Dimra
Encyclopedia
Dimra was a small Palestinian
Arab
village located 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) northeast of Gaza City. Ancient remains at the site attest to longtime settlement there. During the era of Mamluk
rule in Palestine
, the town was the home of the Bani Jabir tribe. Depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
, the Israel
i kibbutz
of Erez
was founded in 1949 on part of the former village's lands.
and granite
column
s as well as pottery
, attest to longtime settlement at the site. Following the conquest of the Crusader states
during the period of Mamluk
rule (1270-1516 AD) over Greater Syria
(Levant
), Dimra was located on an eastward route which left the main Gaza
-Jaffa
highway at Beit Hanoun
. According to Moshe Sharon, Dimra is not mentioned in Arabic
sources from the time, though he speculates that its natural, independent water supply made it a likely resting place for those travelling in the region. According to Walid Khalidi
, Al-Qalqasandi
, an Arab scholar (d. 1418 AD), wrote of Dimra, noting it was the home of the Bani Jabir, an Arab tribe.
During the period of Ottoman rule
in Palestine, Edward Robinson
passed by "Dimreh" in 1838, describing it as near the bend of a valley. The village expanded during the British mandate period, and houses were built eastward and southward. In 1944-45 a total of 96 dunum
s of land in the village were allocated to citrus
and banana
cultivation, 7,412 dunums to cereals, and 388 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. An elementary school opened in Dimra in 1946, with an initial enrollment of 47 students.
, the women and children of Dimra were reportedly evacuated by the village men on 31 October, likely in response to the advance of the Israeli army
.
The Israeli settlement of Erez
was founded in 1949 on part of the village site. The remaining structures of the village are described by Khalidi in All That Remains (1992):
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
village located 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) northeast of Gaza City. Ancient remains at the site attest to longtime settlement there. During the era of Mamluk
Mamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
rule in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, the town was the home of the Bani Jabir tribe. Depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
, the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
of Erez
Erez
Erez , is a kibbutz in south-western Israel. Located in the north-western Negev around 18 kilometres south of Ashkelon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 333.-History:...
was founded in 1949 on part of the former village's lands.
History
Ancient remains found throughout the village, including marbleMarble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
and granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
column
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s as well as pottery
Palestinian pottery
Pottery in Palestine refers to pottery produced in Palestine throughout the ages, and pottery produced by modern-day Palestinians.-Continuity through the ages:...
, attest to longtime settlement at the site. Following the conquest of the Crusader states
Crusader states
The Crusader states were a number of mostly 12th- and 13th-century feudal states created by Western European crusaders in Asia Minor, Greece and the Holy Land , and during the Northern Crusades in the eastern Baltic area...
during the period of Mamluk
Mamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
rule (1270-1516 AD) over Greater Syria
Greater Syria
Greater Syria , also known simply as Syria, is a term that denotes a region in the Near East bordering the Eastern Mediterranean Sea or the Levant....
(Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
), Dimra was located on an eastward route which left the main Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
-Jaffa
Jaffa
Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah.-Etymology:...
highway at Beit Hanoun
Beit Hanoun
Beit Hanoun is a city on the north-east edge of the Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 32,187 in mid-year 2006. It is administered by the Palestinian Authority...
. According to Moshe Sharon, Dimra is not mentioned in Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
sources from the time, though he speculates that its natural, independent water supply made it a likely resting place for those travelling in the region. According to Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is General Secretary and co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an independent research and publishing center...
, Al-Qalqasandi
Ahmad al-Qalqashandi
Shihab al-Din abu 'l-Abbas Ahmad ben Ali ben Ahmad Abd Allah al-Qalqashandi was a medieval Egyptian writer and mathematician born in a village in the Nile Delta. He is the author of Subh al-a 'sha, a fourteen volume encyclopedia in Arabic, which included a section on cryptology...
, an Arab scholar (d. 1418 AD), wrote of Dimra, noting it was the home of the Bani Jabir, an Arab tribe.
During the period of Ottoman rule
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
in Palestine, Edward Robinson
Edward Robinson (scholar)
Edward Robinson was an American biblical scholar, known as the “Father of Biblical Geography.” He has been referred to as the “founder of modern Palestinology.” -Biography:...
passed by "Dimreh" in 1838, describing it as near the bend of a valley. The village expanded during the British mandate period, and houses were built eastward and southward. In 1944-45 a total of 96 dunum
Dunam
A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum, dynym, dulum was a non-SI unit of land area used in the Ottoman Empire and representing the amount of land that can be plowed in a day; its value varied from 900–2500 m²...
s of land in the village were allocated to citrus
Citrus
Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...
and banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
cultivation, 7,412 dunums to cereals, and 388 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. An elementary school opened in Dimra in 1946, with an initial enrollment of 47 students.
1948 War and aftermath
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
, the women and children of Dimra were reportedly evacuated by the village men on 31 October, likely in response to the advance of the Israeli army
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
.
The Israeli settlement of Erez
Erez
Erez , is a kibbutz in south-western Israel. Located in the north-western Negev around 18 kilometres south of Ashkelon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 333.-History:...
was founded in 1949 on part of the village site. The remaining structures of the village are described by Khalidi in All That Remains (1992):
"Most of the village is fenced in and used as pasture. A crumbling stone water basin, concrete rubble from houses, and a destroyed wellWater wellA water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
are nearly all that remain. A watering troughWatering troughA watering trough is a receptacle for the storage of water so both domestic and non-domestic livestock can obtain drinking water....
for cows has been placed on what appears to be a concrete fragment from a former house. The well is topped with an old, nonoperating water pump. More debris lies in a wooded portion of the site, near a Jewish cemetery. Some cactusCactusA cactus is a member of the plant family Cactaceae. Their distinctive appearance is a result of adaptations to conserve water in dry and/or hot environments. In most species, the stem has evolved to become photosynthetic and succulent, while the leaves have evolved into spines...
es that formerly served as fences, as well as shrubs and thorny plants, grow on adjacent lands.
External links
- Welcome To Dimra
- Dimra from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural CenterKhalil Sakakini Cultural CenterKhalil Sakakini Cultural Center is an organization established in 1996. It is located at 4 Raja Street, Ramallah in the West Bank. The traditional manor that houses the centre was the former family home of Khalil Salem Salah, the mayor of Ramallah between 1947/1951, is now owned by the Palestinian...