Danna, Baysan
| Danna | |
|---|---|
  Danna | |
| Arabic | دنه |
| Name meaning | the Amphora[1] |
| Subdistrict | Baysan |
| Coordinates | 32°36′46.5″N 35°28′27.5″E / 32.612917°N 35.474306°ECoordinates: 32°36′46.5″N 35°28′27.5″E / 32.612917°N 35.474306°E |
| Palestine grid | 194/224 |
| Population | 190[2][3] (1945) |
| Area |
6,614 dunams 6.6 km² |
| Date of depopulation | 28 May 1948 |
Danna (Arabic: دنه) was a Palestinian village 13 kilometres north of Baysan that was captured by the Israel Defense Forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, and the villagers were expelled.[4]
History
In 1596, Danna was part of the Ottoman Empire, nahiya (subdistrict) of Shafa under the liwa' (district) of Lajjun with a population of 5 Muslim families, (estimated 28 people). It paid taxes to the Ottoman government on a number of crops, including wheat and barley, and other types of produce, such as goats and beehives.[5]
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss traveler to Palestine who passed through the area around 1817, mentioned the village without providing an description.[6][7]
Victor Guérin described in 1875 the village as being "humble", and situated on a hill. He noted that it had once been much larger, as north of the village centre were ruins of houses.[8] In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Danna as being situated on a slope, and surrounded by farmland. There was a spring with a watering trough to the west. The village houses were built of stone and adobe.[9]
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the Mandatory Palestine authorities, Danna had a population of 176 Muslims,[10] decreasing in the 1931 census to 149, still all Muslims, in 28 houses.[11]
The village was shaped like a rectangle whose longer sides were aligned in a north-south direction. During this era the village expanded and new houses, constructed of stone and adobe brick, were built along the road to the nearby village of Kafra. It was classified as a hamlet in the Palestine Index Gazetteer. There were a few shops and a mosque which contained the shrine of a Shaykh Daniyal. The village spring provided water for all the residents. The villagers worked primarily in rainfed agriculture.[12] In 1944/45 a total of 5,097 dunams was allotted to cereals; 14 dunams were irrigated or used for orchards,[13] while 15 were built-up (urban) land.[14] Grass and leafy vegetation grew on the slopes and peaks of the neighboring mountains and were used for grazing.[12]
1948, aftermath
On the 28 May 1948 the village was captured by Israeli forces, and the villagers were expelled.[4]
According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, 1992, the remaining structures on the village land were:
"Bushes, cactus plants, thorns, and grass now grow around piles of rubble on the village site. Thick weeds grow in the wadi and near the springs. The lands in the area are cultivated by Israeli farmers."[12]
See also
References
- ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 160
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 43
- ↑ Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 6
- 1 2 Morris, 2004, p. xvii village #111. Also gives cause of depopulation.
- ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 157, also cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 45
- ↑ Burckhardt, 1822, p. 342
- ↑ Also cited in Khalidi 1992, p. 46 (wrongly cited to p. 842)
- ↑ Guérin,1880, pp. 128-129
- ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p.83. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.46
- ↑ Barron, 1923, Table IX, p. 31
- ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 78
- 1 2 3 Khalidi, 1992, p.46
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 84
- ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 134
Bibliography
- Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Burckhardt, Johann Ludwig (1822). Travels in Syria and the Holy Land. J. Murray.
- Conder, Claude Reignier; Kitchener, Herbert H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
- Guérin, Victor (1880). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). 3: Galilee, pt. 1. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
- Hadawi, Sami (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
- Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (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. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
- Khalidi, Walid (1992). All That Remains:The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
- Palmer, E. H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
External links
- Welcome To Danna
- Survey of Western Palestine, map 9: IAA, Wikimedia commons
- Danna, from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
