Hatta, Gaza

Hatta
Hatta
Name meaning Hatteh[1]
Subdistrict Gaza
Coordinates 31°39′06″N 34°44′28″E / 31.65167°N 34.74111°E / 31.65167; 34.74111Coordinates: 31°39′06″N 34°44′28″E / 31.65167°N 34.74111°E / 31.65167; 34.74111
Palestine grid 125/117
Population 970 (1945)
Area 5,305 dunams
Date of depopulation July 17–18, 1948[2]
Cause(s) of depopulation Military assault by Yishuv forces
Current localities Revaha, Zavdiel, Aluma

Hatta (Arabic: حتا‎‎) was a Palestinian Arab village of 1,125 inhabitants that was depopulated after a July 17, 1948 assault by Israeli forces of the Givati Brigade during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.[3][4] The Jewish localities of Revaha, Zavdiel and Aluma are currently located on the former village's lands.

Location

The village was situated in a flat area on the southern coastal plain. It was probably named after the al-Hut tribe, originally from Najd in central Arabia, who camped near the site at the end of the fifth century A.D.[5]

History

The Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1228) referred to the village as Hattawa and said it was the home of the Islamic scholar ´Amru al-Hattawi.[5]

Ottoman era

Hatta, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the tax registers of 1596 it appeared under the name of Hatta as-Sajara as being in the nahiya of Gazza in the liwa of Gazza. It had a population of 15 households, all Muslim. The inhabitants of the village paid taxes on wheat, barley, sesame, goats and/or beehives.[6]

The scholar Edward Robinson passed by the village in 1838, and described its houses as being made of adobe bricks.[7]

In 1863 the French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village, which he estimated it to have 600 inhabitants. He noticed that beside the well were four barrels of broken columns, three gray-white marble, and the fourth of bluish marble. The latter, placed horizontally at the orifice was deeply furrowed by the rope that animals or men had used to raise the water. In a oually dedicated to Neby Amran he noticed some stones with the same ancient look. Around the village were large plantations of tobacco, here and there also stood several groups of beautiful pine, olive and fig trees.[8]

An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that Hatta had 78 houses and a population of 211, though the population count included only men.[9]

In 1883 the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described the village as being surrounded by gardens, some of which contained a few tamarisk trees. SWP also wrote that the name Hatteh preserved the name of the Hittites.[10]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Hatta had a population of 570 inhabitants, all Muslims,[11] increasing in the 1931 census to 646, still all Muslim, in 140 houses.[12]

In 1945 Hatta had a population of 970, all Arabs, with 5,305 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[13] Of this, 4 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 5,108 used for cereals,[14] while 45 dunams were built-up land.[15]

1948, and after

Hatta was captured on July 17–18, 1948, during Operation Death to the Invader, the last operation of the Ten Days period—the period between the two ceasefires of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.[16]

In August 1948 the Israeli settlement Revaha was slated to be built on the site, however, the plan was not implemented until 1953. The settlement of Zavdiel was established in 1950 on village land, while Aluma was founded on village land in 1965.[17]

Walid Khalidi described the village site in 1992: "A small portion of the site is covered by a forest, planted by Israelis. The debris of houses are scattered under the trees. Sycamore trees and cactuses also grow on the site. The surrounding lands are cultivated. The British built military airport is still in use."[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ personal name, according to Palmer, 1881, p. 367
  2. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xix village #301 Also gives the cause for depopulation
  3. ↑ "Welcome to Hatta". Palestine Remembered. Retrieved 2007-12-03.
  4. ↑ Operation An-Far
  5. 1 2 Khalidi, 1992, p. 100
  6. ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 147
  7. ↑ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, p. 370
  8. ↑ Guérin, 1869, p.125
  9. ↑ Socin, 1879, p. 155
  10. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 260. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 100
  11. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Gaza, p. 9
  12. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 3.
  13. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 45
  14. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 86
  15. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 136
  16. ↑ Wallach, 1978, p. 47
  17. 1 2 Khalidi, 1992, p. 101

Bibliography

External links

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