Kafr ʿInān (), is a former
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 ...
village, depopulated in the
1948 Arab–Israeli war
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...
. It was located around east of
Acre
The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...
.
In ancient times, it was known as Kfar Hananiah, and was a large
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
village and a significant pottery production center.
Archaeological surveys indicate Kefar Hanania was founded in the Early Roman period, and was inhabited through the Byzantine period.
It was resettled in the Middle Ages and the modern era.
By mid 1500, the village was wholly Muslim and was known as Kafr 'Inan.
Kafr ʿInān was captured 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
1948 Arab–Israeli war
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...
. It was
depopulated and destroyed as part of the
1948 Palestinian expulsion, with its residents expelled to the
West Bank
The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
or to other Arab towns in the newly established
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
. Many villagers managed to "infiltrate" back to Kafr ʿInān, but on three separate occasions in January and February 1949 the Israeli army expelled them.
[
A shrine for the ]Sheikh
Sheikh ( , , , , ''shuyūkh'' ) is an honorific title in the Arabic language, literally meaning "elder (administrative title), elder". It commonly designates a tribal chief or a Muslim ulama, scholar. Though this title generally refers to me ...
Abu Hajar Azraq and the remains of a small domed building are still standing, along with the remains of various burial sites of rabbis. In 1989, the Israeli village of Kfar Hananya was established on Kafr ʿInān land on a hill adjacent to the former Palestinian village.[
]
History
Roman and Byzantine Kfar Hanania
The earliest mentions of the village occur in sources from the Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of Roman civilization
*Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
and Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
periods in Galilee
Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ).
''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...
, when it was then a Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
village known as ''Kefar Hananya'' (or ''Kfar Hanania''),[Lissovsky (2007), p. 167] that served as a center for pottery
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...
production in the Galilee
Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ).
''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...
.[Crossan, 1999]
p. 224
[Negev and Gibson, 2005]
p. 279
Most of the cooking ware in the Galilee between the 1st century BCE and the beginning of the 5th century CE was produced here.[Leibner, 2009, ]
130
A Byzantine-period synagogue was partially carved out of the rock, probably during the 5th century CE, and its remains have been excavated east of the village. Khalidi mentions shafts and bases of columns, caves, a pool, and a burial ground discovered in archaeological excavations.[
During the ]Second Temple period
The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...
, within a distance of less than a kilometer from Kfar Hananya, was the thriving village of Bersabe (now ''Khirbet es-Saba'' 'Kh. Abu esh-Shebaʿ'' Beer Sheba of the Galilee), a village mentioned in the writings of Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...
.
Among the Kfar Hanania's most respected personages who is said to have been buried there was a Tanna (Jewish sage) of the 1st century, Eliezer ben Jacob I. The Talmud and Midrash mention it as the home of Rabbi Jacob of Kfar Ḥanīn, a third-generation amora. As a result of Aramaic
Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...
influence, the village became known as Kafr Ḥanan, a shortened form of Hananiah.
An Aramaic inscription dated to the 5th or 6th century was found on a ''kelilah'' (a polycandelon, i.e. a bronze chandelier holding glass lamps and suspended from the ceiling) in or near the Galilean village of Kefar Makr near Acre
The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...
, reading "This polycandelon elilah… fferedto the holy place he synagogueof Kefar Hananyah. May they be remembered for good. Amen, selah, shalom
''Shalom'' ( ''šālōm'') is a Hebrew word meaning ''peace'' and can be used idiomatically to mean ''hello'' and ''goodbye''.
As it does in English, it can refer to either peace between two entities (especially between a person and God or b ...
". The chandelier, now exhibited in a Belgian museum
A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...
, bears the inscription next to the images of Judaic religious objects: two menorahs (seven-branched candlesticks), a lulav
''Lulav'' (; ) is a closed frond of the date palm tree. It is one of the Four Species used during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The other Species are the '' hadass'' ( myrtle), ''aravah'' (willow), and ''etrog'' (citron). When bound together, ...
(palm frond) and a shofar
A shofar ( ; from , ) is an ancient musical horn, typically a ram's horn, used for Jewish ritual purposes. Like the modern bugle, the shofar lacks pitch-altering devices, with all pitch control done by varying the player's embouchure. The ...
(ram's horn); for illustrations se
here
[Flood (2001)]
p. 50
Pottery production
Rabbinic literature
Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire corpus of works authored by rabbis throughout Jewish history. The term typically refers to literature from the Talmudic era (70–640 CE), as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic ...
mentions Kfar Hanania village in relation to the production of pottery; in the Tosefta
The Tosefta ( "supplement, addition") is a compilation of Jewish Oral Law from the late second century, the period of the Mishnah and the Jewish sages known as the '' Tannaim''.
Background
Jewish teachings of the Tannaitic period were cha ...
(''Bava Metzia
Bava Metzia (, "The Middle Gate") is the second of the first three Talmudic tractates in the order of Nezikin ("Damages"), the other two being Bava Kamma and Bava Batra. Originally all three formed a single tractate called ''Nezikin'' (torts or ...
'' 6:3), there is a reference to, "those who make black clay, such as Kefar Hananya and its neighbors."[Gale, 2005]
p. 70
Late Roman-era pottery types of the kind made in Kafr 'Inan have been found all throughout the Galilee
Galilee (; ; ; ) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon consisting of two parts: the Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and the Lower Galilee (, ; , ).
''Galilee'' encompasses the area north of the Mount Carmel-Mount Gilboa ridge and ...
and the Golan
Golan (; ) is the name of a biblical town later known from the works of Josephus (first century CE) and Eusebius (''Onomasticon'', early 4th century CE). Archaeologists localize the biblical city of Golan at Sahm el-Jaulān, a Syrian village eas ...
.
Crusader to Mamluk period
Ya'akov ben Netan'el, who visited the village in the 12th century during the period of Crusader rule, writes about the ruins of a synagogue
A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...
quarried into the hill.[ Potential references to the village include a mention of the "widow of Ben al-'Anani" in a 12th-century ]Genizah
A genizah (; , also ''geniza''; plural: ''genizot'' 'h''or ''genizahs'') is a storage area in a Judaism, Jewish synagogue or cemetery designated for the temporary storage of worn-out Hebrew-language books and papers on religious topics prior t ...
document and to ''Kfar Hanan'' in the 13th century.[Leibner, 2009, p]
129
/ref> In 1211, Samuel ben Samson travelled from Tiberias
Tiberias ( ; , ; ) is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Heb ...
and Kfar Hanania before stopping in Safed
Safed (), also known as Tzfat (), is a city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to , Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel.
Safed has been identified with (), a fortif ...
.[Winter and Levanoni, 2004, p]
164
In the 14th century, another traveller transcribes the village's name as ''Kefar Hanin''.[
]
Ottoman period: Kafr ʿInan
In 1522, Jewish traveler Moses ben Mordecai Bassola
Moses ben Mordecai Bassola, also known as Moses Bassola, Moshe Basola, Basilea, or Basila (Hebrew באסולה or simply: משה באסולה; alternative Hebrew spelling: באזלה ,איש באזולה ,ב(א)סולה ,באסל ,באזילא); found about 30 families of Musta'arabi Jews
Musta'arabi Jews ( al-Mustaʿribīn " Mozarabs"; ''Mustaʿravim'') were the Arabic-speaking Jews, largely Mizrahi Jews and Maghrebi Jews, who lived in the Middle East and North Africa prior to the arrival and integration of Ladino-speaking Seph ...
(Arabic-speaking Jews, as opposed to Sephardi Jews
Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
) among the residents, most of whom of priestly stock, making it the fifth largest Jewish community in the country at the time, out of the eight places named by him.[Braslavsky (1933), p. 20][Lissovsky (2007), p. 169] An Ottoman census taken two years later (1525) listed 14 Jewish families.
It is during the rule of 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 ...
that the form Kafr ʿInān (Kafr 'Anan) first appears. The village is listed in the tax records of either 1549 or 1596, as forming part of the ''nahiya
A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, 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 divisi ...
'' (subdistrict) of ''Jira'', part of Safad Sanjak
Safed Sanjak (; ) was a '' sanjak'' (district) of Damascus Eyalet ( Ottoman province of Damascus) in 1517–1660, after which it became part of the Sidon Eyalet (Ottoman province of Sidon). The sanjak was centered in Safed and spanned the Galil ...
, with 21 households and 8 bachelors; an estimated population of 259. All the villagers were 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 ...
. They paid taxes on goats, beehives and on its press, which was used either for olives
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...
or grapes
A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters.
The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...
; a total of 12,272 akçe
The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...
. All of the revenue went to a Waqf
A (; , plural ), also called a (, plural or ), or ''mortmain'' property, is an Alienation (property law), inalienable charitable financial endowment, endowment under Sharia, Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot ...
. A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin
Pierre Jacotin (1765–1827) was the director of the Surveying, survey for the ''Carte de l'Égypte (Description de l'Égypte)'', the first triangulation-based map of Egypt, Syria and Palestine.
The maps were drafted in 1799–1800 during Napole ...
showed the place, named as "K. Hanein".
It is said some Jewish Kohanitic families migrated to Peki'in, possibly in the late 16th century.
In 1881, the PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' described the village as being built of stone and having 150-200 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 ...
residents. The arable land in the village comprised gardens and olive trees.
A population list from about 1887 showed that Kafr 'Inan had 80 inhabitants; all Muslim.
British Mandate period
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, ''Kufr Enan'' had a population of 179; all Muslims,[Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Acre, p]
36
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 264, still all Muslims, in a total of 47 houses.[Mills, 1932, p]
100
/ref>
In the 1945 statistics, Kafr 'Inan had 360 Muslim inhabitants,[ with a total of of land according to an official land and population survey.][ Of this, a total of 1,740 dunums were used for the cultivation of ]cereal
A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize ( Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, ...
s, 1,195 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards and most of these (1,145 dunums) were planted with olive trees,[ while 21 dunams were built-up (urban) area.][ The village, however, occupied an area of only 25 dunams (6.1 acres).
The village houses, made of stone with mud mortar, were bunched close together and separated by semi-circular, narrow alleys. Many new houses were constructed during the last years of ]Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine.
After ...
. Springs and domestic wells supplied drinking water. Olives and grain were the main crops. Grain was grown in the nearby flat zones and valleys.[
]
1948 Palestine war
The village was captured on 30 October 1948 by the Golani Brigade
The 1st "Golani" Brigade (, ''Hativat Golani'') is an Israeli military infantry brigade. It is subordinated to the 36th Division and traditionally associated with the Northern Command. It is one of the five infantry brigades of the regular Is ...
as part of Operation Hiram and following the war the area was incorporated into the State of Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
. According to Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi (; born in Jerusalem on July 16, 1925) is a Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an inde ...
, the villagers refused to leave like most of the population in the area.[ Morris reports that the Israeli authorities classified the village as "abandoned" but the villagers kept returning.][Morris, 2004, pp]
516
17 In January 1949, the IDF expelled 54, and moved another 128 inhabitants from Kafr 'Inan and Farradiyya to other villages in Israel.[Morris, 2004, p]
517
/ref> On 4 February 1949, units of the 79th Battalion surrounded the two villages and expelled 45 people to the West Bank
The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
. The 200 villagers who had permits to stay, mostly old men, women and children, were transferred to Majd al Kurum.[ Yet again, the villagers returned. By mid-February 1949 there were about 100 back in the two villages, according to IDF sources. The two villages were again evacuated by the IDF.][
The expulsion of the villagers upset some members of ]Mapam
File:Pre-State_Zionist_Workers'_Parties_chart.png, chart of zionist workers parties, 360px, right
rect 167 83 445 250 Hapoel Hatzair
rect 450 88 717 265 The non-partisans (pre-state Zionist political movement), Non Partisans
rect 721 86 995 243 ...
, who condemned David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion ( ; ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary List of national founders, national founder and first Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister of the State of Israel. As head of the Jewish Agency ...
and the army. However, a suggestion for a Knesset
The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel.
The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...
motion calling for the establishment of an inquiry to probe the expulsions of the villagers of Kafr 'Inan, Farradiyya and Al-Ghabisiyya, was apparently never brought to the Knesset plenum.[Morris, 2004, p]
516
note 80, pp
541
2
Israel
In 1950, Article 125 of the Defence regulation of 1945 was invoked in order to confiscate the land belonging to a number of Palestinian Arab villages in Galilee, among them Kafr 'Inan. This law was also used to prevent the villagers from returning to their homes even by legal means.
The modern Jewish village of Kfar Hananya was first planned to the south of the depopulated Kafr ʿInān village in 1982, and was eventually established there in 1989 on village land (though not on the actual site of Kafr ʿInān).[ Chazon, built in 1969 on the lands of Al-Mansura, Tiberias, and Parod, built in 1949 on the lands of Al-Farradiyya ( District of Safad), are both close to the village site, but not on village land.][ In 1992, Palestinian historian ]Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi (; born in Jerusalem on July 16, 1925) is a Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an inde ...
found piles of stones, clusters of cacti, fig trees, the remains of a domed building on a slope facing the village and the small shrine of Shaykh Abu Hajar Azraq on an adjacent hill to the east. The land around the site is forested and planted with fruit trees by the settlement of Parod."[Khalidi, 1992, p. 21]
Archaeology
Roman to Byzantine-period village
In 1933, Joseph Braslavsky was the first to identify the quarried synagogue in Kafr 'Inan, based on the testimony of a local Arab peasant. In 1989, the site was surveyed by Zvi Ilan. Adan-Bayewitz, of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...
conducted archaeological research at the site from 1987 to 1988, and excavated a late Roman-era pottery kiln in 1992–1993, with a stone-paved approach.[Adan-Bayewitz (1992), p. 192]
See also
* Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel
* Palestinian refugee
Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country, village or house over the course of the 1948 Palestine war and during the 1967 Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refug ...
* Present absentee
* Shikhin, village near Sepphoris, another major pottery production centre in Roman Galilee
Gallery
File:Remains of Synagogue carved from rock, at Old Kefar Hananiah - Kafr 'Inan.jpg, Synagogue carved into the rock at ancient Kefar Hananiah (later Kafr 'Inan)
File:Synagogue wall carved from rock - at Kafr 'Inan.jpg, Synagogue walls carved into the rock at ancient Kfar Hananya
File:Remains of structure at Old Kefar Hananiah - Kafr 'Inan.jpg, Ruins of stone structure at ancient Kfar Hananya
File:Kefar Hananiah - Kafr 'Inan - ancient wall.jpg, Ancient Kfar Hananya (at Kafr 'Inan)
File:Field before the Mount of old Kefar Hananiah.jpg, Green fields below hill of Kafr 'Inan
File:Ruin of Kefar Hananiah - Kafr 'Inan.jpg, Kafr 'Inan, ruins
References
Bibliography
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* eprinted from earlier Livorno edition">Livorno.html" ;"title="eprinted from earlier Livorno">eprinted from earlier Livorno edition*
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External links
Welcome To Kafr 'Inan
Kafr 'Inan
Zochrot
Kefar Ḥananyah
entry at ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East'' by the head of excavations, David Adan-Bayewitz. Accessed 26 April 2021.
Parod - 2009 (Israel Antiquities Authority)
Aqueduct that served both Parod ( Farradiyya) and Kafr 'Inan (Kefar Hananiah)
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 4
IAA
Wikipedia mirror
*, Saturday, 3.10.2009, by Umar Ighbariyyeh, from Zochrot
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War
District of Acre
Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
Talmud places
Ancient synagogues in the Land of Israel
Ancient Jewish settlements of Galilee