:''See Tira for other sites with similar names.'' Al-Tira (), was a

Palestinian 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 p ...

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

village in the District of Baysan. It was depopulated by the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on 15 April 1948 as part of Operation Gideon under the command of Yosef Weitz. It was located 17.5 km north of Baysan overlooking Wadi al-Bira. However, 'Ayn al-Bayda' was the main source of drinking water for al-Tira inhabitants.

History

It has been suggested that this was Atara of the list of Thothmes III.Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p
87
/ref> In 1517 al-Tra was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

with the rest of Palestine. During the 16th and 17th centuries, it belonged to the Turabay Emirate (1517-1683), which encompassed also the

Jezreel Valley The Jezreel Valley (from the ), or Marj Ibn Amir (), also known as the Valley of Megiddo, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. It is bordered to the north by the highlands o ...

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

Jenin Jenin ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and is the capital of the Jenin Governorate. It is a hub for the surrounding towns. Jenin came under Israeli occupied territories, Israeli occupation in 1967, and was put under the administra ...

, Beit She'an Valley, northern Jabal Nablus, Bilad al-Ruha/Ramot Menashe, and the northern part of the Sharon plain. In 1875,

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

climbed a small hill to reach the Al-Tira village. It consisted of about a dozen houses, built of

adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

or assorted materials. In 1882, the PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' described it as: "A small village, principally of adobe, on a hill-top, above a deep gorge. The water appears to be brought from the springs in the valley."

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 Mandatory Palestine authorities, Tireh had a population of 130 Muslims, decreasing in the 1931 census to 108, still all Muslims, in 24 houses. In the 1945 statistics the population of Et Tira and Irgun Borokhov was 200; 150 Arabs and 50 Jews, while the total land area was 10,207

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, Arabs used 54 dunums for plantations and irrigable land, 4,326 for cereals, while 29 dunums were classified as built-up (urban) land.

1948, aftermath

In his diary, Weitz wrote of the inhabitants of Qumya and Al-Tira in the Baysan valley on the 26 March 1948:

"Not taking upon themselves the responsibility of preventing the infiltration of irregulars ... They must be forced to leave their villages until peace comes.

In order to block the return of the villagers, the kibbutz Gazit was established on the land of village land in September 1948, 1.5 km southwest of the village site. In 1992 the village site was described: "The ruins of stone houses, covered with grass and thorns, are all that remain of al-Tira. The site is fenced in and servers Israeli farmers as pasture land. Cupress trees grow on surrounding land."Khalidi, 1992, pp. 63-64

References

Bibliography

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External links

Welcome To al-Tiraal-Tira (Baysan)
Zochrot *Survey of Western Palestine, map 9
IAAWikimedia commons
from Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center {{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War