Qira قِيرة | |
|---|---|
Village | |
| Etymology: Kh. Kîreh, the ruin of pitch[1] | |
.jpg) 1870s map.jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map.jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Qira, Haifa (click the buttons) | |
  Qira Location withinMandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates:32°38′42″N35°06′09″E / 32.64500°N 35.10250°E /32.64500; 35.10250 | |
| Palestine grid | 159/227 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Haifa |
| Date of depopulation | late March 1948[2] |
| Area | |
• Total | 14,062dunams (14.062 km2; 5.429 sq mi) |
| Population | |
• Total | 410 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Whispering campaign |
| Current Localities | Yokneam Moshava,Yokneam Illit,HaZore'a |
Qira (Arabic:قِيرة) was aPalestinian Arab village, located 23 kilometers southeast ofHaifa. It was locally referred to asQira wa Qamun.[5]
Its people were Arab tenants, some of whom from the Bedouin tribes of Ka'abiye and Sa'adih. They settled the land during the late 19th century. The land of the village was owned by three Christian families fromBeirut andHaifa. The land was purchased by theYishuv in the 1920s and the villagers were gradually expelled.Yokneam Moshava andHaZore'a were built on former village land.
The occupation of Qira by pre-stateIsraeli forces on 1 March 1948 finished the expulsion process.[5]
At least 19archaeological sites were located within the village's territory, the most renowned of these beingTell Qira andTell Qamun.[5]
In a map made byPierre Jacotin during theFrench campaign in Egypt and Syria, Tell Qamun appeared under the name ofChateau d'El Kireh (Castle of Qira), and Qira appeared asQairah.[6] In his visit to Qamun and Qira,van de Velde found a church on Qamun, and then he searched for a castle in Qira, but when he arrived to the site, he only found ruins "which externally presented nothing of importance". He came to the conclusion Jacotine confounded the tell of Qamun with that of Qira.[7]
In 1872 the Ottoman government sold the lands of Qira to the ChristianSursock family fromBeirut (modern-dayLebanon) and later their part of the land was shared with theTueni family, also from Beirut. In that year thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine visited, and noted aboutKhurbet Kireh "Evidently an ancient site. There are traces of ruins and broken pottery on the hill; to the north arekokim tombs, caves, and a quarry; to the east are other tombs, caves, quarries, and a rock-cut water channel, Umm el Hashurah. There is a good supply of water in the valley at this point, and a small mill. A colony of Turcomans live in the caves; they pronounce the nameJireh."[8] The other part of the land was sold to the Khouri family fromHaifa.[9] According to Peretz Levinger's study of the establishment of the nearby town ofYokneam Moshava, it is unknown if the villagers came before or after the land was sold to the families.[10] He assumes the Ottomans sold the land when it was uninhabited.[9]
The Palestinian community in Qira began during the 19th century. The residents were tenant farmers, paying fees to the families who owned the land. The population was made of two groups: Arabfellaheen, who came from the nearby Arab villages, andBedouin nomads. The bedouins came from two tribes: Ka'abiye and Sa'adih, who arrived to the land, according to elderly traditions during the 1870s and possibly in the 1860s. At the time they arrived, they consisted of only twelve families.[10]
A population list from about 1887 showed thatKireh had about 65 inhabitants; allMuslims.[11]
The area was acquired by the Jewish community as part of theSursock Purchase. In 1924, Zionist activistYehoshua Hankin bought the share of the land owned by the Sursock and Tueni families. In February 1934 the remaining share, owned by the Khouri family was bought after a decade of negotiations.[12]
The fellaheen were the first to evacuate their lands after receiving compensation[10] and thus the population Qira decreased from 134 in1922[13] to 86 in1931 (in a total of 21 houses).[14] The evacuation of the Bedouin tribes took much longer as they refused to leave their lands, especially after the fellaheen left the better parts of the territory, suitable for the Bedouin lifestyle.[10] It was also delayed because the Arab landowners did not want to take responsibility for the evacuation, due to political reasons.[15] In their lands they grewwheat,barley andsorghum.[10]
Further negotiations in 1935 and 1936, including the intervention of influential Arab figures were interrupted by the break of the1936–1939 Arab revolt. The act of selling lands to Jews was seen in the Arab community as treason, punishable by death.[16] After the revolt, both tribes showed interest in the renewal of the negotiations after their leaders no longer felt a threat to their lives. The evacuation continued in 1936 and later that year the rest of the Ka'abiye tribe left.[17] The last evacuation took place in 1945 when the leader of the Sa'adih tribe left for a large amount of money. The last of Qira's Muslim population lived betweenYokneam Moshava andHaZore'a.[18]
According toIlan Pappe inThe Israel/Palestine Question (1999), the 140 tenant farmers of Qira wa Qamun evacuated the village in March on the "friendly advice" of the localHaganah intelligence officer at Yokneam, Yehuda Burstein.[19]Benny Morris notes that Burnstein received the orders for the evacuation fromYosef Weitz.[20] The Haganah Intelligence Report attributes the flight to "fear and the influence of attacks in the area," which Morris notes is "not really the same thing."[19] Subsequent to the depopulation of the village, Weitz and his colleagues from theJewish National Fund in the North, "decided to raze the tenants' houses, to destroy their crops, and to pay the evictees compensation."[20]
Qira wa Qamun's inhabitants joined the first wave of the1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, displaced prior to the outbreak of the1948 Arab-Israeli war.[20] Today, the villagers and their descendants remainrefugees.[5] Following the war the area was incorporated into theState of Israel;Yokneam Illit was later established on the former lands of Qira.[5]
