Miska was a
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 ...
village, located fifteen kilometers southwest of
Tulkarm
Tulkarm, Tulkarem or Tull Keram ( ar, طولكرم, ''Ṭūlkarm'') is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located in the Tulkarm Governorate of the State of Palestine. The Israeli city of Netanya is to the west, and the Palestinian cities o ...
, depopulated in 1948.
History
Miska was founded by descendants of the
Arabian tribe
The Tribes of Arabia () or Arab tribes () are the ethnic Arab tribes and clans that originated in the Arabian Peninsula. The tribes of Arabia descend from either one of the two Arab ancestors, Adnan or Qahtan. Arab tribes have historically inhab ...
of Miskain during the 7th century
Islamic conquest of Palestine.
According to the Arab geographer
Yaqut, writing in the 1220s, Miska was known for its fruit, especially the ''misk'' (musk) apple variety which was said to have been transferred to Egypt by the
Fatimid
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dyna ...
vizier
Abu Muhammad al-Yazuri
Abu Muhammad al-Hasan al-Yazuri (or al-Husayn) ibn Ali ibn Abd al-Rahman (died 1058) was a vizier of the Fatimid Caliphate, holding office from 1050 to 1058.
Biography
Al-Yazuri was born in Yazur where he later worked as a judge, before travelin ...
, who died in 1058.
Ottoman era
The French commander
Jean Baptiste Kléber
Jean may refer to:
People
* Jean (female given name)
* Jean (male given name)
* Jean (surname)
Fictional characters
* Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character
* Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations
* Jea ...
and his troops passed by the village on their way to
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
's
siege of Acre in 1799.
Pierre Jacotin
Pierre Jacotin (1765–1827) was the director of the survey for the '' Carte de l'Égypte (Description de l'Égypte)'', the first triangulation-based map of Egypt, Syria and Palestine.
The maps were surveyed in 1799-1800 during the campaign in E ...
named the village ''Meski'' on his map from the same campaign.
In 1870,
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 ...
visited and estimated that the population of Miskeh was 300. He further noted that "In the court of the ''medhafeh'' (guest-house) I saw a column and a marble chapter, apparently of Byzantine work. Round the houses are gardens, planted principally with fig-trees, among which here and there rise palms."
In 1882, the
PEF's ''
Survey of Western Palestine
The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the Survey of Western Palestine and in 1880 for the Survey of Eastern Palestine. The survey was carried out after the ...
'' (SWP) described Miska an
adobe village of small size, with olives to the north and south, and a
well
A well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...
to the south.
British Mandate era
In the
1922 census of Palestine conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, ''Meskeh'' had a population of 443; all
Muslims,
[Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p]
28
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 635, still all Muslim, in a total of 123 houses.[Mills, 1932, p]
55
/ref>
In the 1945 statistics the population of ''Miska'' and Sde Warburg was 880 Arabs and 180 Jews,[ while the total land area was 8,076 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.][ Of this, Arabs used 1,115 dunams for ]citrus
''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. The genus ''Citrus'' is native to ...
and bananas
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...
, 304 dunams for plantations and irrigable land, 3,245 for cereals, while 88 dunams were classified as built-up areas.
1948 and after
On 15 April 1948, Miska's 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, ...
inhabitants were expelled on the order of the Haganah, the primary Jew
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""T ...
ish force prior to the outbreak of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.[ The village, with the exception of a boy's elementary school and a mosque, was destroyed on the orders of ]Yosef Weitz
Yosef Weitz ( he, יוסף ויץ; 1890–1972) was the director of the Land and Afforestation Department of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). From the 1930s, Weitz played a major role in acquiring land for the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish community ...
, a Jewish National Fund official.[
On 16 June 1948, ]David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the nam ...
, almost certainly based on a progress report from Yosef Weitz
Yosef Weitz ( he, יוסף ויץ; 1890–1972) was the director of the Land and Afforestation Department of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). From the 1930s, Weitz played a major role in acquiring land for the Yishuv, the pre-state Jewish community ...
, noted Miska as one of the Palestinian villages that they had destroyed.
Sde Warburg was established in 1938 on land that traditionally belonged to the village. Mishmeret
Mishmeret ( he, מִשְׁמֶרֶת, , Position or Post) is a moshav in central Israel. Located in the Sharon plain near Netanya and the HaSharon Junction and covering 3,800 dunams, it falls under the jurisdiction of Lev HaSharon Regional Cou ...
was established in 1946, to the northwest of the village site, on village land. Ramat HaKovesh
Ramat HaKovesh ( he, רָמַת הַכּוֹבֵשׁ, , Conqueror's heights) is a kibbutz in central Israel. Located approximately 7 kilometers north of Kfar Saba, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Drom HaSharon Regional Council. In i ...
, founded 1932, is about 1 km due west of the village site, though not on village land.
The Palestinian historian 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 ...
described the village in 1992: "The site is covered with citrus groves; cactuses grow along the perimeter of these groves. The two-room school still stands and is used as housing for the watchmen who guard the orchards. The mosque serves as a storehouse for bales of hay and agricultural tools. The large cement fragments of a demolished enclosure built around the village well are visible. Most of the surrounding land has been planted by Israelis with citrus trees."
The school buildings were destroyed by order of the Israel Land Administration
The Israel Land Administration (ILA; he, מנהל מקרקעי ישראל, Minhal Mekarka'ei Yisra'el; ar, مديرية أراضي اسرائيل) is an Israeli government authority responsible for managing land in Israel which is in the public d ...
in 2006 following commemoration activities at the site organised by Palestinian Citizens of Israel
Palestinian citizens of Israel, also known as 48-Palestinians ( ar, فلسطينيو 48, Filastiniyyū Thamaniya Wa-Arba'in) are Arab citizens of Israel that self-identify as Palestinian people, Palestinian. According to Israel's Israel Central ...
and Israeli NGO 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 ...
.[, published by ]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 ...
(30 August 2006). Retrieved 13 May 2010.
See also
* Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel
References
Bibliography
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External links
Welcome to Miska
Miska
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 ...
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 10:
IAA
Wikimedia commons
from the 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 ...
Miska
by Rami Nashashibi (1996), Center for Research and Documentation of Palestinian Society.
*, by Eitan Reich and Adi Kemmelgren
*, 2002
*, 2003, by Ido Tzvieli
*, 2005 in Miske
*, July 20, 2005.
*, by Yosefa Mekaitun,
*
*, 2006
*, destroyed July 2006
*, 2006
*, April 24, 2007
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War
Arab villages depopulated prior to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
District of Tulkarm