Ra'na () was a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

located approximately 26 km northwest of

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

. It was occupied by the Israeli army during Operation Yo'av in October 1948. It was one of 16 villages in the Hebron district that were depopulated.

History

In 1838, during 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 ...

, Edward Robinson noted it as

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 ...

village, located in the Gaza district.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
119
/ref> He further reported that the fields of Ra'na were planted with tobacco and cotton. In 1863 Victor Guérin described it as a "village now reduced to a few huts, but that once had been much more considerable, judging by two beautiful wells dug in the rock and by a number of great stones scattered here and there". An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that Ra'na had 8 houses and a population of 30, though the population count included men, only.Socin, 1879, p
158
/ref> In 1882, the PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' described Ra'na as a village built of stone and

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 ...

, and it had a pool and gardens. In 1896 the population of Ra'na was estimated to be about 99 persons.

British Mandate era

Ra'na was classified as

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

by the ''Palestine Index Gazetteer''.Khalidi, 1992, p. 221 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, Ra'ana had a population of 126 inhabitants, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Hebron, p.
10
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 150, still all Muslim, in a total of 36 inhabited houses.Mills, 1932, p
33
/ref> In 1945 statistics the population of Ra'na was 190, all Muslims. In 1944/45 a total of 5,882 dunums of land was planted with

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, while 112 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Grain was the dominant crop, but during the final year of the British Mandate of Palestine, the villagers also grew

grape 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 ...

s, carob and olives. 14 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.
143
/ref> The

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

of Gal On was established in 1946 on what had traditionally been village land. Beit Jibrin 1945

1948, and after

The village was attacked by the

Giv'ati Brigade The 84th "Givati" Brigade () is an Israel Defense Forces Israeli Infantry Corps, infantry brigade formed in 1947. During the 1948 Palestine war, 1948 war, it was involved in List of towns and villages depopulated during the 1947–1949 Palesti ...

on 22–23 October 1948. Those villagers who had not already fled were expelled and the village destroyed. 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 ...

. Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described that the site of the village in 1992: "The site is fenced in with barbed wire and is overgrown in part by cactuses, especially where there is limestone soil, and by carob trees. No houses or rubble remains."

People from Ra'na

Ata Abu Rashta Ata Bin Khalil Abu al-Rashtah (; born 1943) is a Palestinian Islamic jurist, scholar and writer. He is the global leader of the Islamic fundamentalist political party Hizb ut-Tahrir. He came to prominence in Jordan during the Gulf War and was a c ...

References

Bibliography

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External links

Welcome to Ra'na

Ra'na
Zochrot *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 16:
IAAWikimedia commons

from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center {{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Hebron