Al-Batani al-Sharqi
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Al-Batani al-Sharqi ( ar, البطاني الشرقي) 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 Gaza Subdistrict, located northeast of Gaza situated in the flat terrain on the southern coastal plain of Palestine. It had a population of 650 in 1945. Al-Batani al-Sharqi was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.Khalidi, 1992, pp.84-85.


History

Ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
s from the
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
era have been found here, together with coins from reigns of
Phocas Phocas ( la, Focas; grc-gre, Φωκάς, Phōkás; 5475 October 610) was Eastern Roman emperor from 602 to 610. Initially, a middle-ranking officer in the Eastern Roman army, Phocas rose to prominence as a spokesman for dissatisfied soldiers ...
and
Constantine IV Constantine IV ( la, Constantinus; grc-gre, Κωνσταντῖνος, Kōnstantînos; 650–685), called the Younger ( la, iunior; grc-gre, ὁ νέος, ho néos) and sometimes incorrectly the Bearded ( la, Pogonatus; grc-gre, Πωγων ...
. One mention of al-Batani indicates that it was founded as a ranch by the
Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...
caliph
Mu'awiyah I Mu'awiya I ( ar, معاوية بن أبي سفيان, Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān; –April 680) was the founder and first caliph of the Umayyad Caliphate, ruling from 661 until his death. He became caliph less than thirty years after the deat ...
in the 8th century CE.


Ottoman era

Al-Batani al-Sharqi, like the rest of Palestine, 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, and in the tax registers of 1596, it was a village 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 ...
'' of Gaza, east of
Isdud Isdud ( ar, اسدود) is a former Palestinian village and the site of the ancient and classical-era Levantine metropolis of Ashdod. The Arab village, which had a population of 4,910 in 1945, was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. T ...
, north of
Bayt Daras Bayt Daras ( ar, بيت دراس) was a Palestinian Arab town located northeast of Gaza and approximately above sea level, which was depopulated in 1948. History A grave, dating to the Hellenistic era, probably from the first half of the thi ...
and part of the
Sanjak of Gaza Gaza Sanjak ( ar, سنجق غزة) was a sanjak of the Damascus Eyalet, Ottoman Empire centered in Gaza. In the 16th century it was divided into ''nawahi'' (singular: ''nahiya''; third-level subdivisions): Gaza in the south and Ramla in the nort ...
with a population of 39. Al-Batani paid taxes on wheat, barley, fruit, beehives, goats, and vineyards. The whole population was Muslim. The village appeared as an unnamed village on the map of
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 ...
compiled in 1799. In 1838,
Robinson Robinson may refer to: People and names * Robinson (name) Fictional characters * Robinson Crusoe, the main character, and title of a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719 Geography * Robinson projection, a map projection used since the 1960 ...
noted ''el-Butaniyeh, the east'', as Muslim village located in the Gaza district. In 1863 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 Min ...
visited the village which he called ''Bathanieh Ech-Charkieh''. He found about 100 adobe brick houses, and ancient stones lying on the ground near a well. Tobacco plantations grew in gardens surrounded by cactus hedges. Socin, citing an official Ottoman village list compiled around 1870, noted that Al-Batani al-Sharqi had 89 houses and a population of 265, though the population count included men, only. Hartmann found that ''el-batanije esch-scharkije'' had 85 houses. 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 al-Batani al-Sharqi as being situated on low ground and extended from east to west in a rectangular shape. Patches of garden and a number of wells surrounded the village.


British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Batani Sharqi'' had a population of 304 inhabitants, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 404, still all Muslim, in 85 houses.Mills, 1932, p
2
Construction expanded westward—the Wadi al-Mari's winter flooding impeded eastward expansion—along the road that linked to al-Batani al-Gharbi until the distance between the two villages was less than . Village houses, made of adobe, with wood-and-cane roofs, were built close together along narrow alleys. The two al-Batanis shared an elementary school that was opened in 1947; its initial enrollment was 119 students. The village had a mosque and a number of small shops. The entire population was Muslim. In the 1945 statistics Al-Batani al-Sharqi had a population of 650, all Muslims, with 5,764 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 319 dunams were allocated to citrus and banana plants, 474 plantations and irrigable land, 4,733 used for cereals, while 32 dunams were built-up land.


1948 war and aftermath

In early May, 1948, the Al-Majdal Arab National Committee, (NC), ordered the villagers of Al-Batani al-Sharqi, together with those of Al-Batani al-Gharbi, Yasur,
Bayt Daras Bayt Daras ( ar, بيت دراس) was a Palestinian Arab town located northeast of Gaza and approximately above sea level, which was depopulated in 1948. History A grave, dating to the Hellenistic era, probably from the first half of the thi ...
and the three Sawafir villages to stay put. It became depopulated shortly afterwards as part of Palmach's 'Operation Lightning' ('' Mivtza Barak''). After they had hit
Bayt Daras Bayt Daras ( ar, بيت دراس) was a Palestinian Arab town located northeast of Gaza and approximately above sea level, which was depopulated in 1948. History A grave, dating to the Hellenistic era, probably from the first half of the thi ...
, the operational orders to Haganah on the 10 May was to "subdue" Al-Batani al-Gharbi and Al-Batani al-Sharqi, "with the same means used vis-à-vis
Aqir Aqir, also spelt Akir and Akkur, was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict, located 9 km southwest of Ramla and 1 km north of Wadi al-NasufiyyaKhalidi, 1990, p. 359 (today called Nahal Ekron). It was depopulated and demol ...
, Bashshit and
Bayt Daras Bayt Daras ( ar, بيت دراس) was a Palestinian Arab town located northeast of Gaza and approximately above sea level, which was depopulated in 1948. History A grave, dating to the Hellenistic era, probably from the first half of the thi ...
." Together with nearby Bashshit and
Barqa Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika ( ar, برقة, Barqah, grc-koi, Κυρηναϊκή παρχίαKurēnaïkḗ parkhíā}, after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between ...
, al-Batani al-Sharqi was captured by the Haganah's Givati Brigade, just before the end of the British Mandate period in Palestine. According to
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 ...
i historian Benny Morris, it fell on May 13, 1948, as part of
Operation Barak Operation Barak ( he, מבצע ברק, ''Mivtza Barak'', lit. ''Operation Lightning'') was a Haganah offensive launched just before the end of the British Mandate in Palestine. It was part of Plan Dalet. Its objective was to capture villages Nor ...
in which the Haganah moved southwards in anticipation of an engagement with Egyptian forces. The ''History of the War of Independence'', however, states that it was captured by Israeli Jewish forces under the Givati Brigade's Eighth Battalion on June 10–11. 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 ...
said that this may have meant that the village briefly changed hands in the course of Israeli-Egyptian battles on the southern front before the first truce came into effect on June 11. In early 1949 American Quaker relief workers reported that many those living in tents in what became Maghazi refugee camp had come from Al-Batani al-Sharqi.Gallagher, Nancy (2007) ‘’Quakers in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Dilemmas of NGO Humanitarian Activism’’ The American University in Cairo Press. p 75 Following the war the area was incorporated into the State of Israel, with the villages lands remaining undeveloped.Khalidi, 1992, p. 85 In 1992 the village site was described: "Only a dilapidated police station from the Mandate period survives. It is a complex of three single-storey, concrete flat-roofed buildings. One of the buildings is higher than the other two; all three have rectangular doors and windows. A village street is clearly visible. Cactuses and fig, eucalyptus, and sycamore trees are scattered over the site. Israeli farmers cultivate citrus on the adjacent lands."


See also

* Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links


Welcome To al-Batani al-Sharqi al-Batani al-Sharqi
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 16
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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 ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Batani District of Gaza Arab villages depopulated prior to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Populated places established in the 8th century