Daliyat al-Rawha'

Daliyat al-Rawha'
Daliyat al-Rawha'
Arabic دالية الروحاء
Name meaning "The trailing vine of er Rûhah", p.n.[1]
Also spelled Daliyat al Ruha, Daliyat ar Ruha
Subdistrict Haifa
Coordinates 32°35′28.15″N 35°04′41″E / 32.5911528°N 35.07806°E / 32.5911528; 35.07806Coordinates: 32°35′28.15″N 35°04′41″E / 32.5911528°N 35.07806°E / 32.5911528; 35.07806
Palestine grid 157/223
Population 600[2][3] (1945)
Area 10,008[2] dunams
Date of depopulation late March 1948[4]
Cause(s) of depopulation Whispering campaign
Secondary cause Military assault by Yishuv forces
Current localities Ramot Menashe?[5]Daliyya[6]

Daliyat al-Rawha' (Arabic: دالية الروحاء‎‎, Dâliyat er Rûhâ "fragrant vine") was a Palestinian village located 24.5 kilometers (15.2 mi) southeast of Haifa.[7] It was the site of the signing of a ceasefire agreement between the forces of the Mamluks and the Crusaders in the 13th century. A small village of 60 Arab Muslims in the late 19th century, the Jewish colony of Dalia was established on land purchased in the village in 1939. The population in 1945 reached 600 people: 280 Arabs and 320 Jews.[2] It was depopulated of its Arab inhabitants in late March during the 1948 Palestine War.

History

In 1281, the Mamluk sultan Qalawun stayed in Daliyat al-Rawha' while his forces battled against those of the Crusaders. According to Al-Maqrizi, the two sides signed a temporary peace treaty (hudna) in the village.[6]

In 1859 the population was estimated to be about 60, who cultivated 10 faddans of land. In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Daliyat al-Rawha' as being a village of moderate size, situated on the west side of a watershed, with a good spring close by on the south.[8]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Dalia al-Ruha had a population 135, all Muslims,[9] increasing in the 1931 census to 163, still all Muslim, in a total of 46 houses.[10]

The villagers also raised livestock. The village had a rectangular layout from east to west. The houses were grouped closely together and made of stone, held together with mud or cement. The main water sources for the village were located nearby.[6]

By the 20th century, the Arabs of Daliyat al-Rawha were tenant farmers.[11] The Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PICA) purchased 10,073 dunams of land in Daliyat al-Rawha and neighboring Umm ed-Dafuf (now Kibbutz Dalia) in 1936.[12] The Jewish colony of Dalia was established in 1939 to the south of the built up area of Daliyat al-Rawha' on village lands.[6]

In 1945 the population was 280 Arabs, and a total of 10,008 dunams of land, most of it Jewish owned, according to an official land and population survey.[2][3] 98 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 56 for cereals,[13] while 24 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[14]

Types of land use in dunams in the village in 1945:[13][14]

Land Usage Arab Jewish
Irrigated and plantation 98 0
Cereal 56 9,595
Urban 24 19
Cultivable 154 9,595

The land ownership of the village before occupation in dunams:[2]

Owner Dunams
Arab 178
Jewish 9,614
Public 216
Total 10,008

1948 war and aftermath

Benny Morris relates that Yosef Weitz was concerned with the problem posed by Arab tenant farmers in the area as early as January 1948. A diary entry Weitz made following a meeting with officials of the Jewish National Fund states:

"Is not now the time to be rid of them [he was referring specifically to the tenant farmers in Yoqne'am and Daliyat ar Ruha]? Why continue to keep in our midst these thorns at a time when they pose a danger to us? Our people are considering [solutions]."[15]

In March 1948, Weitz organized with the Jewish settlers of Kibbutz Kfar Masaryk to evict the tenant communities at Daliyat al-Rawha' and Buteimat.[15]

The New York Times reports the village was captured on April 14, 1948, during the Battle of Mishmar HaEmek.[6] By mid-June 1948, according to David Ben-Gurion as based on a report written by Weitz, Daliyat al-Rawha' had been destroyed by the Israeli authorities, while the destruction of Buteimat and Sabbarin was about to begin.[16] According to Morris, Ramot Menashe was established on the village lands almost immediately thereafter.[5] Khalidi writes that Ramot Menashe is actually located on the lands of neighboring Sabbarin.[6]

In 1995, a committee representing internally displaced Palestinians from Daliyat al-Rawha' joined the Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally Displaced (ADRID), a national committee in Israel that advocates for these internal refugees' right of return.[17]

References

  1. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 146
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 47.
  3. 1 2 Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 13
  4. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #162. Also gives causes of depopulation.
  5. 1 2 Morris, 2004, p. xx, settlement #4.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Khalidi, 1992, p. 158.
  7. ↑ Khalidi, 1992, p. 157.
  8. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 41. Also cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 158
  9. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table xi, Sub-district of Haifa, p. 34
  10. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 89
  11. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. 372
  12. ↑ Avneri, 1984, p. 220
  13. 1 2 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 89
  14. 1 2 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 139
  15. 1 2 Morris, 2004, pp. 131-2
  16. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. 350
  17. ↑ Masalha, ed., 2005, p. 99

Bibliography

External links

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