Harrawi ( ar, هرّاوي/عرب الحمدون) was a Palestinian

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. It was depopulated during the

1948 Arab-Israeli War Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

on May 25, 1948, by the Palmach's First Battalion 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 ...

. It was located 18 km northeast of Safad. In 1948 it had a population of 290.

History

The villagers of Harrawi were descendants of Bedouin from the ‘Arab al-Hamdun tribe. There is evidence to suggest the village was inhabited as far back as the early

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 ...

period, with ruins of Greek inscriptions, old walls, tessellated floors, and a wine-press.Khalidi, 1992, p.454 In 1875

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 Mino ...

passed by, and thought the ruins he found there could be ancient Hazor. The same was reported in 1881, by the PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP).

British Mandate era

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, ''Arab el Hamdun'' had a population of 148 Muslims, in a total of 36 houses. Harrawi was located on a mountain in eastern Upper Galilee. The area is forested but much land was converted by the settlers for agricultural purposes, given that in 1945, 551 dunums of land was devoted to the farming of

cereal A cereal is any Poaceae, grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, Cereal germ, germ, and bran. Cereal Grain, grain crops are grown in greater quantit ...

s. However, they were also employed in animal husbandry, and brought their livestock down seasonal pastures in the winter. A large number of inhabitants were employed in cereal farming, which dominated all of the area under cultivation. Types of land use in dunums by Arabs in the 1945 statistics:Department of Statistics, 1945, p
9
/ref>Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
119
/ref>Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
169
/ref> The village comprised a total area of 3,726

dunums 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 amount ...

of which 60% was owned by Arabs and 40% by Jews. The land ownership of the village before occupation in dunums:Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
69
/ref>

1948 conflict and depopulation

Although it was in May 1948 that the village was depopulated, the Palestinian newspaper '' Filastin'' reported an incident that occurred in February 1948 when a bus carrying Arab passengers en route from al-Hula to Safad was ambushed at Harrawi on 12 February by a

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

military unit. A mine exploded under the bus which was also subject to gunfire and firebombing, killing four people.Filastin
13.02.1948
cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 454 In mid May 1948, the village was defended by the Arab Liberation Army's Second Yarmuk Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. Adib Shishakli, who later served as president of

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. The initial resistance was reported by the American newspaper'' ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' ''in

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

to have been a success, with the ALA claiming victories at Harrawi and al-Malikiyya, located 5 km to the northwest. However, any early successes were short-lived; Harrawi, along with the nearby villages of Mallaha and

Baysamun Baysamun or Beisamoun ( ar, بيسمون, ''Beisamûn'') was a small Palestinian Arab village, located in the marshy Hula Valley northeast of Safad. In 1945, it had a population of 20.Hadawi, 1970p. 69 It was depopulated during the 1948 War on Ma ...

fell to the Israeli Palmach's First Battalion of

May 25.

Ramot Naftali Ramot Naftali ( he, רָמוֹת נַפְתָּלִי) is a moshav in northern Israel. Located in the Upper Galilee near the Lebanese border, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council. In it had a population of . The ...

is located close to the village site, but it is not on Harrawi land; it is located

Al-Nabi Yusha' Al-Nabi Yusha' ( ar, النبي يوشع was a small Palestinian village in the Galilee situated 17 kilometers to the northeast of Safad, with an elevation of 375 meters above sea level. It became part of the Palestine Mandate under British con ...

land. In 1992 the village site was described: "No traces of the village are visible. Woods cover the slopes and peak of the mountain on which the village was located. Some of the lands in the area are wooded while others have been planted by Israelis with fruit trees."

References

Bibliography

* * *(p
120
* * * * * * * al-Qawuqji, F. (1972)
Memoirs of al-Qawuqji, Fauzi
in '' Journal of Palestine Studies''
"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

Harrawi
Zochrot
Harrawi
from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
al-Harrawi
Villages of Palestine *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 4
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Safad