Arraba ( ar, عرّابة; he, עראבה), also known as 'Arrabat al-Battuf, is an
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
city in
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 ...
. It is located in the
Lower Galilee in the
Northern District, within Sakhnin valley, adjacent to
Sakhnin
Sakhnin ( ar, سخنين; he, סַחְ'נִין or ''Sikhnin'') is an Arab city in Israel's Northern District. It is located in the Lower Galilee, about east of Acre. Sakhnin was declared a city in 1995. In its population was , mostly Musl ...
and
Deir Hanna
Deir Hanna ( ar, دير حنا, he, דֵיר חַנָּא) is a local council in the Northern District of Israel, located on the hills of the Lower Galilee, southeast of Acre. In it had a population of . Approximately 90% of Deir Hanna's inha ...
, and climbing a bit on Yodfat range to its south, while also owning some lands south of that in the
Beit Netofa Valley
The Beit Netofa Valley ( he, בקעת בית נטופה) is a valley in the Lower Galilee region of Israel, midway between Tiberias and Haifa. Covering 46 km2, it is the largest valley in the mountainous part of the Galilee and one of the lar ...
(Sahl al-Battuf) to the north of
Nazareth area. Arraba attained local council status in 1965, and city status in 2016. In its population was .
History
Antiquity
Arraba is
identified with the ancient
Jewish
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 ...
village called ''Arab'', mentioned in
Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...
' writings by its pronunciation in the Greek, ''Gabara'', but in the
Mishnah
The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...
and the
Jerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud ( he, תַּלְמוּד יְרוּשַׁלְמִי, translit=Talmud Yerushalmi, often for short), also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century ...
as ''Arab''.
[HaReuveni (1999), p. 779][Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p]
206
/ref> The first-century Jewish rabbi and leader Yohanan ben Zakkai
:''See Yohanan for more rabbis by this name''.
Yohanan ben Zakkai ( he, יוֹחָנָן בֶּן זַכַּאי, ''Yōḥānān ben Zakkaʾy''; 1st century CE), sometimes abbreviated as Ribaz () for Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, was one of the Tan ...
is said to have lived there eighteen years. During the First Jewish-Roman War
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
, Vespasian
Vespasian (; la, Vespasianus ; 17 November AD 9 – 23/24 June 79) was a Roman emperor who reigned from AD 69 to 79. The fourth and last emperor who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty that ruled the Empi ...
sacked the city, killing those of its Jewish citizens who had not already fled. The place is presumed to have been resettled by Jews in the third-fourth centuries, since the town is mentioned as being the place of residence of one of the priestly courses
The priestly divisions or sacerdotal courses ( he, מִשְׁמָר ''mishmar'') are the groups into which Jewish priests were divided for the purposes of their service in the Temple in Jerusalem.
The 24 priestly divisions are first listed in the ...
known as Pethahiah, as inscribed in the ''Caesarea Inscription''.
Arabba is home to the grave of Hanina ben Dosa
Hanina ben Dosa ( he, ) was a first-century Jewish scholar and miracle-worker and the pupil of Johanan ben Zakai. He is buried in the town of Arraba in northern Israel.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p206/ref>
Biography
Hanina lived in the G ...
, a Jewish scholar who lived in the village during the first and second generations after the destruction of the Second Temple
The siege of Jerusalem of 70 CE was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), in which the Roman army led by future emperor Titus besieged Jerusalem, the center of Jewish rebel resistance in the Roman province of Ju ...
.
In the 5th or 6th century CE there were Christians living here, as witnessed by a church whose mosaic floor and inscription have been unearthed.
The oldest settled section of Arraba lies at the village's south-east side, near the Christian church. Archaeological artefacts have been discovered there dating back to the Roman and Byzantine periods.
Middle Ages
In the Crusader era
The Crusader States, also known as Outremer, were four Catholic realms in the Middle East that lasted from 1098 to 1291. These feudal polities were created by the Latin Catholic leaders of the First Crusade through conquest and political in ...
, it was known as ''Arabiam''. In 1174 it was one of the casalia
In the Middle Ages, a ''casalis'' or ''casale'' (Latin and Italian; Old French/Spanish ''casal''), plural ''casalia'' (''casali'', ''casales''), was "a cluster of houses in a rural setting". The word is not classical Latin, but derives from the Lat ...
(villages) given to ''Phillipe le Rous''. In 1236 descendants of ''Phillipe le Rous'' confirmed the sale of the fief
A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a form ...
of Arraba. In 1250 it was one of the casalia belonging to the Teutonic knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians o ...
, a Crusader order.[
In the 13th century Arrabah is mentioned by ]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 ...
n geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi
Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) ( ar, ياقوت الحموي الرومي) was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine Greek ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th-13th centuries). He is known for ...
in his famous work '' Mu'jam al-Buldān'' (1224–1228), as a "place in the province of Acca".
Ottoman Empire
The village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 Arraba appeared in the tax registers as being 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 ...
'' ("Subdistrict") of Tabariyya
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 Fou ...
, part of Sanjak Safad
Safed Sanjak ( ar, سنجق صفد; tr, Safed Sancağı) was a ''sanjak'' (district) of Damascus Eyalet ( Ottoman province of Damascus) in 1517–1660, after which it became part of the Sidon Eyalet (Ottoman province of Sidon). The sanjak was ce ...
. It had an all 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 ...
population of 125 households and 2 bachelors. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 20% on wheat, barley, summer crops or fruit trees, cotton, and goats or beehives; a total of 11,720 akçe. 1/4 of the revenue went to a waqf
A waqf ( ar, وَقْف; ), also known as hubous () or '' mortmain'' property is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitab ...
.
At some point in the mid-17th century the Zayadina, an Arab Muslim tribe, immigrated to Arraba. Its sheikh ("chief") later acquired control of the town and its district after wresting control of the area from the Druze
The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...
sheikh of Sallama
Sallama ( ar, سلامة; he, סלאמה) is a Bedouin village in northern Israel. Located in the Galilee near the Tzalmon Stream, it falls under the jurisdiction of Misgav Regional Council. In its population was . The village was recognized by ...
. Sallama and other Druze villages in the vicinity were subsequently destroyed, Druze suzerainty over the Shaghur district came to an end and the Zayadina consequently gained significant influence in the area, including the role of tax collector of Shaghur on behalf of the Ottoman wali
A wali (''wali'' ar, وَلِيّ, '; plural , '), the Arabic word which has been variously translated "master", "authority", "custodian", "protector", is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate an Islamic saint, otherwise referred to by the ...
("governor") of Sidon Province. Arraba became home to Zahir al-Umar
Zahir al-Umar al-Zaydani, alternatively spelled Daher al-Omar or Dahir al-Umar ( ar, ظاهر العمر الزيداني, translit=Ẓāhir al-ʿUmar az-Zaydānī, 1689/90 – 21 or 22 August 1775) was the autonomous Arab ruler of northern Pale ...
, a later sheikh of the Zayadina tribe. According to local legend, he sought refuge there after killing a Turkish soldier. He won the support of the local sheikh, Muhammad Nasser, by helping him settle a score with a neighboring village, which set off a series of campaigns that led to the conquest of the entire Galilee. A building said to be the home of Zahir is still standing.[
In 1838, ''Arabeh'' was noted as a Muslim and Christian village in the ''Esh-Shagur'' district, located between ]Safad
Safed (known in Hebrew as Tzfat; Sephardic Hebrew & Modern Hebrew: צְפַת ''Tsfat'', Ashkenazi Hebrew: ''Tzfas'', Biblical Hebrew: ''Ṣǝp̄aṯ''; ar, صفد, ''Ṣafad''), is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an eleva ...
, Acca and 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 F ...
.
In 1875 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 Min ...
found Arrabah to have 900 Muslim inhabitants and 100 Greek-Orthodox Christians.[Guérin, 1880, pp]
466
468 In 1881, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described Arrabet al Buttauf as "A large stone-built village, containing about 1,000 Moslems and Christians, and surrounded by groves of olives and arable land. Water is obtained from a large birkeh and cistern
A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...
s. This was the place where Dhaher el Amr´s family was founded, and was long occupied by them."
A population list from about 1887 showed that ''Arrabet'' had 970 inhabitants; about 80% Muslim and 20% Catholic Christians.
British Mandate
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Arrabeh had a population of 984, 937 Muslim and 47 Christian,[Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Acre, p]
37
/ref> of the Christians, 42 were Melkite, 4 Orthodox and one was Anglican. At the time of the 1931 census, Arraba had 253 occupied houses and a population of 1187 Muslims and 37 Christians.[Mills, 1932, p]
99
/ref>
In the 1945 statistics the population was 1,800; 1,740 Muslims and 60 Christians,[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p]
4
/ref> with 30,852 dunams (a dunam is a unit of area equivalent to 10 square metres or one-tenth of a hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...
) of land, according to an official land and population survey. 3,290 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 14,736 dunams for cereals, while 140 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
Israel in the 20th century
In 1948, during Operation Hiram
Operation Hiram was a military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was led by General Moshe Carmel, and aimed at capturing the Upper Galilee region from the Arab Liberation Army (ALA) forces ...
(October 29–31), the town surrendered to the advancing Israeli army. Many of the inhabitants fled but some remained. Arraba became a local council in 1965. The village remained under Martial Law
Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory.
Use
Marti ...
until 1966.
Arraba was home to the first Land Day
Land Day ( ar, يوم الأرض, ''Yawm al-ʾArḍ''; he, יוֹם הַאֲדָמָה, ''Yom HaAdama''), March 30, is a day of commemoration for Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinians of the events of that date in 1976 in Israel.
In 1976, ...
demonstrations in 1976 demanding the state of Israel to stop the expropriation of Palestinian Arab lands. Together with Sakhnin
Sakhnin ( ar, سخنين; he, סַחְ'נִין or ''Sikhnin'') is an Arab city in Israel's Northern District. It is located in the Lower Galilee, about east of Acre. Sakhnin was declared a city in 1995. In its population was , mostly Musl ...
and Deir Hanna
Deir Hanna ( ar, دير حنا, he, דֵיר חַנָּא) is a local council in the Northern District of Israel, located on the hills of the Lower Galilee, southeast of Acre. In it had a population of . Approximately 90% of Deir Hanna's inha ...
, it formed what is called the triangle of Land Day. Israel's reaction to control the protest was forceful and six people were killed by Israeli police. The reason for the Land Day follows:
On March 11, 1976, the Israeli government published an expropriation
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
plan including lands in the Galilee. It affected some 20,000 dunams of land between the Arab villages of Sakhnin
Sakhnin ( ar, سخنين; he, סַחְ'נִין or ''Sikhnin'') is an Arab city in Israel's Northern District. It is located in the Lower Galilee, about east of Acre. Sakhnin was declared a city in 1995. In its population was , mostly Musl ...
and Arraba. The land was said to be used for security purposes but was also used to build new Jewish settlements. David McDowall identifies the resumption of land seizures in the Galilee and the acceleration of land expropriations in the West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
in the mid-1970s as the immediate catalyst for both the Land Day demonstration and similar demonstrations that were taking place contemporaneously in the West Bank. He writes: ''"Nothing served to bring the two Palestinian communities together politically more than the question of land."''
Israel in the 21st century
Arraba became a city in 2016. In the late 2010s, Arraba native and Harvard graduate, Nuseir Yassin
Nuseir Yassin ( ar, نصير ياسين; he, נוסייר יאסין; born ) is an Arab-Israeli vlogger who is most notable for creating over 1,000 daily, one-minute-long videos on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram under the page Nas Daily.
Bi ...
, gained international acclaim with his Nas Daily videos. In one of the chapters he invites the entire State of Israel to visit his parental home in Arraba.
Economy
The symbol of the local council is an onion, a watermelon
Watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a flowering plant species of the Cucurbitaceae family and the name of its edible fruit. A scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, it is a highly cultivated fruit worldwide, with more than 1,000 varieti ...
and a cantaloupe
The cantaloupe, rockmelon (Australia and New Zealand, although cantaloupe is used in some states of Australia), sweet melon, or spanspek (Southern Africa) is a melon that is a variety of the muskmelon species (''Cucumis melo'') from the fami ...
which symbolize the crops for which Arraba is famous.
Throughout history Arraba was mostly an agricultural village depending mainly on the al-Batuf Plain (Hebrew name: Beit Netofa Valley
The Beit Netofa Valley ( he, בקעת בית נטופה) is a valley in the Lower Galilee region of Israel, midway between Tiberias and Haifa. Covering 46 km2, it is the largest valley in the mountainous part of the Galilee and one of the lar ...
) to grow crops. However, currently the dependence on agriculture is declining rapidly due to the rise in population, urbanization and a subsequently more modern lifestyle.
Architecture
In the 1870s Guerin saw the mosque which he thought had probably once been a church on the basis of its east–west orientation. Inside there were two monolithic column
A monolithic column or single-piece column is a large column of which the shaft is made from a single piece of stone instead of in vertical sections. Smaller columns are very often made from single pieces of stone, but are less often described a ...
s which he took as further proof of its antiquity.[
Andrew Petersen, an archaeologist specializing in ]Islamic architecture
Islamic architecture comprises the architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam. It encompasses both secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present day. The Islamic world encompasses a wide geographic ar ...
, surveyed the place in 1994, and found several interesting buildings.[Petersen, 2001, p]
95
/ref>
The modern-day mosque was built in 1953 on the site of an older building.[ Opposite the mosque is a palatial house with an ]ablaq
Ablaq ( ar, أبلق; particolored; literally 'piebald') is an architectural technique involving alternating or fluctuating rows of light and dark stone. Records trace the beginnings of this type of masonry technique to the southern parts of S ...
entrance made of black and white masonry. This is the house associated with the family of Zahir al-'Umar/Dhaher el-Omar[
]
Sports
The town's football club Ahva Arraba dissolved in 2019 due to debts. It was replaced by a new club, Hapoel Arraba.
Notable people
*Asel Asleh
An Airplane, Single Engine, Land certificate (ASEL) is part of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) testing and certification standard: within a privilege level, it is a class rating as part of pilot certification in the United States. An ASE ...
, young peace activist killed during the Second Intifada
The Second Intifada ( ar, الانتفاضة الثانية, ; he, האינתיפאדה השנייה, ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada ( ar, انتفاضة الأقصى, label=none, '), was a major Palestinian uprising against Israel. ...
* Ali Nassar (born 1954), film director
*Nuseir Yassin
Nuseir Yassin ( ar, نصير ياسين; he, נוסייר יאסין; born ) is an Arab-Israeli vlogger who is most notable for creating over 1,000 daily, one-minute-long videos on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram under the page Nas Daily.
Bi ...
, travel video blogger with over 20 million Facebook followers
See also
* Arab localities in Israel
Arab localities in Israel include all population centers with a 50% or higher Arab population in Israel. East Jerusalem and Golan Heights are not internationally recognized parts of Israel proper but have been included in this list.
According to ...
* F.C. Bnei Arraba
* Land Day
Land Day ( ar, يوم الأرض, ''Yawm al-ʾArḍ''; he, יוֹם הַאֲדָמָה, ''Yom HaAdama''), March 30, is a day of commemoration for Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinians of the events of that date in 1976 in Israel.
In 1976, ...
* House demolition in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Klein, S. (1909), ''Galiläa - Beiträge zur Geschichte und Geographie Galiläas'' (Contributions to the History and Geography of Galilee), Leipzig (in German)
* Klein, S. (1915), "Hebräische Ortsnamen bei Josephus" (Hebrew place names in Josephus), in: '' MGWJ'' (Monthly Journal for the History and Science of Judaism), vol. 59, Breslau (in German)
*
* Meyers, E.M. (1976), "Galilean Regionalism as a Factor in Historical Reconstruction," in: ''Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research
The ''Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research'' is one of three academic journals published by the American Schools of Oriental Research. It began as the ''Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem'', in 1919 ...
'' (No. 221)
*
*
*
*
* (first printed in 2006)
*
*
*
*
*
* Safrai, Z. (1985), ''The Galilee in the time of the Mishna and Talmud'', 2nd edition, Jerusalem (in Hebrew) ()
*
*
*
*
External links
Official website
Statistical profile
at the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (2016)
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 6
IAA
Wikimedia commons
{{Authority control
Arab localities in Israel
Local councils in Northern District (Israel)
Arab Christian communities in Israel
First Jewish–Roman War
Ancient Jewish settlements of Galilee