Al-Na'ima ( ar, الناعمة ) 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 ...

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, ...

village in the Safad Subdistrict of

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...

located 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 ...

, near the al-Hula Plain. The settlement was depopulated during the 1947-1948 civil war on May 14, 1948 by the Israeli

Palmach The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Companies") was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Palmach ...

's First Battalion as part of

Operation Yiftach Operation Yiftach ( he, מבצע יפתח, ''Mivtza Yiftah'') was a Palmach offensive carried out between 28 April and 23 May 1948. The objectives were to capture Safed and to secure the eastern Galilee before the British Mandate ended on 14 May ...

. In the 1945 statistics it had a population of 1,240 of whom 210 were Jews.

History

In 1881, during the late Ottoman period, the PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' described the village as a "Stone and mud village, on the Huleh Plain, containing about 100

Moslem 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 ...

s."Conder and Kitchener, 1881, p
89
/ref>

British Mandate era

The village had a boys' elementary school. A shrine dedicated to local sage al-Shaykh al-Wayzi lay about from the site as did a stone quarry. In the

1931 census of Palestine The 1931 census of Palestine was the second census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate for Palestine. It was carried out on 18 November 1931 under the direction of Major E. Mills after the 1922 census of Palestine. * Census of P ...

, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''En Na'ima'' had a population of 858, all Muslims, in a total of 174 houses.Mills, 1932, p
109
/ref> Types of land use in

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amou ...

s in the village in the 1945 statistics:Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.
120
/ref>Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
170
/ref> The land ownership of the village before occupation in

s:Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945''. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
70

1948, and aftermath

During the 1948 war, Al-Na'ima was depopulated during Operation Yiftach which targeted Safad and the surrounding district. When the city of Safad was finally attacked between the 10 and 11 May 1948, morale in the village was low; according to an Israeli intelligence report, many residents fled on 14 May shortly before advancing Israeli troops entered. The settlement of Neot Mordechai was built in 1946 to the south of the village while to the north is the settlement of Beyt Hillel, built in 1940. Kefar Blum, built in 1943 lies to the southeast.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To al-Na'imaal-Na'ima

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 ...

al-Na'ima
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 ...

Al-Na'ima
Dr. Khalil Rizk. *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 2:
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Safad