Al-Khisas

al-Khisas
al-Khisas
Arabic	الخصاص
Also spelled	'Arab al-Khisas
Subdistrict	Safad
Coordinates	33°13′30.59″N 35°37′10.00″E / 33.2251639°N 35.6194444°E / 33.2251639; 35.6194444Coordinates: 33°13′30.59″N 35°37′10.00″E / 33.2251639°N 35.6194444°E / 33.2251639; 35.6194444
Palestine grid	208/292
Population	530 (470 Arabs and 60 Jews)^[1] (1945)
Area	4,795 dunams
Date of depopulation	25 May 1948/June 1949^[2]
Cause(s) of depopulation	Whispering campaign
Secondary cause	Influence of nearby town's fall
Tertiary cause	Expulsion by Yishuv forces
Current localities	HaGoshrim (ha-Gosherim)

Al-Khisas (Arabic: الخصاص‎‎), also known as Khisas or Khissas, was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict in Mandatory Palestine. It was located 31 kilometers (19 mi) northeast of Safed on a natural terrace about 100 meters (330 ft) wide that formed when Lake al-Hula receded. To the west of the village was a valley known as Wadi al-Hasibani through which ran the Hasbani River.^[3]

History

Ottoman era

Evidence of the long history of habitation in the village includes the nearby shrine of a local sage known as al-Shaykh 'Ali and the presence of rock-hewn tombs.^[3] The Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi described al-Khisas as falling within the administrative jurisdiction of Banias in Syria. Under the Ottoman Empire, al-Khisas was administered as part of a sanjak in the vilayet of Damascus, and was later redesignated a part the vilayet of Sidon (renamed the vilayet of Beirut).^[4]

British Mandate

In 1917, al-Khisas lay north of the Sykes Picot line, a straight line between the midpoint of the Sea of Galilee and Nahariya in the area to be incorporated under a French sphere of influence. The Syria-Lebanon-Palestine boundary was a product of the post-World War I Anglo-French partition of Ottoman Syria.^[5]^[6] British forces had advanced to a position at Tel Hazor against Turkish troops in 1918 and wished to incorporate all the sources of the river Jordan within the boundaries of British controlled Palestine. Due to the French inability to establish administrative control, the frontier between Syria and Palestine became 'fluid'.^[7] The international boundary between Palestine and Syria was finally set by joint agreement between Great Britain and France in 1923 in conjunction with the Treaty of Lausanne, after Britain had been given a League of Nations Mandate for Palestine in 1922; thus, al-Khisas came under British jurisdiction.^[8]

In the 1931 census of Palestine the population of Khisas was 386, all Muslims, in a total of 73 houses.^[9]

Types of land use in dunams in the village in 1945:^[10]^[11]

Land Usage	Arab	Jewish
Irrigated and plantation	1,438	2,728
Cereal	0	0
Cultivable	1,438	2,728
Urban	30	10
Non-cultivable	12	0

The land ownership of the village before occupation in dunams:^[1]

Owner	Dunams
Arab	1,480
Jewish	2,738
Public	577
Total	4,795

1947-1948 and aftermath

Al-Khisas had been selected, along with Al-Na'ima and Jahula, by the Palmach as a target for a Haganah operation which was then cancelled before it was undertaken. Leaflets was distributed in villages on Palestine's border that warned the population not to engage in combat:

"If the war will be taken to your place, it will cause massive expulsion of the villagers, with their wives and their children. Those of you who do not wish to come to such a fate, I will tell them: in this war there will be merciless killing, no compassion. If you are not participating in this war, you will not have to leave your houses and villages."^[12]

Former manor house of Emir Faour of Al-Khisas, now a hotel in kibbutz HaGoshrim.

On the night of 18–19 December 1947, the Palmach conducted a raid on al-Khisas with orders calling for "hitting adult [or the adult] males" and "killing adult [or the adult] males in the palace of the Emir Faur", which was thought to hide a man responsible for shooting a resident of kibbutz Ma'ayan Baruch in revenge for the shooting of a Palestinian a few days earlier.^[13] They blew up Faur's house and a neighbouring house, killing many occupants including women and children.^[13] According to Ben-Gurion, the raid was unauthorised.^[13] Local Jewish leaders and Arab affairs experts had tried to prevent the raid, but had been overridden by Yigal Allon.^[13] Afterwards the Political Department of the Jewish Agency criticized the attack and Yosef Sapir of the Defence Committee called for the punishment of those responsible, but no action was taken.^[13] Following the raid a large part of the residents left their homes.^[13]

The number of dead has been recorded as 10 (5 men, 1 woman and 4 children); however, the report from the Palmach commander recorded 12 dead (7 men, 1 woman and 4 children).^[14] David Ben-Gurion issued a denial that the raid had been authorised and issued a public apology, but it was later included by him in a list of successful operations.^[15] The Yishuv held a meeting on the 1–2 January to discuss the policy of reprisal operations, the outcome of which was a formulation of guidelines by the Jewish High Command for the conduct and execution of retaliatory raids.^[16]

The first wave of villagers left the al-Khisas on 11 May 1948. Others left on 25 May 1948. Another 55 villagers remained in their homes and maintained good relations with the Jewish settlements in the area, but were eventually evicted.^[17] During the night of 5–6 June 1949, the villagers were forced into trucks and transported to the village of 'Akbara, south of Safad.^[18] Those expelled remained at 'Akbara for 18 years until agreeing to resettlement in Wadi Hamam. On September 26, 1948, kibbutz HaGoshrim was established on the village lands of al-Khisas. The kibbutz opened a hotel in the manor house of Emir Faour.^[17]

References

1 2 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 70
↑ Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #5. Also gives causes of depopulation.
1 2 Khalidi, 1992, p. 465
↑ Khatib, 2003, p.31
↑ Fromkin, 1989, p. ?
↑ MacMillan, 2001, pp. 392-420
↑ Shapira, 1999, pp. 98-110
↑ Exchange of Notes Constituting an Agreement respecting the boundary line between Syria and Palestine from the Mediterranean to El Hammé. Paris, March 7, 1923.
↑ Mills, 1932, p. 107
↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 119
↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 169
↑ Pappé, 2007, pp. 56-57 Threatening leaflets were distributed in Syrian and Lebanese villages on Palestine's border, warning the population:
"If the war will be taken to your place, it will cause massive expulsion of the villagers, with their wives and their children. Those of you who do not wish to come to such a fate, I will tell them: in this war there will be merciless killing, no compassion. If you are not participating in this war, you will not have to leave your houses and villages."
Thereafter, a number of destructive operations were undertaken in select areas throughout rural and urban Palestine. Actions in the countryside were at first hesitant. Three villages in the upper eastern Galilee were selected - Khisas, Na'ima and Jahula - but the operation was cancelled, perhaps because the High Command deemed it as yet too ambitious. The cancellation, however, was partially ignored by the commander of the Palmach in the North, Yigal Allon. Allon wanted to experience an attack on at least one village, and decided to assault al-Khisas.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Morris, 2004, pp. 79–80
↑ New York Times, 20 December 1947 and 22 December 1947
↑ Pappé, 2007, p. 57
↑ Benvenisti, 2000, pp. 102-104
1 2 Benvenisti, 2000, pp. 206-207
↑ Morris, 2004, pp. 511-512

Bibliography

Benvenisti, Meron (2000). Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948. Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta (translator). University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-92882-2.
Finkelstein, Norman G. (2003). Image and reality of the Israeli-Palestine conflict (2 ed.). Verso Press. ISBN 978-1-85984-442-7. (pp. 56, 79 83- 84)
Fromkin, David (2010). A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. New York: Owl. ISBN 1-4299-8852-5.
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.
Khatib, Hisham (2003). Palestine and Egypt Under the Ottomans: Paintings, Books, Photographs, Maps and Manuscripts. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 1-86064-888-6.
MacMillan, Margaret (2011). Peacemakers: The Paris Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War. Hachette UK. ISBN 1-8485-4668-8.
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 978-0-521-00967-6.
Pappé, Ilan (2007). The ethnic cleansing of Palestine. (reprint). Oneworld Publications Limited. ISBN 978-1-78074-056-0.
Shapira, Anita (1999). Land and Power; The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881-1948. Stanford University press. ISBN 0-8047-3776-2.

External links

Welcome to al-Khisas
al-Khisas, Dr. Khalil Rizk.
N.Y. Times: Haganah kills 10 in raid on Arabs

Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestinian exodus by subdistrict

Acre Subdistrict	Amqa Arab al-Samniyya al-Bassa al-Birwa al-Damun Dayr al-Qassi al-Ghabisiyya Iqrit Iribbin Jiddin al-Kabri Kafr 'Inan Kuwaykat al-Manshiyya al-Mansura Mi'ar al-Nabi Rubin al-Nahr al-Ruways Suhmata al-Sumayriyya Suruh al-Tall Tarbikha Umm al-Faraj az-Zeeb

Beisan Subdistrict	Arab al-'Arida Arab al-Bawati Arab al-Safa al-Ashrafiyya al-Bira Beisan Danna Farwana al-Fatur al-Ghazzawiyya al-Hamidiyya al-Hamra Jabbul Kafra Kawkab al-Hawa al-Khunayzir Masil al-Jizl al-Murassas Qumya al-Sakhina al-Samiriyya Sirin Tall al-Shawk al-Taqa al-Tira Umm 'Ajra Khirbat Umm Sabuna Yubla Zab'a al-Zawiya

Beersheba Subdistrict	al-Imara al-Jammama al-Khalasa Auja al-Hafir

Gaza Subdistrict	Arab Suqrir Barbara Barqa al-Batani al-Gharbi al-Batani al-Sharqi Bayt 'Affa Bayt Daras Bayt Jirja Bayt Tima Bil'in Burayr Dayr Sunayd Dimra al-Faluja Hamama Hatta Hiribya Huj Hulayqat Ibdis Iraq al-Manshiyya Iraq Suwaydan Isdud al-Jaladiyya al-Jiyya Julis al-Jura Jusayr Karatiyya Kawfakha Kawkaba al-Khisas al-Masmiyya al-Kabira al-Masmiyya al-Saghira al-Muharraqa Najd Ni'ilya Qastina al-Sawafir al-Gharbiyya al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya al-Sawafir al-Sharqiyya Simsim Summil Tall al-Turmus Yasur

Haifa Subdistrict	Abu Shusha Abu Zurayq Arab al-Fuqara Arab al-Nufay'at Arab Zahrat al-Dumayri 'Atlit Ayn Ghazal Ayn Hawd Balad al-Sheikh Barrat Qisarya Burayka al-Burj al-Butaymat Daliyat al-Rawha' al-Dumun al-Ghubayya al-Fawqa al-Ghubayya al-Tahta Hawsha Ijzim Jaba' al-Jalama Kabara al-Kafrayn Kafr Lam al-Kasayir Khubbayza Lid al-Manara al-Mansi al-Mansura al-Mazar Naghnaghiya Qamun Qannir Qira Qisarya Qumbaza al-Rihaniyya Sabbarin al-Sarafand Khirbat al-Sarkas Khirbat Sa'sa' al-Sawamir Khirbat al-Shuna al-Sindiyana al-Tantura al-Tira Umm al-Shawf Umm al-Zinat Wa'arat al-Sarris Wadi Ara Yajur

Hebron Subdistrict	'Ajjur Barqusya Bayt Jibrin Bayt Nattif al-Dawayima Deir al-Dubban Dayr Nakhkhas Kudna Mughallis al-Qubayba Ra'na Tell es-Safi Umm Burj az-Zakariyya Zayta Zikrin

Jaffa Subdistrict	al-'Abbasiyya Abu Kabir Abu Kishk Bayt Dajan Biyar 'Adas Fajja al-Haram Ijlil al-Qibliyya Ijlil al-Shamaliyya al-Jammasin al-Gharbi al-Jammasin al-Sharqi Jarisha Kafr 'Ana al-Khayriyya al-Mas'udiyya al-Mirr al-Muwaylih Rantiya al-Safiriyya Salama Saqiya al-Sawalima al-Shaykh Muwannis Yazur

Jenin Subdistrict	al-Jawfa al-Mazar Ayn al-Mansi Lajjun Nuris Zir'in

Jerusalem Subdistrict	Allar Aqqur Artuf Bayt 'Itab Bayt Mahsir Bayt Naqquba Bayt Thul Bayt Umm al-Mays al-Burayj Dayr Aban Dayr 'Amr Dayr al-Hawa Dayr Rafat Dayr al-Shaykh Deir Yassin Ayn Karim Ishwa Islin Ism Allah Jarash al-Jura Kasla al-Lawz Lifta al-Maliha Nitaf al-Qabu Qalunya al-Qastal Ras Abu 'Ammar Sar'a Saris Sataf Sheikh Badr Suba Sufla al-Tannur al-'Umur al-Walaja

Nazareth Subdistrict	al-Mujaydil Indur Ma'alul Saffuriyya

Ramle Subdistrict	Abu al-Fadl Abu Shusha Ajanjul Aqir Barfiliya al-Barriyya Bashshit Bayt Far Bayt Jiz Bayt Nabala Bayt Shanna Bayt Susin Bir Ma'in Bir Salim al-Burj al-Buwayra Daniyal Dayr Abu Salama Dayr Ayyub Dayr Muhaysin Dayr Tarif al-Duhayriyya al-Haditha Idnibba Innaba Jilya Jimzu Kharruba al-Khayma Khulda al-Kunayyisa al-Latrun Lydda al-Maghar Majdal Yaba al-Mansura al-Mukhayzin al-Muzayri'a al-Na'ani al-Nabi Rubin Qatra Qazaza al-Qubab al-Qubayba Qula Ramla Sajad Salbit Sarafand al-Amar Sarafand al-Kharab Saydun Shahma Shilta al-Tina al-Tira Umm Kalkha Wadi Hunayn Yibna Khirbat Zakariyya Zarnuqa

Safad Subdistrict	Abil al-Qamh al-'Abisiyya 'Akbara Alma Ammuqa Arab al-Shamalina Arab al-Zubayd Ayn al-Zaytun Baysamun Biriyya al-Butayha al-Buwayziyya Dallata al-Dawwara Dayshum al-Dirbashiyya al-Dirdara Fara al-Farradiyya Fir'im Ghabbatiyya Ghuraba al-Hamra' Harrawi Hunin al-Husayniyya Jahula al-Ja'una Jubb Yusuf Kafr Bir'im al-Khalisa Khan al-Duwayr Khirbat Karraza al-Khisas Khiyam al-Walid Kirad al-Baqqara Kirad al-Ghannama Lazzaza Madahil Al-Malkiyya Mallaha al-Manshiyya al-Mansura Mansurat al-Khayt Marus Meiron al-Muftakhira Mughr al-Khayt al-Muntar al-Nabi Yusha' al-Na'ima Qabba'a Qadas Qaddita Qaytiyya al-Qudayriyya al-Ras al-Ahmar Sabalan Safsaf Saliha al-Salihiyya al-Sammu'i al-Sanbariyya Sa'sa' al-Shawka al-Tahta al-Shuna Taytaba Tulayl al-'Ulmaniyya al-'Urayfiyya al-Wayziyya Yarda, Safad al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta al-Zanghariyya al-Zawiya al-Zuq al-Fawqani al-Zuq al-Tahtani

Tiberias Subdistrict	Awlam al-Dalhamiyya Ghuwayr Abu Shusha Hadatha al-Hamma Hittin Kafr Sabt Lubya Ma'dhar al-Majdal al-Manara al-Manshiyya al-Mansura Nasir al-Din Nimrin al-Nuqayb Samakh al-Samakiyya al-Samra al-Shajara al-Tabigha al-'Ubaydiyya Wadi Hamam Khirbat al-Wa'ra al-Sawda' Yaquq

Tulkarm Subdistrict	Khirbat Bayt Lid Bayyarat Hannun Fardisya Ghabat Kafr Sur al-Jalama Kafr Saba al-Majdal al-Manshiyya Miska Qaqun Raml Zayta Tabsur Umm Khalid Wadi al-Hawarith Wadi Qabbani al-Zabadida Khirbat Zalafa

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