Qannir ( ar, قنْير) 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 35 kilometers south of

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 ...

. With 750 inhabitants in 1945, it was depopulated in the lead up to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

History

In the late Ottoman era, Qannir appears on sheet 45 of Jacotin's map drawn-up during

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 invasion in 1799. In 1859, the English consul Rogers estimated the population to be 250, who cultivated 24

feddan A feddan ( ar, فدّان, faddān) is a unit of area used in Egypt, Sudan, Syria, and the Oman. In Classical Arabic, the word means 'a yoke of oxen', implying the area of ground that could be tilled by oxen in a certain time. In Egypt, the fedda ...

s of land. By 1882, 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 ...

'' described the place as a village of adobe of moderate size, with one

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, and another to the west. By a later account, the village consisted of stone houses built side by side. A population list from about 1887 showed that ''el Kannir'' had about 665 inhabitants, all Muslim.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Qannir had a population of 400; all Muslims, increasing slightly in the 1931 census to 483, still all Muslims, in a total of 92 houses.Mills, 1932, p
94
/ref> In the 1945 statistics the population was 750 Muslims with 10,826 dunums of land. Of this, a total of 5,760 dunums were used for cereals; while 460 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, while 22 dunams were built-up (urban) land. File:Qannir 1942.jpg, Qannir 1942 1:20,000 File:Qannir 1945.jpg, Qannir 1945 1:250,000

1948, and after

Between 22–24 April 1948, the women and children of Qannir started to evacuate the village, apparently on

rab Rab �âːb( dlm, Arba, la, Arba, it, Arbe, german: Arbey) is an island in the northern Dalmatia region in Croatia, located just off the northern Croatian coast in the Adriatic Sea. The island is long, has an area of and 9,328 inhabitants (2 ...

"orders from on high". According to a dispatch sent by Fawzi al-Qawuqji to the

High Command, an enemy attack from

Ein Hashofeit Ein HaShofet ( he, עֵין הַשּׁוֹפֵט, ''lit.'' Spring of the Judge) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the Menashe Heights region around 25 km southeast of the city of Haifa, close to Yokneam, it falls under the jurisdic ...

started on 0400 on 8 May towards Quannir and Kafr Quari. The attackers were supported by armored cars. According to al-Qawuqji the attack was "resisted and repelled", with a result of one killed and four wounded on the Palestinian side. However, according to Haganah sources, the forces of the Alexandroni Brigade "raided the village on 9 May 1948, killed four Arabs and blew up 55 houses". According to Morris, the remaining villagers probably left at this time.Morris, 2004, p
244
/ref> Following the war the area was incorporated into the State of Israel, with the kibbutz of Regavim established on the village's former lands in 1949.

Khalidi Al-Khaldi ( ar, الْخَالْدِي), also spelled Al Khalidi is the last name given to members of the tribe of Bani Khalid. The tribe traditionally claims descent from Khalid ibn al-Walid a senior companion of the Prophet Muhammad, and esteem ...

described the place in 1992:

''Stone rubble is strewn about the site, which is covered with thorns, fig trees, and cactus. Part of the adjacent land is used by Israelis as pasture and the other part is cultivated.''

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * al-Qawuqji, F. (1972)
Memoirs of al-Qawuqji, Fauzi
in ''

Journal of Palestine Studies The ''Journal of Palestine Studies (JPS)'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1971. It is published by Taylor and Francis on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies, having previously been published by the University ...

''
"Memoirs, 1948, Part I" in 1, no. 4 (Sum. 72): 27-58.
dpf-file, downloadable
"Memoirs, 1948, Part II" in 2, no. 1 (Aut. 72): 3-33.
dpf-file, downloadable *

External links

Qannir

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 8
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 ...

{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War Arab villages depopulated prior to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Haifa