Yarda 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 ...
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
in the
Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the
1947–1949 Palestine war. It was located 10.5 km northeast of
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 ...
. The area is now part of Israel.
History
''Khirbat Waqqas'' was located west-northwest of Yarda, and is recognised as the place the
Canaanites referred to as
Hazor.
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 at ''Kh. Waqqas'' in 1875: 'Near a small enclosure, in the centre of which is a broken column consecrated to a santon, are shown the remains of an edifice oriented east and west, once probably a church. It was ornamented with monolithic columns in ordinary limestone, some broken pieces of which are still lying about. Other similar fragments are found in the neighbouring houses. Here and there I remarked cut stones, which no doubt belonged to this monument. A little to the south, a hillock is also covered with ruins of houses.' In 1881, 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) found at ''Kh. Wakkas'' only cattle-sheds.
Yarda itself was located at a place called ''Kh el Loziyeh'' in the late
Ottoman era. In 1881, the SWP found here: "Caves and ruined cattle sheds".
British Mandate era
In the
1931 census of Palestine, conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, ''Yarda'' had a population of 13
Muslims, in a total of 3 houses.
[Mills, 1932, p]
111
/ref>
In the 1945 statistics, the population was 20 Muslims,[ who owned 1,367 dunams of land.][ Of this, 1,359 dunams were used for cereals, while 8 dunams were classified as un-cultivable area.
]
Post 1948
After Yarda became depopulated, Ayyelet ha-Shahar took over some of the village land, while in 1949 Mishmar ha-Yarden was also settled on village land.[
In 1992 the village site was described: "The truncated walls of some houses still stand, as well as those of a ''khan'', or ]caravansary
A caravanserai (or caravansary; ) was a roadside Pub#Inns, inn where travelers (caravan (travellers), caravaners) could rest and recover from the day's journey. Caravanserais supported the flow of commerce, information and people across the ne ...
. The site is strewn with stones from crumbled houses. A portion of the land is used as pasture."[Khalidi, 1992, pp. 504-505]
References
Bibliography
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* (p
122
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External links
Yarda
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 ...
Yarda
Villages of Palestine
*Survey of Western Palestine, map 4
IAAWikimedia commons
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 Safad