Kharruba
| Kharruba | |
|---|---|
|
Kharruba, 2008 | |
  Kharruba | |
| Name meaning | The carob, or locust tree Ceratonia siliqua[1] |
| Subdistrict | Ramle |
| Coordinates | 31°54′44″N 34°57′38″E / 31.91222°N 34.96056°ECoordinates: 31°54′44″N 34°57′38″E / 31.91222°N 34.96056°E |
| Palestine grid | 146/146 |
| Population | 170 (1945) |
| Date of depopulation | July 12-15, 1948[2] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
Kharruba was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine, near Modi'in. It was located 8 km east of Ramla. It was depopulated on July 12, 1948 during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
History
In the 1860s, Victor Guérin described Kharruba as a hamlet of a few huts. He noticed the remains of a medieval fort and suggested it might be the Crusader castle Arnaldi.[3] The following decade, the Survey of Western Palestine found only ruins.[4]
At the time of the 1931 census, Kharruba had 21 occupied houses and a population of 119 Muslims.[5] In 1945, the village had a population of 170, with a total of 3,374 dunams of land.[6] Of this, a total of 1,620 dunums were used for cereals, 25 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards,[7] while 3 dunams were classified as built-up public areas.[8]
It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on July 12, 1948 by the Yiftach Brigade which reported that it had blown up the houses and "cleared the village".[9]
In 1992, the site consisted of stony rubble overgrown with vegetation.[10]
Archaeology
A site called Haruba is mentioned in the Copper Scroll, the only one of the Dead Sea Scrolls engraved on copper rather than written on parchment. Modern scholars do not believe it to be the site mentioned in the scroll.[11]
In 2012, five suspected antiquities robbers were caught at Kharruba, after damaging a mikveh (ritual bath) dating to the Second Temple period and trenches used as hiding places during the Bar Kokhba revolt.[11]
References
- ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 299
- ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xix, village #242. Also gives cause of depopulation
- ↑ Guérin, 1868, pp. 317–318. However, the modern identification of Arnaldi is Yalo.(Denys Pringle (1991). "Survey of Castles in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1989: Preliminary Report". Levant. XXIII: 87–91. doi:10.1179/lev.1991.23.1.87.)
- ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 104
- ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 21
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 67
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 115
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 165
- ↑ Morris, 2004, p. 435
- ↑ Khalidi, 1992, p. 388
- 1 2 The document is said to provide clues to the whereabouts of the legendary treasures of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The scroll states: "In the ruin (Hurba) that is in the valley of Achor, under/the steps, with the entrance at the East,/a distance of 40 cubits: a strongbox of silver and its vessels / with a weight of 17 talents." In consequence, many treasure hunters have flocked to Kharruba over the years, No gold in them hills, Haaretz
Bibliography
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kharruba. |
- Conder, Claude Reignier; Kitchener, Herbert H. (1883). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology 3. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Guérin, Victor (1868). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). 1: Judee, pt. 1. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
- Hadawi, Sami (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
- Khalidi, Walid (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 (PDF). Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
- 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.
External links
- Welcome To Kharruba
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17: IAA, Wikimedia commons
