Al-Hamma ( ar, الحمّة) was a
Palestinian Arab
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
village in the
Tiberias Subdistrict, southeast of
Tiberias
Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Fo ...
. It was situated on a narrow
salient in the
Yarmouk Valley bounded by Syria to the north and Transjordan to the south and east. Al-Hamma was one of the stations on the
Jezreel Valley railway
The Jezreel Valley railway, or the Valley Train ( he, רַכֶּבֶת הָעֵמֶק, ''Rakevet HaEmek'' ; ar, خط سكة حديد حيفا – درعا, khaṭṭ sikkat ḥadīd Ḥayfa–Dar‘a) was a railroad that existed in Ottoman and ...
, linking the
Hejaz Railway to
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
.
[ It was depopulated twice, once in July 1949, and again between 1949 and 1956.
]
History
Emmatha, Roman and Byzantine periods
During the Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
it was known as Emmatha. During this period, Al-Hamma belonged to the district of Gadara
Gadara ( el, Γάδαρα ''Gádara''), in some texts Gedaris, was an ancient Hellenistic city, for a long time member of the Decapolis city league, a former bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see.
Its ruins are today located at Umm ...
.[
]
Early Muslim Period
Recent excavations have revealed a large Umayyad public building comprising several rooms with mosaic
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
floors, set with red, black and white tesserae
A tessera (plural: tesserae, diminutive ''tessella'') is an individual tile, usually formed in the shape of a square, used in creating a mosaic. It is also known as an abaciscus or abaculus.
Historical tesserae
The oldest known tessera ...
. The building seems to have been destroyed by the 749 Golan earthquake
A devastating earthquake known in scientific literature as the Earthquake of 749 struck on January 18, 749, in areas of the Umayyad Caliphate, with the epicenter in Galilee. The most severely affected areas were parts of Palestine (region), Palest ...
, but was rebuilt and used until finally abandoned after the earthquake of 1033.[Hartal, 2010]
Hammat Gader, ‘Ein el-Jarab Preliminary Report
Ottoman Empire
Al-Hamma appeared in Ottoman tax registers compiled in 1596 under the name of ''Hammat Jur'', in the ''Nahiya
A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...
s'' of Gawr, of the '' Liwa'' of Ajloun. It was indicated as empty (''hali''), though taxes were paid on a watermill
A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production of ...
, in addition to a fixed sum.
In 1875, the French explorer Victor Guérin
Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Mino ...
visited the village.
In 1905, the Jezreel Valley railway opened, linking Haifa via Samakh and Al-Hamma to the Hejaz Railway at Daraa
Daraa ( ar, دَرْعَا, Darʿā, Levantine Arabic: , also Darʿā, Dara’a, Deraa, Dera'a, Dera, Derʿā and Edrei; means "''fortress''", compare Dura-Europos) is a city in southwestern Syria, located about north of the border with Jord ...
.
British Mandate of Palestine
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Samakh and Al-Hamma were counted together, reaching a total population of 976. Of these, 922 were Muslims
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...
, 28 Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, 1 Baháʼí and 25 Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
;[Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Tiberias, p]
39
/ref> where the Christians were 6 Orthodox, 1 Roman Catholic, 2 Melkite, 11 Armenian and 5 Anglican. At the time of the 1931 census, the village had 46 occupied houses and a population of 170 Muslims, 1 Jew and 1 Christian.[Mills, 1932, p]
82
/ref>
In 1936, a Lebanese businessman, Sulayman Nasif, was given a concession to develop the local springs, which became a popular place to visit, both for local Palestinians and other Arabs.[Khalidi, 1992, p. 519] In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 290 Muslims,[ who cultivated a total of 1,105 ]dunums
A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...
of land.[ The villagers were mostly ]Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
and Al-Hamma had a large mosque with a fountain in the front courtyard.[
]
1948 and aftermath
During the early part of the 1948 Palestine war, some Palestinian inhabitants of Tiberias
Tiberias ( ; he, טְבֶרְיָה, ; ar, طبريا, Ṭabariyyā) is an Israeli city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Fo ...
fled to Al-Hamma during the unrest in March and April that year. A local leader from Tiberias, Sidqi al Tabari, made "desperate efforts" (according to Israeli sources) to bring the citizens back. The people who had fled to al-Hamma from Tiberias were "ordered back and, in fact, returned".
According to Morris
Morris may refer to:
Places
Australia
*St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia
Canada
* Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry
* Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba
** Morris, Manitob ...
, many villagers in the area had fled or been expelled to Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
during April and early May 1948. However, on 16 May, the villages came under Syrian control and many inhabitants returned.[Morris, 2004, p.]
512
/ref> After the war, according to the armistice agreements of 1949 Between Israel and Syria, it was determined that a string of villages, including Al-Hamma, Nuqeib, Al-Samra
Al-Samra ( ar, السمرا) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Tiberias Subdistrict. It was depopulated on April 21, 1948, during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine. It was located 10 km southeast of Tiberias.
History
The ...
in the Tiberias Subdistrict and Kirad al-Baqqara
Kirad al-Baqqara ( ar, كراد البقارة) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 22, 1948, by the Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Y ...
and Kirad al-Ghannama
Kirad al-Ghannama was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 22, 1948, by the Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach. It was located 11&nbs ...
further north in the Safad Subdistrict, would be included the demilitarized zone
A demilitarized zone (DMZ or DZ) is an area in which treaties or agreements between nations, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel. A DZ often lies along an established frontier or bounda ...
(DMZ) between Israel and Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
. The villagers and their property were formally protected by Article V of the Israeli-Syrian agreement of 20 July that year.[ However, Israel wanted the 2,200 ]Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
inhabitants moved to Syria.[ The Israeli military
thought that the inhabitants of the DMZ remained loyal to Syria and they suspected them of helping Syrian intelligence. Local Jewish settlers and law enforcement suspected the villagers of petty crimes. Morris also notes that Israeli settlers and settlement agencies coveted the land of the local Palestinians Arabs.
Until 1951, Israel had never patrolled or occupied al-Hamma. However, in the spring of that year, Israel decided to assert its sovereignty over the village.][Morris, 1993, p. 362] On 4 April that year, the IDF
IDF or idf may refer to:
Defence forces
* Irish Defence Forces
* Israel Defense Forces
*Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006
* Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917
Organizations
* Israeli Diving Federation
* Interac ...
General Staff
A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...
(ignoring protests from the Northern Command) sent two patrol vehicles towards the village.[Morris, 1993, p. 363] Since Israel was not allowed to have soldiers in the DMZ, the patrol was disguised as policemen.[Morris, 1993, p. 363, citing Shalev: Shituf-Peula, 168-73] In what became known as the Al-Hamma Incident, seven Israeli soldiers were killed by the Syrians. The following day, four Israeli planes bombed the police station at Al-Hamma and a Syrian position at Al Hadid. Two women were killed, and six people reported injured.[ According to ]Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi ( ar, وليد خالدي, born 1925 in Jerusalem) is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, establish ...
, Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
then decided to "drive the villagers out", and proceeded to do so during 1949–1956. He described the village site in 1992:The site has been converted into an Israeli tourist park (Hamat Gader
Hamat Gader ( he, חַמַּת גָּדֵר; arc, חמתא דגדר, ; grc, Ἑμμαθά, or , ; ar, الحمة السورية ', meaning "the Syrian Hamma") is a hot springs site in the Yarmouk River valley, used since the classical ant ...
), with parking facilities, swimming pools, and a small fishing pond. The deserted mosque still stands, and its minaret and marble columns are intact. Five buildings east of the village site are built of black basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
. The railroad station still exist and the name of the village is inscribed on its entrance. There are three more deserted buildings next to the station, as well as the remains of destroyed houses.
See also
*Hama (disambiguation)
Hama is a city in west-central Syria, previously known as Hamath.
Hama or Hamath (or variants) may refer to:
Places In the Middle East
In alphabetical order, by complete name.
* Al-Hamah, a village in Rif Dimashq Governorate, Syria
* Al-Hamma, ...
*Hamat Gader
Hamat Gader ( he, חַמַּת גָּדֵר; arc, חמתא דגדר, ; grc, Ἑμμαθά, or , ; ar, الحمة السورية ', meaning "the Syrian Hamma") is a hot springs site in the Yarmouk River valley, used since the classical ant ...
, current name of the site and a tourist resort
*Gadara
Gadara ( el, Γάδαρα ''Gádara''), in some texts Gedaris, was an ancient Hellenistic city, for a long time member of the Decapolis city league, a former bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see.
Its ruins are today located at Umm ...
(now Umm Qais), the mother-city in antiquity
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* (Sharon, 2013, p
283
External links
al-Hamma
Zochrot
Zochrot ( he, זוכרות; "Remembering"; ar, ذاكرات; "Memories") is an Israeli nonprofit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Palestinian ''Nakba'' ("Catastrophe"), including the 1948 Pa ...
Al-Hamma
at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center () is a leading Palestinian arts and culture organization that aims to create a pluralistic, critical liberating culture through research, query, and participation, and that provides an open space for the community ...
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War
Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
District of Tiberias