Mansurat al-Khayt

See Mansura (disambiguation) for other sites with similar names.
Mansurat al-Khayt
Mansurat al-Khayt
Arabic منصورة الخيط
Also spelled Mansurat al Kheit[1]
Subdistrict Safad
Coordinates 32°58′15″N 35°36′58″E / 32.97083°N 35.61611°E / 32.97083; 35.61611Coordinates: 32°58′15″N 35°36′58″E / 32.97083°N 35.61611°E / 32.97083; 35.61611
Palestine grid 207/264
Population 200[2][3] (1945)
Area 6,735[3] dunams
Date of depopulation January 18, 1948[1]
Cause(s) of depopulation Military assault by Yishuv forces
Current localities Kfar Hanassi?[4] However, Khalidi writes that it is on the land of Tuba[5]

Mansurat al-Khayt was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on January 18, 1948. It was located 11.5 km east of Safed, 1 km west of the Jordan River.

History

Part of the name, al-Khayt, came from the area named as ard al-khayt, located southwest of the lake of Hula.[6]

Al-Dimashqi (d.1327) wrote about Al Khait: "A district of the Upper Ghaur of the Jordan Valley. The country resembles that of Irak in the matter of its rice, its birds, its hot springs, and excellent crops."[7]

In the mid 18th century, The Syrian Sufi teacher and traveller al-Bakri al-Siddiqi (1688-1748/9) noted that he passed by al-Khayt with a judge from Safad.[5]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kerad al Khait had a population of 437 Muslims,[8] increasing in the 1931 census when Mansurat el Hula had to 367 Muslims inhabitants, in a total of 61 houses.[9]

In the 1945 statistics the village had a population of 200 Muslims,[2] with 6,735 dunams of land, all of which was publicly owned.[3] Of this, 5,052 dunams were used for cereals,[10] while 17 dunams were classified as built-up, public areas.[11]

The village was also known by Mansurat al-Hula to distinguish it from al-Mansura in Safed and had a shrine for a local sage known as al-Shaykh Mansur from which the village was named after.

1948, aftermath

The village was temporarily evacuated after a Haganah attack on 18th January, 1948. The Haganah was under order to "eliminate" anyone in the village who resisted.[12] It was noted that "houses and shacks were set alight" during the attack.[13]

In July, 1948, a new settlement called Habonim, later renamed Kfar Hanassi, went up on the land of Mansurat al-Khayt.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #59. Also gives cause of depopulation
  2. 1 2 Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 10
  3. 1 2 3 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 70
  4. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xx, settlement #13.
  5. 1 2 Khalidi, 1992, p. 475
  6. ↑ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, p. 341, cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 474
  7. ↑ Al-Dimashqi, 1866, p. 211 cited in le Strange, 1890, p. 484
  8. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Safad, p. 42
  9. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 108
  10. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 120
  11. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 170
  12. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. 132, note #539, on p. 160
  13. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. 344, note #13, p. 396
  14. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. 374, note #191, p. 406

Bibliography

  • Al-Dimashqi (1866). Cosmographie (in Arabic). Translated by A. F. Mehren. Saint-Pétersbourg: l'Académie Impriale des Sciences.
  • Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
  • Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
  • Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
  • 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.
  • Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838. 3. Boston: Crocker & Brewster.
  • Strange, le, G. (1890). Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
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