Al-Manshiyya (), also known as Khirbat Manshiyya, was a

Palestinian Arab Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous ...

village in the

Tulkarm Subdistrict The Tulkarm Subdistrict was one of the subdistricts of Mandatory Palestine. It was located around the city of Tulkarm. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the subdistrict disintegrated, the western part became part of the Central District (Israel), C ...

. It was depopulated during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 15, 1948, under Operation Coastal Clearing. It was located 12.5 km northwest of

Tulkarm Tulkarm or Tulkarem (, ''Ṭūlkarm'') is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the West Bank, the capital of the Tulkarm Governorate of the State of Palestine. The Israeli city of Netanya is to the west, and the Palestinian territories, Palestinia ...

History

The villagers traced their origin to Abasan, in the Gaza district.

British Mandate era

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Manshiyeh'' had a population of 94

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

s,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p
28
/ref> while in the 1931 census the village was counted under

Attil Attil () is a Palestinian town in the Tulkarm Governorate in the eastern West Bank, northeast of Tulkarm. Attil is the connection point between the other villages and Tulkarm. It is bordered by Illar to the east; Baqa ash-Sharqiyya to the ...

, together with Jalama and Zalafa. Ein ha-Horesh and Giv'at Chayirn were founded in 1931 and 1932 on what traditionally had been village land. In the 1945 statistics, it had a population of 260 Muslims, with a total of 16,770 dunums of land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
75
/ref> Of this, Arabs used 1 dunam for citrus and bananas, 12 were plantations and irrigated land, 12,485 were for cereals, while total of 437 dunams were classified as “non-cultivable” areas.

1948, aftermath

In December 1947, villagers from Al-Manshiyya approached

Givat Haim Givat Haim () was a kibbutz located around five kilometres south of Hadera in Israel. It split along ideological lines in 1952, creating two new kibbutzim, Givat Haim (Meuhad) and Givat Haim (Ihud).Ranen Omer-Sherman (2015''Imagining the Kibbutz: ...

to conclude a local non-belligerent agreement. In April 1948,

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

had established policy of "cleaning out" the local Arabs from the coastal area. The villagers of Al-Manshiyya evacuated eastwards, apparently after "reaching an agreement with Haganah representatives that Jewish settlements would safeguard their property and allow them to return after the war." However, on 12 April 1948, even before the village was evacuated, the "Committee for new settlements" had destined Al-Manshiyya to be the location of a new, Jewish settlement.Morris, 2004, p.
371
note #168 In 1951 Ahituv was founded on the land of Al-Manshiyya. In 1992 the village remains were described: "A paved street bisects the site. The Israeli settlement of Giv'at Chayyim lies on both sides of this street, and there is a large cow barn at the southern end of it. Cactuses grow near the village entrance. Stones from the destroyed village houses are used as boundaries between flower beds, especially those lying along the street. Cotton, pistachios, and fruits are grown on the surrounding land."

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links

Welcome To al-Manshiyya
Palestine Remembered
Khirbet al-Manshiyya

Zochrot Zochrot (; "Remembering"; ; "Memories") is an Israeli nonprofit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Nakba, including the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight. The group was co-founded by Eitan ...

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11:
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Authority control Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Tulkarm