Najd نجد | |
|---|---|
 Village ruins, 2010 | |
| Etymology: Highland[1] | |
.jpg) 1870s map.jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map.jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Najd, Gaza (click the buttons) | |
  Najd Location withinMandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates:31°33′02″N34°35′55″E / 31.55056°N 34.59861°E /31.55056; 34.59861 | |
| Palestine grid | 111/106 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Gaza |
| Date of depopulation | 12 May 1948[4] |
| Area | |
• Total | 13,576dunams (13.576 km2; 5.242 sq mi) |
| Population (1945) | |
• Total | 620[2][3] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Expulsion byYishuv forces |
| Current Localities | Sderot,[5]Or HaNer[6] |
Najd (Arabic:نجد) was aPalestinianArab village, located 14 kilometers (8.7 mi) northeast ofGaza City. During theBritish Mandate in Palestine, children from Najd attended school in the nearby village ofSimsim. On 13 May 1948, Najd was occupied by theNegev Brigade as part ofOperation Barak, and the villagers were expelled.[7]
Palmer wrote that the name came of the village came from the word for "Highland",[1] while Socin writes that the name comes from "Beautiful".[8]
Ceramics from theByzantine period have been found here.[9]
Najd was incorporated into theOttoman Empire in 1517 with the rest ofPalestine, and in the 1596tax registers, the village, calledNajd al-Garbi, was located in thenahiya (subdistrict) ofGaza under theliwa' (district) ofGaza. It had a population of 39Muslim household; an estimated 215 persons. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on a number of crops, including wheat, barley and fruit, as well as on goats, beehives and vineyards; a total of 4,000akçe.[10]
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the area of Najd experienced a significant process of settlement decline due tonomadic pressures on local communities. The residents of abandoned villages moved to surviving settlements, but the land continued to be cultivated by neighboring villages.[11]
Edward Robinson, who travelled throughPalestine in 1838, noted that Najd lay south of awadi, and described how the villagers werewinnowingbarley by throwing it into the air against the wind with wooden forks.[12] He also noted it as a Muslim village, located in the Gaza district.[13]
In 1863 the French explorerVictor Guérin visited the village, describing it as being on a small height, and with three hundred inhabitants.[14] An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that Najd had 24 houses and a population of 56, though the population count included only men.[8][15]
In 1883 thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine described Najd as a small village with awell and a pond.[16]
As the population grew during theMandate period, the village expanded northwestward. The village population wasMuslim, and the children attended school inSimsim, 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) to the northeast. The villagers worked primarily in agriculture and animal husbandry. Fields of grain and fruit trees surrounded Najd on all sides. The fruit trees were concentrated to the north and northeastern sides, where irrigation water was available from wells.[17]
In the1922 census of Palestine conducted by theBritish Mandate authorities, Nejd had a population of 305 inhabitants, allMuslims,[18] while in the1931 census, Najd had 82 occupied houses and a population of 422 Muslims.[19]
By the1945 statistics the population was estimated to be 620, all Muslims[2] with a total of 13,576 dunams of land.[3] Cultivated lands in the village in 1944–45 included a total of 10 dunums allocated for citrus and bananas and 11,916 dunums for cereals. An additional 511 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards,[20] while 26 dunams were built-up, urban, land.[21]
According toBenny Morris, the villagers of Najd were expelled by soldiers from theNegev Brigade on 12–13 May, during the1948 Arab–Israeli War.[7]
Following the war the area was incorporated into theState of Israel and the city ofSderot was founded in 1951 on village land, a few miles to the south of the village site,[17] whileOr HaNer was founded in 1957 also on village land, to the northeast.[17]
