Al-Haditha, Palestine

Al-Haditha was a Palestinian village in the Ramle Subdistrict. It was located 8 km northeast of Ramla, on the bank of Wadi al-Natuf. The site, now known as Tel Hadid, has yielded significant archaeological remains from many periods. Al-Haditha was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on July 12, 1948, under the first stage of Operation Dani.

History

It has been suggested that Al-Haditha was the site of the biblical village of ''Hadid'', mentioned in the Book of Ezra (II, 33) and later in the Mishna as a city of Judea fortified by Joshua.Neubauer, 1868, pp
85
86 ''Hadid'' was called Adida'' in the Book of Maccabees, while Eusebius referred to it as ''Adatha'' or ''Aditha.''

Ottoman era

In 1870, Victor Guérin visited and "at a quarter of an hour's distance south-east of Haditheh, efound several ancient
tombs cut in the rock. The village of Haditheh he found to be on the site of an ancient town. Cisterns, a birket, tombs, and rock-cut caves, with cut stones scattered about, are all that remain."

An official Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that "El Hadite" had 28 houses and a population of 145, though the population count included only men.

In 1882 the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described the village as "a moderate-sized village on a terraced Tell at the mouth of a valley at the foot of the hills, with a well on the east. There are remains of a considerable town round it, tombs and quarries exist ; and the mound on which the village stands is covered with pottery."

British Mandate era

In a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Hadata had a population of 415 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramleh, p
22
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 520, still all Muslims, in a total of 119 houses.Mills, 1932, p
20

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 760 Muslims, with a total of 7,110 dunums of land. A total of 10 dunams of village land were used for citrus and bananas, 4,419 dunums were used for cereals, 246 dunums were irrigated or used for plantations, while 16 dunams were built–up, or urban, land.

File:Al-Haditha 1942.jpg, Al-Haditha 1942 1:20,000
File:Beit Nabala 1945.jpg, Al-Haditha 1945 1:250,000
File:Lydda and Ramla area - 9 July 1948.PNG, Depopulated villages in the Ramle Subdistrict

1948, aftermath

Early in 1948, the Mukhtar of Al-Haditha met to negotiate a non–belligerent agreement with the neighbouring Ben Shemen. However, Al-Haditha was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on July 12, 1948, under the first stage of Operation Dani.

In September, 1948, Ben-Gurion asked the ministerial committee for permission to destroy 14 villages, one of which was Al-Haditha.Morris, 2004, p
354
/ref>

In 1992 the village site was described: "The stone and concrete rubble of destroyed houses is visible on the site. Only one house remains; it is sealed and deserted. It has a gabled, tiled roof, and a sign ('BROADWAY 80') is glued to one of its walls. There are also clusters of trees on the site, including Christ's–thorn, olive and eucalyptus trees. The old village road remains and has been enlarged. The surrounding land is cultivated."

References

Bibliography

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External links

al-Haditha
Zochrot
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14:
IAA Wikimedia commons

{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War

Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
District of Ramla
Hebrew Bible places
Canaanite cities
Ancient Jewish settlements of Judaea