Ra'na

For the language, see Ra'na language.
Ra'na
Ra'na
Arabic رعنة
Name meaning The spur of a Hill[1]
Subdistrict Hebron
Coordinates 31°39′53.73″N 34°52′37.45″E / 31.6649250°N 34.8770694°E / 31.6649250; 34.8770694Coordinates: 31°39′53.73″N 34°52′37.45″E / 31.6649250°N 34.8770694°E / 31.6649250; 34.8770694
Palestine grid 138/119
Population 190[2] (1945)
Area 6.925[2] dunams
Date of depopulation 22–23 October 1948[3]
Cause(s) of depopulation Military assault by Yishuv forces
Current localities Gal On

Ra'na (Arabic: رعنة) was a village located approximately 26 km northwest of Hebron. It was occupied by the Israeli army during Operation Yo'av in October 1948. It was one of 16 villages in the Hebron district that were depopulated.

History

During the rule of the Ottoman empire, Edward Robinson passed by in 1838, and reported that the fields of Ra'na were planted with tobacco and cotton.[4]

In the late nineteenth century, Ra'na was described as a village built of stone and mud, and it had a pool and gardens.[5]

British Mandate era

Ra'na was classified as hamlet by the Palestine Index Gazetteer.[6] In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Ra'ana had a population of 126, all Muslims,[7] increasing in the 1931 census to 150, still all Muslim, in a total of 36 houses.[8]

In 1944/45 a total of 5,882 dunums of land was planted with cereals, while 112 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Grain was the dominant crop, but during the final year of the British Mandate of Palestine, the villagers also grew grapes, carob and olives.[6][9] 14 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.[10]

1948, and after

The village was attacked by the Giv'ati Brigade on 22/23 October 1948. Those villagers who had not already fled were expelled and the village destroyed.[6]

The settlement of Gal On was established in 1946 on what were traditionally village land.[6]

The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi describes that the site of the village in 1992: "The site is fenced in with barbed wire and is overgrown in part by cactuses, especially where there is limestone soil, and by carob trees. No houses or rubble remains."[6]

People from Ra'na

See also

References

  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 273
  2. 1 2 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 50
  3. Morris, 2004, p. xix, village #296. Also gives cause of depopulation
  4. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 2, p. 354. Also cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 221.
  5. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p.415. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.221
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Khalidi, 1992, p. 221
  7. Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Hebron, p. 10
  8. Mills, 1932, p. 33
  9. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 93
  10. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 143

Bibliography

External links

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