Umm 'Ajra (), 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
1948 Arab-Israeli War
Events January
* January 1
** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.
** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...
on May 31, 1948, as part of
Operation Gideon. It was located 4 km south of
Baysan and the 'Ayn Umm 'Ajra provided the village with water.
History
The village had three khirbas: Tall al-Shaykh al-Simad, Hajj Makka, and Sursuq.
[Khalidi, 1992, p. 64] In 1882, the
PEF's ''
Survey of Western Palestine'' found at ''Sheik Semad'' a "Small ruined
Mukam of modern masonry".
[Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p]
126
/ref>
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, Umm 'Ajra had a population of 86 Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 242, still all Muslims, in 48 houses.
In the 1945 statistics the population of Umm 'Ajra was 260 Muslims,[ while the total land area was 6,443 ]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 2,688 dunums for cereals, while a total of 203 dunums were classified as non-cultivable land.][Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p]
135
/ref>
1948, aftermath
Shif’a, a farm built in the 1950s, is on village land. Kfar Ruppin
Kfar Ruppin () is a kibbutz in the Beit She'an Valley, about southeast of Beit She'an in northern Israel. A member of the Kibbutz Movement, it falls under the jurisdiction of Valley of Springs Regional Council. In it had a population of .
His ...
is located east of the village site, Ein HaNetziv on the western side, and Avuqa (established in 1941, abandoned in 1952) to the north, none are on village land.[
In 1992 it was described: "The site and lands are cultivated. The remains of date palm trees can be seen, scattered across the northern side of the site."][
]
References
Bibliography
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External links
Welcome To Umm 'Ajra Umm 'Ajra
Zochrot
*Survey of Western Palestine, map 9
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War
Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War