Template:Infobox former Arab villages in Palestine

Zayta (Arabic: زيْتا, Zeitâ) was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Hebron. Wadi Zayta, 1  km south of the village, served as a crucial water supply. According to the 1596 census, Zayta had a population of 165. By 1945, its population had grown to 330 inhabitants.[1] Zayta was depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War between July 17-18, 1948 in Operation An-Far.

History

In 1136, at the time of the Crusades, the fortress of Bethgibelin and ten villages in the area around Hebron were granted to the Order of St. John by Hugh of Hebron at the request of King Fulk. The King also assigned four additional villages to the grant for the Order, one of which was Zayta. Crusader rule over Zayta and the surrounding area came to an end after Saladin's defeat of Crusader forces in 1192.[2]

In 1596, Zayta formed part of the Ottoman Empire, a village in the nahiya (subdistrict) of Gaza under the liwa' ("district") of Gaza, with a population of 165. Villagers paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, as well as on goats and beehives.[3]

During the 1834 Arab revolt in Palestine, Ibrahim Pasha, the Egyptian leader, personally led his troops to suppress the revolt. Encountering a group of rebelling peasants at Zayta, his forces killed 90 men there, and gave chase to the remainder.[4] James Finn, the British Consul to the Ottoman Empire in the 1850s, recounts passing by Zayta while travelling between Gaza and Hebron. The peasants there had erected a breastwork from which armed men emerged, and who had to be, "parleyed before they would allow us to pass on."[5]

In the late 19th century, Zayta was described as a small hamlet built of adobe brick, on the edge of the wadi, flanked on two sides by low hills.[6]

During the period of the British Mandate in Palestine, the water supply system at Zayta was improved. According to a 1930 report, it had been "insanitary and malarious."[7]

References in literature

Sulafa Hijjawi, a Palestinian poet in Nablus, writes of the destruction of Zeita, her village, as follows: "In moments the village was gone, not a single bread oven remained, men and stones were powdered by enemy tractors. But Zeita rises again as tulips do."[8]

References

  1. ^ Hadawi, 1970, p. 51.
  2. ^ Nader, 2006, p. 190.
  3. ^ Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter and Kamal Abdulfattah (1977), Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. p. 147. Quoted in Khalidi (1992), p. 227
  4. ^ Robinson, 1860,a p. 302.
  5. ^ Finn, 2008, p. 303.
  6. ^ Conder, Claude Reignier and H.H. Kitchener: The Survey of Western Palestine. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. (1881) III:258. Quoted in Khalidi, p.227
  7. ^ Great Britain, Colonial Office, League of Nations, Council, 1930, p. 115.
  8. ^ Khan, 2006, p. 43.

Bibliography

  • Great Britain, Colonial Office, League of Nations, Council (1930). Report by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Council of the League of Nations on the administration of Palestine and Trans-Jordan for the year ..., Issue 117. Printed and published by His Majesty's Stationery Office.((cite book)): CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Hadawi, Sami (1970), Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center
  • Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0887282245
  • Khan, L. Ali (2006). A theory of international terrorism: understanding Islamic militancy. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. ISBN 9004152075, 9789004152076. ((cite book)): Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  • Morris, Benny (2004), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521009677, 9780521009676 ((citation)): Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  • Nader, Marwan (2006). Burgesses and Burgess law in the Latin Kingdoms of Jerusalem and Cyprus, 1099-1325 (Illustrated ed.). Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 075465687X, 9780754656876. ((cite book)): Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  • Robinson, Edward; Smith, Eli (1860). Biblical researches in Palestine, and in the adjacent regions: a journal of travels in the year 1838, Volume 2 (2nd ed.). Crocker and Brewster.


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