million dunums. Almost all the rest belongs by law to Arab owners,
many of whom have left the country. 'Whatever the ultimate fate of the Arabs
concerned, it is manifest that their legal right to their land and property
in Israel will not be waived. Conquest by force of arms cannot, in law or
ethics, abrogate the rights of the legal owner to his present pr~perty."(18)
HOW WE
ASCERTAINED WHICH TOWNS AND VILLAGES WERE DESTROYED AND WHICH ARE STILL IN
EXISTENCE
The Zionists changed the name of Palestine and changed the names of the sub-districts in the areas they occupied, amounting to 80% of the territory of the country. They changed the names of the localities, completely destroyed the houses and buildings in many villages, usurped the lands belonging to those villages and established Jewish settlements on their sites. All this was done in order to erase the Arab connection to the land and to prevent the Arab refugees from returning to their homes and villages as called for by the United Nations.
In order to ascertain which towns and villages were erased from the map and which still exist, we reviewed the publication entitled The List of Localities: Geographical Information and Population 1948, 1961, 1972, Population and Housing Census 1972 Series, published in Jerusalem by the Central Bureau of Statistics of Israel in 1975.
The
said list published the following: the name of the town or village, the
name of the locality, code of locality, central grid reference, subdistrict,
natural region, municipal status, type of locality, organization affiliation,
year of Jewish settlement, and the size of the population in 1948, 1961 and
1972. The list refers to the existing Arab localities as follows:
Small village, non-Jewish;
Large village, non-Jewish;
Town, non-Jewish;
Bedouin Tribe.
The following list contains all the names of Arab villages and towns which still exist in Israel.
Having determined the list of towns and villages
described as non-Jewish (i.e., Arab towns and villages), we compared that
list with the list of towns and villages in the Proclamation of 1945 by the
British High Commissioner for Palestine (see the beginning of this chapter)
and with the list of Jewish settlements. In this way, we ascertained the
names and numbers of Arab towns and villages destroyed.
EXISTING ARAB TOWNS AND VILLAGES IN ISRAEL
ACCORDING TO THE
CENSUS OF POPULATION AND HOUSING 1972. LIST
Name of Locality |
Subdistrict |
Population Type |
Census 1961 |
1. Abu Sinan |
Acre |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,580 |
2. Bi'na. El |
Acre |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,496 |
3. Judeida |
Acre |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,303 |
4. Jurde (Khirbat Jurdich) |
Acre |
Small, non-Jewish |
302 |
5. Jatt (Hagalil) |
Acre |
Small, non-Jewish |
385 |
6. Deir el Asad |
Acre |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,938 |
7. Deir Hanna |
Acre |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,690 |
8. Tamra |
Acre |
Urban, non-Jewish |
5,324 |
9. Yanuh |
Acre |
Small, non-Jewish |
754 |
10. Yirka |
Acre |
Large, non-Jewish |
2,715 |
11. Kabul |
Acre |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,909 |
12. Kisra |
Acre |
Small, non-Jewish |
675 |
13. Kafr Yasif |
Acre |
Large, non-Jewish |
2,975 |
14. Kafr Sumei' |
Acre |
Small, non-Jewish |
576 |
15. Majd el Kurum |
Acre |
Large, non-Jewish |
2,835 |
16. El Mazra'a |
Acre |
Small, non-Jewish |
1,049 |
17. Mak'r, El |
Acre |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,397 |
18. Mi'ilya |
Acre |
Small, non-Jewish |
1,120 |
19. Nahf |
Acre |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,791 |
20. Sajur |
Acre |
Small, non-Jewish |
628 |
21. Sakhnin |
Acre |
Urban, non-Jewish |
5,150 |
22. 'Arraba (Arabet el Batuf) |
Acre |
Urban, non-Jewish |
3,636 |
23. Fassuta |
Acre |
Small, non-Jewish |
1,209 |
24. Buqei'a, El |
Acre |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,494 |
25. Er Rama |
Acre |
Large, non-Jewish |
2,986 |
26. Sha'b |
Acre |
Small, non-Jewish |
1,165 |
27. Sheikh Dannun |
Acre |
Small, non-Jewish |
707 |
28. Taiyiba, Et |
Beisan |
Small, non-Jewish |
310 |
29. Kaukab |
Beisan |
Small, non-Jewish |
669 |
30. Kafr Misr |
Beisan |
Small, non-Jewish |
415 |
3 1. Iksal |
Nazareth |
Large, non-Jewish |
2,156 |
32. Bu'eina |
Nazareth |
Small, non-Jewish |
745 |
33. Dabburiya |
Nazareth |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,931 |
34. Dahi, Ed |
Nazareth |
Small, non-Jewish |
175 |
35. Tamra (Yizre'el) |
Nazareth |
Small, non-Jewish |
234 |
36. Tur'an |
Nazareth |
Large, non-Jewish |
2,304 |
37. Yafa |
Nazareth |
Large, non-Jewish |
2,541 |
38. Kafr Kanna |
Nazareth |
Urban, non-Jewish |
3,549 |
39. Kafr Manda |
Nazareth |
Large, non-Jewish |
2,256 |
40. Mash-had |
Nazareth |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,308 |
41. Na'ura |
Nazareth |
Small, non-Jewish |
381 |
42. Nein |
Nazareth |
Small, non-Jewish |
430 |
43. Sulam |
Nazareth |
Small, non-Jewish |
567 |
44. 'Uzeir |
Nazareth |
Small, non-Jewish |
367 |
45. 'Hut |
Nazareth |
Small, non-Jewish |
1,161 |
46. 'Ein Mahil |
Nazareth |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,977 |
47. Reina, Er |
Nazareth |
Large, non-Jewish |
2,861 |
48. Rummana |
Nazareth |
Small, non-Jewish |
126 |
49. Rummat Heib |
Nazareth |
Small, non-Jewish |
419 |
50. Jish (Gush Halav) |
Safad |
Small, non-Jewish |
1,498 |
51. Tuba |
Safad |
Small, non-Jewish |
717 |
52. 'Akbara |
Safad |
Small, non-Jewish |
313 |
53. Rihaniya |
Safad |
Small, non-Jewish |
346 |
54. Hurfeish |
Safad |
Small, non-Jewish |
1,222 |
55. Yamma (Yavneel) |
Tiberias |
Small, non-Jewish |
375 |
56. Kafr Kama |
Tiberias |
Small, non-Jewish |
1,202 |
57. Maghar |
Tiberias |
Urban, non-Jewish |
4,010 |
58. 'Eilabun |
Tiberias |
Small, non-Jewish |
1,011 |
59. Beit Gan |
Tiberias |
Large, non-Jewish |
7581 |
60. I'billin (Khirbat) |
Haifa |
New, non-Jewish' |
399 |
61. Bayada (Khirbat el) |
Haifa |
Small, non-Jewish (1972) |
127 |
62. Bir El-Maksur (Khirbat Bir Almaksura) |
Haifa |
Small, non-Jewish |
1,292 |
63. Basmat Tab'un |
Haifa |
Small, non-Jewish (1972) |
974 |
64. Daliyat el Kannil |
Haifa |
Urban, non-Jewish |
4,124 |
65. Kafr Qari' |
Haifa |
Large, non-Jewish |
2,925 |
66. Maqura |
Haifa |
Small, non-Jewish |
98 |
67 'Ara (included 'Ar'ara) |
Haifa |
Small, non-Jewish |
1,580 |
68. 'Ein el Asad |
Hai fa |
Small, non-Jewish |
257 |
69. 'Isifya |
Haifa |
Large, non-Jewish |
2,903 |
70. Ar'ara |
Haifa |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,816 |
71. Fureidis. El |
Haifa |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,953 |
72. Sheikh Bureik |
Haifa |
Small, non-Jewish |
60 |
73. Shafa 'Amr |
Haifa |
Town, non-Jewish |
7,225 |
74. I'billin |
Haifa |
Town, non-Jewish |
3,674 |
75. 'Arab Gharnameh |
Haifa |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,607 |
76. Umm el Fahm |
Jenin |
Urban, non-Jewish |
7,492 |
77. Umm el Qutuf |
Jenin |
Small, non-Jewish |
101 |
78. Barta'a |
Jenin |
Small, non-Jewish |
481 |
79. Jisr Ez Zarqa |
Jenin |
Small, non-Jewish |
1,607 |
80. Zaiafa |
Jenin |
Large, non-Jewish |
721 |
81. El Mazar |
Jenin |
Small, non-Jewish |
283 |
82. Muqeibila |
Jenin |
Small, non-Jewish |
459 |
83. Musheirifa(Umm Alfahus) |
Jenin |
Small, non-Jewish |
578 |
84. Sandala |
Jenin |
Small, non-Jewish |
417 |
85, Mu'awiya |
Jenin |
Small, non-Jewish |
826 |
86. Musmus |
Jenin |
Small, non-Jewish |
738 |
87. 'Ein Ibrahim |
Jenin |
Small, non-Jewish |
450 |
88. Kafr Bara |
Nablus |
Small, non-Jewish |
348 |
89. Salim (Kfersalim) |
Nablus |
Small, non-Jewish |
168 |
90. Kafr Qasim |
Nablus |
Large, non-Jewish |
2,632 |
91. Ibthan (Khirbat) |
Tulkam |
Small, non-Jewish |
275 |
92. Bir es Sikke |
Tulkarm |
Small, non-Jewish |
310 |
93. Jaljuliya |
Tulkann |
Large, non-Jewish |
1,422 |
94. Jatt |
Tulkarm |
Large, non-Jewish |
2,233 |
95. Taiyiba, Et |
Tulkarm |
Urban, non-Jewish |
7,569 |
96. Tira, Et |
Tulkann |
Urban, non-Jewish |
5,494 |
97. Marja |
Tulkann |
Small, non-Jewish |
188 |
98. 'Ein es Sahle |
Tulkann |
Small. non-Jewish |
234 |
99. Qalansuwa |
Tulkam |
Urban, non-Jewish |
3,006 |
100. Baqa El Gharbiya |
Tulkarm |
Urban, non-Jewish |
7,566 |
101. Abu Ghosh |
Jerusalem |
Small, non-Jewish (destroyed 1976) |
|
102. 'Ein Rafa |
Jerusalem New |
Small, non-Jewish |
116 |
THE FATE OF THE BEDOUIN POPULATION IN PALESTINE
According to the Proclamation published in the Palestine Gazette No. 1415 of the 7th of June, 1945, Supplement No. 2, there were in Palestine villages and localities inhabited by Bedouin Tribes in the following subdistricts: Acre, Tulkarm, Tiberias, Beisan, Haifa, Jerusalem, Hebron and Beersheba. ' The number of localities and villages inhabited by these tribes in 1948 was 108.(19)
In 1947, the Representative of the United Kingdom
submitted a note to committee No. 1 of the Ad Hoc committee
in the United Nations which was discussing the proposal for
the partition of Palestine in which he stated that the total
Bedouin population in Palestine was as follows:(20)
1931 Census |
1946 Estimate |
|
Beersheba |
48,000 |
92,000 |
Nablus |
220 |
400 |
Hebron |
2,000 |
3,800 |
Jerusalem |
7,070 |
13,400 |
Gaza |
530 |
1,000 |
Ramle |
3,780 |
7,200 |
Jaffa and Tulkarm |
5,000 |
9,500 |
TOTAL |
66,600 |
127,300 |
According to the Census Department of the Government of Palestine, the annual increase of the Arab population in Palestine was about 30.71 per thousand. Therefore, the total Bedouin population in 1948 would have been 135,236. The Bedouins were semi-Nomadic tribes and they had their villages, localities, agricultural lands and grazing lands for their sheep, goats and cattle.
Following the system we employed to locate the Arab towns and villages in the List of Localities, Geographical Information and Population 1948, 1961, 1972 published by the Central Bureau of Statistics in Israel, we were able to locate only 41 villages and localities listed as Bedouin Tribes, with a total Bedouin population of 22,578 in 1961, after 13 years of Israeli occupation. It must be remembered that this figure of 22,578 is one that has been swollen by the natural increase in the population during the 13 years from 1948 to 1961. Given that the Arab population in Palestine was increasing at the rate of 30.71 per thousand, we estimate that the number of Bedouins who originally escaped expulsion would have been 11,250. This would mean that between 1948 and 1961 the Zionists expelled approximately 116,050 rnernbers of these tribes. They destroyed 65 of their villages and localities and usurped all their lands. The town of Arad in the subdistrict of Beersheba was established on 12,000 acres of Bedouin lands.
The expulsion of Bedouins to Jordan, Egypt and Syria was carried out in 1948, 1949, 1951, 1957, 1959, and 1979. Many of the Bedouins in the southern part of Palestine were placed in reservations and were not allowed to leave the area without a permit.
We have dealt with the question of the expulsion of the Bedouin tribes in detail in Chapter Nine. However, we wish to refer to a few instances from the United Nations records. In October and November, 1950, the Security Council discussed the complaint of Egypt regarding the crimes committed by the Israeli authorities against the Bedouins. Dr. Mahmoud Fawzi, representative of Egypt, stated in the meeting of the Security Council of October 16, 1950, the following:
I am instructed by my Government
to bring officially to your notice the following events, the great seriousness
of which will not escape anybody, and certainly not the
authorities and organs of the United Nations.
As long ago as 20 August last (1950), the
Israeli authorities undertook a large-scale military operation, using troops,
automatic weapons and armoured cars, in order to drive out of the
El Auja area of Palestine all the Bedouin settled in that
demilitarized zone and its surrounding areas. After being
driven as far as the Egyptian frontier by the Israeli forces,
which were guided by an Israeli reconnaissance aeroplane,
those Bedouin were compelled, on 2 September, to cross the
frontier between Egypt and Palestine at a point not far from
the locality known as Ain el Qideirat, and to seek refuge in
the Egyptian territory of Sinai, where they are now concentrated
at El Qusaima, Sabha, Dahra and Ain Qadeis.
On being notified of these acts of violence,
the United Nations observers in Palestine proceeded to the spot and
found that at least 13 of these new victims of Jewish terrorism,
including two women and two children, had died in the course
of this tragic manhunt; and the bodies of some of these victims
were found crushed by the armoured vehicles of their inhuman
pursuers.
Not satisfied with this mass expulsion and
the coldblooded manner in which it was carried out, the Jews vindictively
set fire to the shelter tents, crops and personal
belongings of their victims.
By 3 September the number of Bedouin so expelled had
reached 4,071. It is also an established fact that the persons
concerned were genuine Palestinians; and that during the
period of the British Mandate most of them had lived in the
Beersheba area. Driven from their homes by the Jews for the
first time when the Jews occupied this important area, they
went to settle in the El 'Auja area - since demilitarized -
where they had been living for more than two years when
these fresh and deplorable incidents occurred.(21)
Israeli war crimes against the Bedouins continued in 1953. The Chief of Staff of the Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine submitted a report to the Security Council on October 27, 1953, in which he stated the following:
South of the Gaza Strip, after a long period
of quiet on the Egypt-Palestine frontier, the Israelis started in the early
summer intensified action against the few Bedouins who lived in
the empty wastelands of the desert on both sides of the
frontier, and north of the El 'Auja Demilitarized Zone. Israeli
aeroplanes attacked Arabs and their herds of camels and
goats.
At the same time, incidents of increasing gravity
occurred in the Demilitarized Zone itself. Israeli armed groups
patrolled the Zone; they shot at Bedouins at the two main
wells; Arabs and their herds were killed by air and ground
attacks; armed Israeli forces, up to approximately 30 men,
shot the herds and burned the tents of Bedouins.
This appears to have been preparation for the
establishment in September of an Israeli settlement at Abu Ruth,
just east of the Demilitarized Zone, at about 8 kilometers from
the road junction at El Auja. Three weeks later a new and
smaller settlement, Rahel, was established in the
Demilitarized Zone, at 2 kilometers from the road junction at
El Auja.
The Egyptian delegation sent a complaint to the Mixed
Armistice Commission concerning these developments. In an
emergency meeting held on 2 October, the following draft
resolution moved by the Egyptian Delegate was adopted by
a majority vote, Israel voting against:
"The Mixed Armistice Commission,
having discussed the Egyptian complaint no. 336 decides:
"1. That an armed Israeli force has
entered several times the Demilitarized zone and attacked the Bedouin inhabitants
in the area, killing them and their livestock and preventing them from having
water from the wells in the area, thus constituting a flagrant violation of
Article VIII, paragraphs 1 and 5, of the General Armistice Agreement.
"2. That the existence of an
Israeli armed force and regular Israeli police in the new kibbutz established
in the Demilitarized Zone is a violation of Article IV, paragraph 1,
and Article VIII of the General Armistice Agreement.
"3. That the Chairman of the Mixed Armistice
Commission is called upon to take such measures as he deems necessary
to avoid future violations of the Demilitarized Zone."(22 )
Israel's war crimes against the Bedouins continued, as is
evident from the decision adopted by the Egyptian-Israeli
Mixed Armistice Commission of October 6, 1959.
DECISION ADOPTED ON 6 OCTOBER 1959 BY THE EGYPTIAN-ISRAELI MIXED ARMISTICE COMMISSION
The Egyptian-Israeli Mixed
Armistice Commission, having discussed complaint No. E-49-59, of
the United Arab Republic (Southern Region),
Recalling the resolution concerning the Palestine question
adopted by the Security Council at its 524th meeting on 17
November 1950,
Taking into consideration the resolution dated 30 May
195 1 of the Egyptian-Israeli Mixed Armistice Commission,
1. Finds that, on 18 September 1959, and on the days
following that date, a number of Bedouin estimated at about
350 of the Azazme tribe, have been expelled from the area
under Israeli control across the international frontier into the
territory of the United Arab Republic;
2. Finds further that the Israeli troops have committed
hostile acts against these Bedouin, which include the killing
of some Bedouin, burning their tents and depriving them of
their property, as a result of which the Bedouin were compelled
to flee into the territory of the United Arab Republic;
3. Finds further that those actions were carried
out in a
harsh and cruel way, contrary to accepted humanitarian
considerations;
4. Finds further that firing by Israeli troops
resulted in the
killing of one of the Bedouin on the territory
of the United
Arab Republic across the international frontier;
5. Decides that the actions
of the Israeli troops, which
forced the Bedouin to flee from Israeli-controlled
territory
into the territory of the United Arab Republic,
is contrary to
the Security Council resolution of 17 November
1950 and to
the Commission's resolution of 30 May;
6. Decides further that the killing of a Bedouin by Israeli
troops across the international frontier on the territory of the
United Arab Republic is a violation of Article 11, paragraph
2, of the General Armistice Agreement;
7. Decides further that the action
of Israeli troops compelling the Bedouin to leave Israeli territory is
a violation of Article V, paragraph 4, involved in the crossing of the
international border;
8. Condemns Israel for the above
hostile acts.(23)
VILLAGES AND LOCALITIES INHABITED BY BEDOUINS WHICH STILL EXIST IN ISRAEL
The following are the Bedouin villages and localities which were not destroyed and in which some Bedouin tribes still live:
Name of Locality | Subdistrict | Type | Census 1961 |
1. 'Arab el Hujeirat |
Acre |
Bedouin Tribe |
326 |
2. Arab es Sawa'id |
Acre |
Bedouin Tribe |
1,106 |
3. Sawa'd (Shuweiki Hamri y ya) |
Acre |
Bedouin Tribe |
318 |
4. 'Arab es Samniya |
Acre |
Bedouin Tribe |
140 |
5. Sa'ayde (Umm el Ghanarn) |
Acre |
Bedouin Tribe |
247 |
6. Sa'ayde ('Manshiyyet ez Zabde) |
Acre |
Bedouin Tribe |
147 |
7. Wadi Hamam |
Tiberias |
Bedouin Tribe |
630 |
8. Subeih |
Tiberias |
Bedouin Tribe |
671 |
9. Zubeidat |
Haifa |
Bedouin Tribe |
756 |
10. Tab'un |
Haifa |
Bedouin Tribe |
97 |
11. 'Amriyye |
Haifa |
Bedouin Tribe |
91 |
12. Jawamis |
Tulkarm |
Bedouin Tribe |
161 |
13. Ghazzalin |
Tulkarm |
Bedouin Tribe |
19 |
14. Ghureifat |
Tulkarm |
Bedouin Tribe |
205 |
15. Heib Abu Sayyah |
Tulkarm |
Bedouin Tribe |
178 |
16. Hajajre |
Tulkann |
Bedouin Tribe |
223 |
17. Khawaled |
Tulkann |
Bedouin Tribe |
196 |
18 Ka'abiyye |
Tul kann |
Bedouin Tribe |
488 |
19. Mazarib |
Tulkann |
Bedouin Tribe |
340 |
20. Mashayikh Sa'adiyye |
Tulkann |
Bedouin Tribe |
187 |
21. Nujeidat |
Tulkarm |
Bedouin Tribe |
458 |
22. Abu Ballal |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
310 |
23. Abu Junei'id |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
1,212 |
24. Abu Sureihan |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
154 |
25. Abu Abdun |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
218 |
26. Abu Am'ar |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
- |
27. Abu Amre |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
93 |
28. Abu Qureinat |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
1,584 |
29. Abu Rubei'a |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
2,518 |
30. Abu Ruqayyeq |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
3,063 |
31. Asad |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
304 |
32. A'sam |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
1,072 |
33. Afeinish |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
335 |
34. Junnabib |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
- |
35. Huzayyel |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
2,430 |
36. Zabbarja |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
- |
37. Nasasra |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
- |
38. 'Atawne |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
464 |
39. Qudeirat es Sani |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
1,212 |
40. Qawa'in |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
242 |
41. Tarabin es Sami |
Beersheba |
Bedouin Tribe |
383 |
In 1948 there were one hundred and eight localities and villages belonging to Arab Bedouin tribes in Palestine. Now only 41 of these villages and localities remain. The other 67 Bedouin villages and localities have been destroyed.
By Issa Nakhleh Return to Table of Contents |