Al-Dalhamiyya
الدلهمية | |
|---|---|
Village | |
| Etymology: from a family name[1] | |
.jpg) 1940s map .jpg) modern map.jpg) 1940s with modern overlay map A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Dalhamiyya (click the buttons) | |
  Al-Dalhamiyya Location within Mandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 32°39′38″N 35°35′52″E / 32.66056°N 35.59778°E | |
| Palestine grid | 204/230 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Tiberias |
| Date of depopulation | April 15, 1948 |
| Area | |
| • Total | 2,852 dunams (2.852 km2 or 1.101 sq mi) |
| Population (1945) | |
| • Total | 410[2][3] |
Al-Dalhamiyya (Arabic: الدلهمية) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Tiberias Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 15, 1948, under Operation Gideon. It was located 14 km south of Tiberias, on the north bank of the Yarmuk River, on the border between Mandatory Palestine and Transjordan.
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In 1838 Al-Dalhamiyya was pointed out to Edward Robinson during his travels in the area, as being located on the eastern bank, about half a mile above the mouth of the Yarmuk.[4]
In 1875 Victor Guérin noted that the houses of the village were built of adobe, and most were surmounted by reed huts.[5] The same year C. R. Conder called it a "miserable" adobe hamlet.[6][7] A population list from about 1887 showed ed Delhamiyeh wa ’Arab el Hanady to have about 650 inhabitants; all Muslims.[8]
Menachemya was founded by Zionist in 1902, close to the village, but not on village land.[9]
At the time of the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Delhamiyeh had a population of 352; 349 Muslims and 3 Jews,[10] decreasing to 240; 226 Muslims, 1 Jew and 13 Christians, living in 50 houses by the 1931 census.[11]
Ashdot Ya'aqov, southwest to the village site, and Ashdot Ya'aqov Me'uchad, west of the village site, were settled by Zionist in 1933, but none on village land.[9]
In the 1944/1945 statistics, the village had a population of 410; 390 Muslims and 20 Christians,[2] with a total of 2,852 dunams of land.[3] Of this, Arabs used 29 dunams for plantations and irrigable land, 1,709 dunams were used for cereals,[12] while a total of 442 dunams were un-cultivable.[13]
Historians say the details of the depopulation of the village remain unclear, but they expect it was captured in mid- to late April 1948, when neighboring Samakh was taken. By May 3, 1948, it was reported to the Jewish National Fund that the area surrounding Lake Tiberias had been emptied of Arab inhabitants.[14]
In 1992, the village site was described thus by historian Walid Khalidi: "The village has been obliterated. There is a banana grove on the site that belongs to the nearby kibbutz, Ashdod Ya'aqov."[9]
