Bayt 'Affa

Bayt 'Affa
Bayt 'Affa
Arabic بيت عفا
Name meaning The house of Affeh (or chaste)[1]
Subdistrict Gaza
Coordinates 31°39′41″N 34°42′24″E / 31.66139°N 34.70667°E / 31.66139; 34.70667Coordinates: 31°39′41″N 34°42′24″E / 31.66139°N 34.70667°E / 31.66139; 34.70667
Palestine grid 122/118
Population 700[2][3] (1945)
Area 5,808[3] dunams
Date of depopulation Not known[4]

Bayt 'Affa was a Palestinian village in the Gaza Subdistrict. It was depopulated and destroyed during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine. It was located 29 km northeast of Gaza and Wadi al-Rana ran east of the village.

History

The village had a khirba which contained the remains of walls made of ancient columns, uncut stones and a well.[5]

Ottoman era

Incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine , Bayt 'Affa appeared in the 1596 tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Gaza, part of Gaza Sanjak. It had a population of 26 Muslim households,[6] that is 143 inhabitants,[7] all Muslim, who paid taxes on wheat, barley, vine yards and fruit trees.[5] 1/24 th of the revenue went to a waqf.[6]

In 1863, Victor Guérin found it to be a village of 400 inhabitants, surrounded by tobacco and cucumber fields,[8] while an Ottoman village list of about 1870 indicated 37 houses and a population of 90, though the population count included men, only.[9][10]

In 1883, the Palestine Exploration Fund's "Survey of Western Palestine", described Bayt 'Affa as resembling Iraq Suwaydan; that is, a moderate-sized adobe village situated on a plain. In addition, Bayt 'Affa was supplied with a well.[11]

British Mandate era

According to the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bayt 'Affa had a population of 422 Muslims,[12] which had increased in the 1931 census to 462, still all Muslim.[13]

In the 1945 statistics, there were 700 Muslims,[2] with 5,808 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[3] Of this, 14 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 5,657 used for cereals,[14] while 26 dunams were built-up land.[15]

1948 and aftermath

The population probably left their homes following the capture of the village by the Israeli army around 9 July 1948. The Egyptian army drove the Israelis out a few days later and the village was not re-taken until Operation Yoav in the second half of October. The village was destroyed.[5] Following the war the area was incorporated into the State of Israel.

In 1953 Yad Natan was established just south of the village site, on the land of Iraq Suwaydan.[5]

In 1992 the village site was described: "There are no traces of village houses; only sycamore and carob trees and cactuses mark the site. Fruit trees, especially citrus, are planted on the surrounding land and are irrigated from the Jordan River diversion canal."[5]

References

  1. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 365
  2. 1 2 Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 31
  3. 1 2 3 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 45
  4. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xix, village #303. Morris gives both cause and date for depopulation as "Not known"
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Khalidi, 1992, p. 86
  6. 1 2 Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 144
  7. ↑ as estimated in Khalidi, 1992, p. 86
  8. ↑ Guérin, 1869, p. 126
  9. ↑ Socin, 1879, p. 145
  10. ↑ Hartmann, 1883, p. 133
  11. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 259, Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 86
  12. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Gaza, p. 9
  13. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 2
  14. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 86
  15. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 136

Bibliography

  • Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
  • Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1883). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. 3. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
  • Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
  • Guérin, V. (1869). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). 1: Judee, pt. 2. 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.
  • Hartmann, M. (1883). "Die Ortschaftenliste des Liwa Jerusalem in dem türkischen Staatskalender für Syrien auf das Jahr 1288 der Flucht (1871)". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. 6: 102–149.
  • 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.
  • Khalidi, W. (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.
  • Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
  • Morris, B. (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6. (pp. 256, 436, 437, 446, 456)
  • 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.
  • Socin, A. (1879). "Alphabetisches Verzeichniss von Ortschaften des Paschalik Jerusalem". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. 2: 135–163.
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