Kuwaykat كويكات | |
|---|---|
Former village | |
.JPG) Sheikh Abu Muhammad tomb | |
| Etymology: "Huts" (possibly)[1] | |
.jpg) 1870s map.jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map.jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Kuwaykat (click the buttons) | |
  Kuwaykat Location withinMandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates:32°58′16″N35°08′48″E / 32.97111°N 35.14667°E /32.97111; 35.14667 | |
| Palestine grid | 164/264 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Acre |
| Date of depopulation | 10 July 1948[4] |
| Area | |
• Total | 4,733dunams (4.733 km2; 1.827 sq mi) |
| Population (1945) | |
• Total | 1,050[2][3] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault byYishuv forces |
| Current Localities | Beit HaEmek[5][6] |
Kuwaykat (Arabic:كويكات), also spelledKuweikat,Kweikat orKuwaikat, was aPalestinian village located 9 km northeast ofAcre. It was depopulated in 1948.
The oldkhan (caravansary) in Kuwaykat possibly dated to theCrusader period or an earlier date.[7][8] According to historianDenys Pringle, thekhan might have been part of the headquarters ofGenoese estate in the village built in the 13th century. It consisted of a round barrel-vaulted building made ofashlar.[9]
In 1245 the western part of Kuwaykat was owned by the Church and Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr inAcre.[10]
In the lateOttoman period, Kuwaykat was namedChiouwe chiateh on the French mapPierre Jacotin made of the area duringNapoleon's invasion of Egypt and Syria in 1799.[11] In 1875Victor Guérin visited, and found the village surrounded with gardens planted with fig and olive trees, and with an ancient well. He further noted that the village was mentioned in Crusader sources.[12] In 1881 Kuwaykat was described by thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine as being built of stone and situated at the foot of hills. The roughly 300Muslim residents cultivatedolives.[13] In 1887, an elementary school was built in the village. In addition, the village had amosque and a shrine for theDruze religious leader, Shaykh Aby Muhammad al-Qurayshi.[6]
A population list from about 1887 showed thatKiryet et Kuweikat had about 565 inhabitants; all Muslims.[14]
In the1922 census of Palestine conducted by theBritish Mandate authorities,Kuaikat had a population of 604; all Muslims,[15] increasing in the1931 census to 789, still all Muslims, in a total of 163 houses.[16]
In April 1938, during theArab revolt in Palestine, a group of Palestinian Arab rebels planted a mine on the road near Kuwaykat which blew up a British vehicle, killing nine soldiers (according to the Arabs) or one soldier and wounding two others (according to the British). A rebel leader in Kuwaykat, Fayyad Baytam, was approached by the regional rebel commander Shaykh Amhad al-Tuba, who ordered him to plant the explosive on the road. Baytam refused, arguing that planting the bomb would only inevitably bring retaliation upon the village. Two local rebels, Al-Tuba and Ali Hummada, planted the explosive instead. TheBritish Army proceeded to start setting houses in Kafr Yasif ablaze in response, but were then informed by local residents that the inhabitants of Kuwaykat were responsible for the attack. The British troops fatally shot nine Arabs as they approached the village.[17][18]
In the1945 statistics, Kuwaykat had 1,050 Muslim inhabitants,[2] with a total of 4,733dunums (1,170acres) of land according to an official land and population survey.[3] The land of Kuwaykat was considered to be among the most fertile of the district. Grain, olives and watermelons were its chief crops. In 1944/45 a total of 3,316 dunums were used forcereals, and 1,246 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, of which 500 dunums were planted with olive trees,[19] while 26 dunams were built-up (urban) area.[20] The villagers also engaged in livestock breeding and dairy production. The village had a population of 1,050.[6]
The first attack on the village of Kuwaykat during the1948 Arab–Israeli War took place on 18–19 January 1948, and involved a force of over eighty Jewish militiamen, according toFilastin, the Palestinian newspaper at the time. The attack was repulsed, as was another attack on the village on the night of 6–7 February.[6][21] The village was finally depopulated during a military assault by Israel'sSheva' Brigade andCarmeli Brigade, as part ofOperation Dekel. On the night of 9 July, at the start of the offensive, the village came under heavy bombardment.[6] Villagers interviewed in 1973 in the refugee camp ofBourj el-Barajneh inLebanon recalled:
We were awakened by the loudest noise we had ever heard, shells exploding and artillery fire [..] women were screaming, children were crying...Most of the villagers began to flee with their pajamas on. The wife of Qassim Ahmad Sa´id fled carrying a pillow in her arms instead of her child ...[6][22]
Two people were killed and two wounded by the shelling. Many villagers fled toAbu Snan,Kafr Yasif and other villages that later surrendered. Those, mostly elderly, villagers who remained in Kuwaykat, were soon expelled toKafr Yasif.[6]In January 1949, kibbutz ha-Bonim (later renamedBeit HaEmek) was established near the site of Kuwaykat, on village lands.[23] Its settlers were Jewish immigrants from England, Hungary and the Netherlands.[6] The Palestinian historianWalid Khalidi described the village in 1992:
Little remains of the village except the deserted cemetery, completely overgrown with weeds, and rubble from houses. Inscriptions on two of the graves identify one as that of Hamad 'Isa al-Hajj, and another as that of Shaykh Salih Iskandar, who died in 1940. The shrine of Shaykh Abu Muhammad al-Qurayshi still stands but its stone pedestal is badly cracked.[6]
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