Naghnaghiya
النغْنغية Al-Naghnaghiyya | |
|---|---|
Village | |
.jpg) 1870s map .jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map .jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Naghnaghiya (click the buttons) | |
  Naghnaghiya Location within Mandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 32°36′12″N 35°09′27″E / 32.60333°N 35.15750°E | |
| Palestine grid | 164/223 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Haifa |
| Date of depopulation | 12-13 April 1948[2] |
| Area | |
| • Total | 12,139 dunams (12.139 km2 or 4.687 sq mi) |
| Population (1931) | |
| • Total | 416[1] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
Naghnaghiya (Arabic: النغْنغية, Al-Naghnaghiyya) was a Palestinian Arab village, 28.5 kilometers (17.7 mi) southeast of Haifa.[3] It was depopulated before the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.[4]
The village was on the north edge of a hill at the edge of a wadi bed, overlooking the Jezreel Valley and the Nazareth hills to the north and northeast. It was the smallest of a group of three villages (known collectively as al-Ghubayyat) located together; the others were Al-Ghubayya al-Fawqa and Al-Ghubayya al-Tahta. Next to al- Naghnaghiya was an artificial mound that bore the same name. Two kilometers to the southeast, on the highway to Jenin was Tall al-Mutasallim, identified with Megiddo.[3]
In 1888, during Ottoman rule, an elementary school was built that was shared by the three al-Ghubayyat villages.[3]
In the British Mandate of Palestine period, in the 1922 census of Palestine Al Naghnaghiyeh had a population of 272; all Muslims,[5] increasing in the 1931 census to 416, still all Muslims, in a total of 78 houses.[1]
In the 1945 statistics the population of Al-Ghubayya al-Fawqa, Al-Ghubayya al-Tahta and Naghnaghiya was 1,130, all Muslims,[6] and it had 12,139 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[7] 209 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 10,883 for cereals,[8] while no data were given for built-up (urban) land.[9]
Before the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, on the night of the 12–13 April 1948, Naghnaghiya and the neighbouring village of al-Mansi were attacked by the Palmach, a Jewish militia.[4] By 15 April, both villages had been depopulated, and they were then blown up by the Jewish militia forces in order to block the return of the villagers.[10]
According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, describing the village in 1992: "The remains of houses are scattered on the slope of one hill. The site, traversed by the Haifa-Megiddo highway and partly occupied by an Israeli soccer field, is difficult to identify."[11]
