Al-Dalhamiyya

Al-Dalhamiyya
الدلهمية
Village
Etymology: from a family name[1]
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Dalhamiyya (click the buttons)
Al-Dalhamiyya is located in Mandatory Palestine
Al-Dalhamiyya
Al-Dalhamiyya
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°39′38″N 35°35′52″E / 32.66056°N 35.59778°E / 32.66056; 35.59778
Palestine grid204/230
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictTiberias
Date of depopulationApril 15, 1948
Area
 • Total
2,852 dunams (2.852 km2 or 1.101 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total
410[2][3]

Al-Dalhamiyya (Arabic: الدلهمية) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Tiberias Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 15, 1948, under Operation Gideon. It was located 14 km south of Tiberias, on the north bank of the Yarmuk River, on the border between Mandatory Palestine and Transjordan.

History

Ottoman era

1858 map of the area – the location marked as Al-Dalhamiyya is the current location of Ashdot Ya'akov.

In 1838 Al-Dalhamiyya was pointed out to Edward Robinson during his travels in the area, as being located on the eastern bank, about half a mile above the mouth of the Yarmuk.[4]

In 1875 Victor Guérin noted that the houses of the village were built of adobe, and most were surmounted by reed huts.[5] The same year C. R. Conder called it a "miserable" adobe hamlet.[6][7] A population list from about 1887 showed ed Delhamiyeh wa ’Arab el Hanady to have about 650 inhabitants; all Muslims.[8]

Menachemya was founded by Zionist in 1902, close to the village, but not on village land.[9]

British Mandate era

Al-Dalhamiyya train stop in the 1930s

At the time of the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Delhamiyeh had a population of 352; 349 Muslims and 3 Jews,[10] decreasing to 240; 226 Muslims, 1 Jew and 13 Christians, living in 50 houses by the 1931 census.[11]

Ashdot Ya'aqov, southwest to the village site, and Ashdot Ya'aqov Me'uchad, west of the village site, were settled by Zionist in 1933, but none on village land.[9]

In the 1944/1945 statistics, the village had a population of 410; 390 Muslims and 20 Christians,[2] with a total of 2,852 dunams of land.[3] Of this, Arabs used 29 dunams for plantations and irrigable land, 1,709 dunams were used for cereals,[12] while a total of 442 dunams were un-cultivable.[13]

1948, aftermath

Historians say the details of the depopulation of the village remain unclear, but they expect it was captured in mid- to late April 1948, when neighboring Samakh was taken. By May 3, 1948, it was reported to the Jewish National Fund that the area surrounding Lake Tiberias had been emptied of Arab inhabitants.[14]

In 1992, the village site was described thus by historian Walid Khalidi: "The village has been obliterated. There is a banana grove on the site that belongs to the nearby kibbutz, Ashdod Ya'aqov."[9]

References

  1. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 160
  2. ^ a b Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 12
  3. ^ a b Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 72
  4. ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 3, p. 264
  5. ^ Guérin, 1880, p. 284
  6. ^ Conder, 1875, p. 74
  7. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 90
  8. ^ Schumacher, 1888, p. 186
  9. ^ a b c Khalidi, 1992, p. 516
  10. ^ Barron, 1923, Table XI, p. 39
  11. ^ Mills, 1932, p.83
  12. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 122
  13. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 172
  14. ^ "al-Dalhamiyya — الدّلْهَمِيَّة". Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question – palquest. Retrieved 2023-11-12.

Bibliography