Sakhnin

In 1596, Sakhnin appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the nahiya (subdistrict) of Akka (Acre), part of Safad Sanjak. It had a population of 66 households and 8 bachelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 20% on various agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olives, cotton, in addition to a water mill; a total of 12,138 akçe.[10][11]

In 1838, Sakhnin was noted as a Muslim and Christian village in the Shaghur district, located between Safad, Acre and Tiberias.[12] In 1859 the British Consul Rogers estimated the population to be 1,100, and the cultivated area 100 feddans,[13] while in 1875 Victor Guérin found 700 inhabitants, both Muslims and Greek Orthodox Christians.[14]

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Sakhnin as follows: "A large village of stone and mud, amid fine olive-groves, with a small mosque. The water supply is from a large pool about half a mile to the south-east. The inhabitants are Moslems and Christians".[15] A population list from about 1887 showed that Sakhnin had about 1,915 inhabitants; 1,640 Muslims, 150 Catholic Christians and 125 Greek Christians.[16]

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Sakhnin had a population of 1,575; 1,367 Muslims and 208 Christians;[17] 87 Orthodox and 121 Greek Catholic (Melchite).[18] The population increased in the 1931 census to a total of 1,891; 1,688 Muslims, 202 Christians, and 1 Jew, in a total of 400 houses.[19]

In the 1945 statistics, Sakhnin had 2,600 inhabitants; 2310 Muslims and 290 Christians.[20] The total jurisdiction of the village was 70,192 dunams of land.[21] 3,622 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 29,366 dunams for cereals,[22] while 169 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[23]

Members of the Palmach swimming in the pool that used to supply Sakhnin with water. 1947

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Sakhnin surrendered to Israeli forces on July 18, 1948, during Operation Dekel, but was re-captured by Arab forces shortly afterwards. It finally fell without battle during Operation Hiram, 29–31 October 1948. Many of the inhabitants fled north but some stayed and were not expelled by the Israeli soldiers.[24] The town remained under martial law until 1966.

In 1976, it became the site of the first Land Day marches, in which six Israeli Arabs were killed by Israeli forces during violent protests of government expropriation of 5,000 acres (20 km²) of Arab-owned land near Sakhnin. Later that same year, three more civilians were killed during clashes with the police. Two natives of the city were killed in Jerusalem during the al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000.