Hittin
Encyclopedia
Hittin was a Palestinian
village, located approximately 8 kilometres (5 mi) west of Tiberias. The site of the Battle of Hattin
in 1187, in which Saladin
conquered most of interior Palestine
from the Crusader
s, Hittin is a nationalist symbol for Arab
s and Palestinians. Within the village lands is the shrine of Nabi Shu'ayb
, venerated especially by the Druze
as the tomb of Jethro.
Ruled by the Ottoman empire
from the 16th century until the end of World War I
, Hittin became part of the British Mandate of Palestine. Captured by Israel
i forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
, the village was depopulated, and currently lies in ruins.
". Historically, the village was strategically and commercially significant because of its location overlooking the Plain of Hittin, which opens onto the coastal lowlands of Lake Tiberias to the east, and to the west, is linked by mountains passes to the plains of lower Galilee
. These plains, with their east-west passages, served as routes for commercial caravans
and military invasions throughout the ages. Tiberias is located 8 kilometres (5 mi) northwest of Hittin, and other nearby localities include the depopulated villages of Lubya
to the southwest and Nimrin
to the west, and the surviving Arab
villages of Eilabun
to the northwest and Wadi Hamaam to the northeast.
In the Mandatory government's 1945 land and population survey, Hittin is recorded as having had a total land area of 22,764 dunam
s, of which 22,086 dunams were Arab-owned, 147 Jewish-owned and the remaining 531 being public property. The built-up area of the village was 70 dunams and was populated entirely by Arabs. Cultivable land amounted to 12,426 dunams, while uncultivated land amounted to 10,268 dunams. Of the cultivated land, 1,967 dunams consisted of plantations and irrigable land, and 10,462 dunams were devoted to cereals.
Hittin was an ancient settlement, archaeological excavation at the village have yielded pottery fragments from the Chalcolithic Period and the Early Bronze period.
The village may have been built over the Canaan
ite town of Siddim or Ziddim
(Joshua 19:35), which in the third century B.C. acquired the Old Hebrew name Kefar Hattin ("village of grain"). It was known by the name Kfar Hittaya in the Roman period and served as a rabbinical seat in the fourth century.
, where Saladin
defeated the Crusaders in 1187. The village is described as having been located near the base camp for Saladin's Ayyubid army, by Lieutenant-Colonel Claude Conder in Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1897). Describing the area, Conder writes: "The place was surrounded by olive
s and fruit trees, and a good spring — copious and fresh — flowed on the north-west into the gorge of Wadi Hammam.
Hittin was also the place where numerous prominent figures from the Islamic period in Palestine were born or buried. Their names were linked to the village by a number of early Arab and Muslim geographers and chroniclers, including Yaqut al-Hamawi
(d.1228) and al-Ansari al-Dimashqi (d.1327), who himself was called the Shaykh of Hittin. 'Ali al-Dawadari, the writer, Quranic exegetist, and calligrapher, died in the village in 1302.
Arab and Muslim geographers and chroniclers frequently recall the Battle of Hittin and the tomb of Shu´aib (Jethro
) in their descriptions of Hittin. Ali of Herat
wrote (c. 1173) that both Jethro and his wife were buried there. Yaqut al-Hamawi
writes that while there is another shrine near Arsuf
that claims to be the tomb of Shu´aib, this is wrong. Sunni Muslims and Druze
would make ziyarat
s and pilgrimages to Hittin to the tomb of Nabi Shu'ayb
("Prophet Jethro"). Druze would also hold an annual festival of pilgrimage that attracted members of their sect from other parts of Greater Syria
, where their religious leaders would also discuss issues of importance to the Druze community.
("district") of Safad. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley and olives, as well as goats and beehives.
In 1646 the village was visited by Evliya Çelebi
, who left the following description of Hittin:
Richard Pococke
visited Hutin in 1727, and writes that it is "famous for some pleasant gardens of lemon and orange trees; and here the Turks have a mosque
, to which they pay great veneration, having, as they say, a great sheik buried there, whom they call Sede Ishab, who, according to tradition (as a very learned Jew assured me) is Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses."
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
, a Swiss traveler to Palestine
around 1817, described Hittin as a small village whose houses were built of stone.
Edward Robinson
visited Hittin in 1838, and described is as a small village, with houses of stone, while William McClure Thomson visited the village in the 1850s and noted the "gigantic" hedges of cactus which surrounded the village, and that the "Neby Shaiyib" shrine was celebrated as "a cure" for insanity.
H. B. Tristram
, who visited the place in 1863 during a village holiday, described the Hittin villagers with "bright faces and bright colours". He describes the "peculiar" costumes, consisting of "long tight gowns, or cassocks, of scarlet silk
, with diagonal yellow stripes, and generally a bright red and blue or yellow jacket over them; while their cheeks were encircled by dollar
s and piastre
s, after Nazareth fashion, and some of the more wealthy wore necklases of gold coins, with a doubloon
for pendant in front."
In the late nineteenth century, Hittin was described a large well-built village of stone, surrounded by fruit and olive trees. It had an estimated 400-700 villagers, all Muslim, who lived of cultivating the surrounding plain.
An elementary school was established in the village around 1897 under Ottoman rule.
, which was later renamed Kfar Hittim. Disputes between the Arabs of Hittin and the Jews of both settlements were frequent, and in the 1929 Palestine riots
some of the inhabitants of Arab Hittin joined forces with Arabs from other nearby villages to attack the Jewish Hittin, an attack that was repelled with the aid of British Police. Jewish Hittin was abandoned in 1933, and in 1936 was resettled and renamed.
Hittin figured prominently in the consciousness of the Palestinian people, and its associations with Saladin's victory over the Crusaders made it an early and potent nationalist
symbol. In 1932, local Palestinian leaders in Haifa associated with the Istiqlal
party, as well as individuals like Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam
, decided to commemorate the anniversary of Saladin's victory with a popular celebration. The Hittin Day celebration, held on August 27 of that year in the courtyard of a school in Haifa, was intended to be an anti-imperialist
rally, and was attended by thousands of people from Palestine, Lebanon
, Damascus
, and the Transjordan
. The speeches delivered at the event by Palestinian and Syrian Istiqlal
party members centered around the revival and independence of the Arab nation
and the importance of unity between Arab Muslims
and Christians.
was Ahmad ´Azzam Abu Radi. According to the villagers, they did not feel threatened by their Jewish neighbours at Kefar Hittim
, who had approached them in November 1947, (in connection with voting over the United Nations Partition Plan), and assured the villagers they did not want war. By May 1948 the people of Hittin were very poorly armed. The village strength was estimated at 50 men, armed with 50 assorted rifles, with between 25 to 50 rounds of ammunition for each man.
The villagers heard the news about the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
on a radio belonging to the village mukhtar. They heard Radio Amman and Radio Damascus, among others, and grew increasingly concerned. However, for all practical purposes, they were uninvolved until June 9, when Jewish fighters attacked the neighbouring village of Lubya
and were repulsed. Shortly after an Israeli armoured unit, accompanied by infantry, was advancing towards the village from the direction of Mitzpa. The attack was rebuffed, however, many of the villagers used up all their ammunition in that one confrontation, and "we were too poor to replace our bullets".
During the night of July 16–17 almost all the inhabitants evacuated the village. Many left for Salamah, an area between Deir Hanna
and Maghar
, leaving behind a few elderly people and 30-35 militiamen. Hittin was occupied by the forces of the Golani Brigade
during Dekel Operation
on 17 July 1948 without a fight. During the following period the unarmed villagers often tried to return, but were chased off. In one instance the Golani unit ambushed a group of villagers as they entered Hittin -"to extract their belongings." The Golani unit chased the villagers away, killing some men and pack animals in the process.
The villagers remained at Salamah for almost a month, but as their food-supply dwindled and their hope of returning faded, the group left together for Lebanon
. Some of Hittin's former inhabitants also ended up in Nazareth
. There were about 560 internally displaced Palestinians
from the villages of Hittin and Alut in Nazareth in 1948, among a total internally displaced person
(IDP) population of about 9,500 in the Nazareth area. The Israeli government was reluctant to have such a large concentration of IDPs in one place and a special ministerial committee recommended that those from Hittin and 'Alut be allowed to return to their villages, along with IDPs from Haifa
, Acre
, and Jaffa
. However, the Israeli army
objected to the order as is concerned Hittin, citing "security reasons".
and Kfar Zeitim
were founded in 1949 and 1950, respectively. The Druze were given official custodianship over the shrine to Jethro in the 1950s, along with 100 dunam circumference. Their request to build housing to settle Druze soldiers who fought alongside Israelis against other Arabs in the 1948 war was denied. The Druze annual pilgrimage continues to be held and was officially recognized as a religious holiday by the Israelis in 1954. In front of the shrine, there is a car-park which lies over a rubbish tip that is "gradually swallowing up the abandoned remains of the Hittin village," the built-up area of which remains uninhabited today.
According to Ilan Pappé
, 73 year old Abu Jamal from Deir Hanna
planned to hold a summer camp for restoring the Hittin mosque, which, according to tradition, was built by Saladin
in 1187 to commemorate his victory over the Crusaders. However, Abu Jamal was tricked by the Ministry of Education
: its senior officials promised him that if he cancelled the camp, the ministry would donate money for the restoration work. After Abu Jamal had accepted the offer and cancelled the camp, the ministry sealed the site with barbed wire. Stones, including the foundation stone, were then removed by the nearby kibbutzniks who use the land for grazing.
In February 2007, Eitan Bronstein, Director of Zochrot
, an Israel
i organization founded in 2002 to promote "recognition of the Nakba by the state, its residents and institutions, made an official complaint to the Regional Committee for Building and Planning in Israel's Northern District
, regarding a new development plan being proposed by the Israeli authorities that would result in new construction expanding into what was once the village center of Hittin. Israeli planning has generally not involved building on what were the built up village centers of localities that were depopulated or destroyed in 1948, and Bronstein urged the Israeli authorities not to forgo the opportunity to transform sites like Hittin into "places of reconciliation" by taking the people who once lived there into consideration.
On Land Day
, March 30, 2007, Zochrot joined the displaced residents of Hittin in a visit to the remains of the village.
s in 1945. The village had a projected population of 1,380 in 1948. By 1948, the village had a few large and influential families; Rabah, ´Azzam, Shaiyabtah, Sa´adah, Sha´ban, and Dahabra. Refugee
s and their descendants numbered 8,477 in 1998.
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...
village, located approximately 8 kilometres (5 mi) west of Tiberias. The site of the Battle of Hattin
Battle of Hattin
The Battle of Hattin took place on Saturday, July 4, 1187, between the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the forces of the Ayyubid dynasty....
in 1187, in which Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
conquered most of interior 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....
from the Crusader
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
s, Hittin is a nationalist symbol for 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...
s and Palestinians. Within the village lands is the shrine of Nabi Shu'ayb
Nabi Shu'ayb
Nabi Shu'ayb is the name used in English to refer to a site in the destroyed village of Hittin not far from Tiberias, where the tomb of the Islamic prophet Shu'ayb is believed to be located.A central figure in the Druze religion, the tomb of Nabi Shu'ayb, has been a site of annual pilgrimage for...
, venerated especially by the Druze
Druze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...
as the tomb of Jethro.
Ruled by the Ottoman empire
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...
from the 16th century until the end of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Hittin became part of the British Mandate of Palestine. Captured by Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i forces 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 village was depopulated, and currently lies in ruins.
Geography
Hittin was located on the northern slopes of the double hill known as the "Horns of HattinHorns of Hattin
Horns of Hattin is an extinct volcano with twin peaks overlooking the plains of Hattin in the Lower Galilee, Israel.-History:...
". Historically, the village was strategically and commercially significant because of its location overlooking the Plain of Hittin, which opens onto the coastal lowlands of Lake Tiberias to the east, and to the west, is linked by mountains passes to the plains of lower Galilee
Galilee
Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...
. These plains, with their east-west passages, served as routes for commercial caravans
Caravan (travellers)
A caravan is a group of people traveling together, often on a trade expedition. Caravans were used mainly in desert areas and throughout the Silk Road, where traveling in groups aided in defence against bandits as well as helped to improve economies of scale in trade.In historical times, caravans...
and military invasions throughout the ages. Tiberias is located 8 kilometres (5 mi) northwest of Hittin, and other nearby localities include the depopulated villages of Lubya
Lubya
Lubya was a Palestinian Arab town located ten kilometers west of Tiberias that was captured and destroyed by Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War...
to the southwest and Nimrin
Nimrin
Nimrin was a Palestinian Arab town of 320 that was captured and depopulated by Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.-History:Nimrin stood on the site of Kfar Nimra when Palestine was ruled by the Roman Empire...
to the west, and the surviving Arab
Arab citizens of Israel
Arab citizens of Israel refers to citizens of Israel who are not Jewish, and whose cultural and linguistic heritage or ethnic identity is Arab....
villages of Eilabun
Eilabun
Eilabun is an Israeli-Arab local council in Israel's North District, located in the Beit Netofa Valley. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, Eilabun had a population of 4,400 inhabitants in 2005. The population is predominantly Christian...
to the northwest and Wadi Hamaam to the northeast.
In the Mandatory government's 1945 land and population survey, Hittin is recorded as having had a total land area of 22,764 dunam
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 which 22,086 dunams were Arab-owned, 147 Jewish-owned and the remaining 531 being public property. The built-up area of the village was 70 dunams and was populated entirely by Arabs. Cultivable land amounted to 12,426 dunams, while uncultivated land amounted to 10,268 dunams. Of the cultivated land, 1,967 dunams consisted of plantations and irrigable land, and 10,462 dunams were devoted to cereals.
History
The village may have been built over the Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
ite town of Siddim or Ziddim
Ziddim
Ziddim was an ancient city in Naphtali. It is described in the Book of Joshua 19:35 as one of five fortified cities, the other being Zer, Hammath, Rakkath and Chinnereth. The Talmud identifies Ziddim with Caphar Hittaia, the site of the Arab village of Hattin, located about west of Tiberias,...
(Joshua 19:35), which in the third century B.C. acquired the Old Hebrew name Kefar Hattin ("village of grain"). It was known by the name Kfar Hittaya in the Roman period and served as a rabbinical seat in the fourth century.
Islamic era
Hittin was located near the site of the Battle of HattinBattle of Hattin
The Battle of Hattin took place on Saturday, July 4, 1187, between the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and the forces of the Ayyubid dynasty....
, where Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
defeated the Crusaders in 1187. The village is described as having been located near the base camp for Saladin's Ayyubid army, by Lieutenant-Colonel Claude Conder in Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1897). Describing the area, Conder writes: "The place was surrounded by olive
Olive
The olive , Olea europaea), is a species of a small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean Basin as well as northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea.Its fruit, also called the olive, is of major agricultural importance in the...
s and fruit trees, and a good spring — copious and fresh — flowed on the north-west into the gorge of Wadi Hammam.
Hittin was also the place where numerous prominent figures from the Islamic period in Palestine were born or buried. Their names were linked to the village by a number of early Arab and Muslim geographers and chroniclers, including Yaqut al-Hamawi
Yaqut al-Hamawi
Yāqūt ibn-'Abdullah al-Rūmī al-Hamawī) was an Islamic biographer and geographer renowned for his encyclopedic writings on the Muslim world. "al-Rumi" refers to his Greek descent; "al-Hamawi" means that he is from Hama, Syria, and ibn-Abdullah is a reference to his father's name, Abdullah...
(d.1228) and al-Ansari al-Dimashqi (d.1327), who himself was called the Shaykh of Hittin. 'Ali al-Dawadari, the writer, Quranic exegetist, and calligrapher, died in the village in 1302.
Arab and Muslim geographers and chroniclers frequently recall the Battle of Hittin and the tomb of Shu´aib (Jethro
Jethro
In the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible, Jethro |Shu-ayb]]) is Moses' father-in-law, a Kenite shepherd and priest of Midian. He is also revered as a prophet in his own right in the Druze religion, and considered an ancestor of the Druze.-In Exodus:...
) in their descriptions of Hittin. Ali of Herat
Ali ibn abi bakr al-Harawi
Ali ibn Abi Bakr al-Harawi was an early thirteenth century Persian traveller originally from Herat, located in Afghanistan. Born in Mosul, Iraq he travelled far and wide and died in Aleppo, Syria in a fort built for him....
wrote (c. 1173) that both Jethro and his wife were buried there. Yaqut al-Hamawi
Yaqut al-Hamawi
Yāqūt ibn-'Abdullah al-Rūmī al-Hamawī) was an Islamic biographer and geographer renowned for his encyclopedic writings on the Muslim world. "al-Rumi" refers to his Greek descent; "al-Hamawi" means that he is from Hama, Syria, and ibn-Abdullah is a reference to his father's name, Abdullah...
writes that while there is another shrine near Arsuf
Arsuf
Arsuf also known as Arsur or Apollonia, was an ancient city and fortress located in Israel, about 15 kilometres north of modern Tel Aviv, on a cliff above the Mediterranean Sea. The city site, Tel Arsuf, was intensively excavated from 1994...
that claims to be the tomb of Shu´aib, this is wrong. Sunni Muslims and Druze
Druze
The Druze are an esoteric, monotheistic religious community, found primarily in Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, which emerged during the 11th century from Ismailism. The Druze have an eclectic set of beliefs that incorporate several elements from Abrahamic religions, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism...
would make ziyarat
Ziyarat
Ziyārah is an Arabic term literally means "visit", used to refer to a pilgrimage to sites associated with Muhammad, his family members and descendants , his companions, or other venerated figures in Islām, such as the Prophets, Sufi saints and Islāmic scholars...
s and pilgrimages to Hittin to the tomb of Nabi Shu'ayb
Nabi Shu'ayb
Nabi Shu'ayb is the name used in English to refer to a site in the destroyed village of Hittin not far from Tiberias, where the tomb of the Islamic prophet Shu'ayb is believed to be located.A central figure in the Druze religion, the tomb of Nabi Shu'ayb, has been a site of annual pilgrimage for...
("Prophet Jethro"). Druze would also hold an annual festival of pilgrimage that attracted members of their sect from other parts of 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....
, where their religious leaders would also discuss issues of importance to the Druze community.
Ottoman rule
In 1596, Hittin was a part of the Ottoman nahiya ("subdistrict") of Tiberias under the liwa'Liwa (arabic)
Liwa or Liwa is an Arabic term meaning district, banner, or flag, a type of administrative division. It was interchangeable with the Turkish term "Sanjak" in the time of the Ottoman Empire. After the fall of the empire, the term was used in the Arab countries formerly under Ottoman rule...
("district") of Safad. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley and olives, as well as goats and beehives.
In 1646 the village was visited by Evliya Çelebi
Evliya Çelebi
Evliya Çelebi was an Ottoman traveler who journeyed through the territory of the Ottoman Empire and neighboring lands over a period of forty years.- Life :...
, who left the following description of Hittin:
It is a village in the territory of Safad, consisting of 200 Muslim houses. No Druzes live here. It is like a flourishing little town (bulayda) abounding with vineyards, orchards and gardens. Water and air is refreshing. A large fair is held there once a week, when ten thousand men would gather from the neighbourhood to sell and buy. It is situated in a spacious valley, bordered on both sides by low rocks. There is a mosque, a public bath and a caravanserei in it.
Richard Pococke
Richard Pococke
Richard Pococke was an English prelate and anthropologist. He was Protestant Bishop of Ossory and Meath , both dioceses of the Church of Ireland...
visited Hutin in 1727, and writes that it is "famous for some pleasant gardens of lemon and orange trees; and here the Turks have a mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
, to which they pay great veneration, having, as they say, a great sheik buried there, whom they call Sede Ishab, who, according to tradition (as a very learned Jew assured me) is Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses."
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt was a Swiss traveller and orientalist. He wrote his letters in French and signed Louis...
, a Swiss traveler to 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....
around 1817, described Hittin as a small village whose houses were built of stone.
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:...
visited Hittin in 1838, and described is as a small village, with houses of stone, while William McClure Thomson visited the village in the 1850s and noted the "gigantic" hedges of cactus which surrounded the village, and that the "Neby Shaiyib" shrine was celebrated as "a cure" for insanity.
H. B. Tristram
Henry Baker Tristram
The Reverend Henry Baker Tristram FRS was an English clergyman, Biblical scholar, traveller and ornithologist.Tristram was born at Eglingham vicarage, near Alnwick, Northumberland, and studied at Durham School and Lincoln College, Oxford. In 1846 he was ordained a priest, but he suffered from...
, who visited the place in 1863 during a village holiday, described the Hittin villagers with "bright faces and bright colours". He describes the "peculiar" costumes, consisting of "long tight gowns, or cassocks, of scarlet silk
Silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from the cocoons of the larvae of the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori reared in captivity...
, with diagonal yellow stripes, and generally a bright red and blue or yellow jacket over them; while their cheeks were encircled by dollar
Dollar
The dollar is the name of the official currency of many countries, including Australia, Belize, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States.-Etymology:...
s and piastre
Piastre
The piastre or piaster refers to a number of units of currency. The term originates from the Italian for 'thin metal plate'. The name was applied to Spanish and Latin American pieces of eight, or pesos, by Venetian traders in the Levant in the 16th century.These pesos, minted continually for...
s, after Nazareth fashion, and some of the more wealthy wore necklases of gold coins, with a doubloon
Doubloon
The doubloon , was a two-escudo or 32-reales gold coin, weighing 6.77 grams . Doubloons were minted in Spain, Mexico, Peru, and Nueva Granada...
for pendant in front."
In the late nineteenth century, Hittin was described a large well-built village of stone, surrounded by fruit and olive trees. It had an estimated 400-700 villagers, all Muslim, who lived of cultivating the surrounding plain.
An elementary school was established in the village around 1897 under Ottoman rule.
Twentieth century
Early in the 20th century some of the land of the village, in the eastern part of the Arbel Valley was sold to Jewish funds, on which new settlements were established in 1910 (Mitzpa) and 1924 (HittinKfar Hittim
Kfar Hittim was the first moshav shitufi and the first Tower and stockade settlement in Israel. The moshav, a small farming community of 75 families, is under the jurisdiction of the Lower Galilee Regional Council in northern Israel....
, which was later renamed Kfar Hittim. Disputes between the Arabs of Hittin and the Jews of both settlements were frequent, and in the 1929 Palestine riots
1929 Palestine riots
The 1929 Palestine riots, also known as the Western Wall Uprising, the 1929 Massacres, , or the Buraq Uprising , refers to a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 when a long-running dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalated into violence...
some of the inhabitants of Arab Hittin joined forces with Arabs from other nearby villages to attack the Jewish Hittin, an attack that was repelled with the aid of British Police. Jewish Hittin was abandoned in 1933, and in 1936 was resettled and renamed.
Hittin figured prominently in the consciousness of the Palestinian people, and its associations with Saladin's victory over the Crusaders made it an early and potent nationalist
Palestinian nationalism
Palestinian nationalism is the national movement of the Palestinian people. It has roots in Pan-Arabism and other movements rejecting colonialism and calling for national independence. More recently, Palestinian Nationalism is expressed through the Israeli–Palestinian conflict...
symbol. In 1932, local Palestinian leaders in Haifa associated with the Istiqlal
Istiqlal
-Political parties:*Istiqlal Party, the Hizb al-istiqlāl or Independence Party, political party in Morocco*Hizb al-Istiqlal, or Independence Party , Arab political party under the British Mandate of Palestine...
party, as well as individuals like Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam
Sheikh Muhammad Izz ad-Din al-Qassam was a Tijani Sufi who led militant activities against British, French, and Zionist organizations in the Levant in the 1920's and 1930's.-Early life:...
, decided to commemorate the anniversary of Saladin's victory with a popular celebration. The Hittin Day celebration, held on August 27 of that year in the courtyard of a school in Haifa, was intended to be an anti-imperialist
Anti-imperialism
Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking, is a term that may be applied to a movement opposed to any form of colonialism or imperialism. Anti-imperialism includes opposition to wars of conquest, particularly of non-contiguous territory or people with a different language or culture; it also includes...
rally, and was attended by thousands of people from Palestine, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
, Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
, and the Transjordan
Transjordan
The Emirate of Transjordan was a former Ottoman territory in the Southern Levant that was part of the British Mandate of Palestine...
. The speeches delivered at the event by Palestinian and Syrian Istiqlal
Independence Party (Palestine)
The Independence Party was an Arab nationalist party established on 13 August, 1932, in Palestine during the British mandate. Its origins lay in the Istiqlal movement associated with the short-lived Sharifian government in Damascus....
party members centered around the revival and independence of the Arab nation
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
and the importance of unity between Arab Muslims
Arab Muslims
Arab Muslims are adherents of the religion of Islam who identify linguistically, culturally, or genealogically as Arabs. They greatly outnumber other ethnic groups in the Middle East. Muslims who are not Arabs are called mawali by Arab Muslims....
and Christians.
1948 War
By 1948, the village mukhtarMukhtar
Mukhtar meaning "chosen" in Arabic, refers to the head of a village or mahalle in many Arab countries as well as in Turkey and Cyprus. The name refers to the fact that mukhtars are usually selected by some consensual or participatory method, often involving an election. Mukhtar is also a common...
was Ahmad ´Azzam Abu Radi. According to the villagers, they did not feel threatened by their Jewish neighbours at Kefar Hittim
Kfar Hittim
Kfar Hittim was the first moshav shitufi and the first Tower and stockade settlement in Israel. The moshav, a small farming community of 75 families, is under the jurisdiction of the Lower Galilee Regional Council in northern Israel....
, who had approached them in November 1947, (in connection with voting over the United Nations Partition Plan), and assured the villagers they did not want war. By May 1948 the people of Hittin were very poorly armed. The village strength was estimated at 50 men, armed with 50 assorted rifles, with between 25 to 50 rounds of ammunition for each man.
The villagers heard the news about 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...
on a radio belonging to the village mukhtar. They heard Radio Amman and Radio Damascus, among others, and grew increasingly concerned. However, for all practical purposes, they were uninvolved until June 9, when Jewish fighters attacked the neighbouring village of Lubya
Lubya
Lubya was a Palestinian Arab town located ten kilometers west of Tiberias that was captured and destroyed by Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War...
and were repulsed. Shortly after an Israeli armoured unit, accompanied by infantry, was advancing towards the village from the direction of Mitzpa. The attack was rebuffed, however, many of the villagers used up all their ammunition in that one confrontation, and "we were too poor to replace our bullets".
During the night of July 16–17 almost all the inhabitants evacuated the village. Many left for Salamah, an area between Deir Hanna
Deir Hanna
Deir Hanna is a local council in the North District of Israel, located on the hills of the Lower Galilee, southeast of Acre. At the end of 2005, the town had a population of 8,500 approximately 80% of them being Muslims and the remaining 20% being Christian....
and Maghar
Maghar
Maghar is the ninth month of the Nanakshahi calendar, which governs the activities within Sikhism. This month coincides with November and December in the Gregorian and Julian calendars and is 30 days long.-November:...
, leaving behind a few elderly people and 30-35 militiamen. Hittin was occupied by the forces of the Golani Brigade
Golani Brigade
The Golani Brigade is an Israeli infantry brigade that is subordinated to the 36th Division and traditionally associated with the Northern Command. Its symbol is a green tree on a yellow background, and its soldiers wear a brown beret. It is one of the most highly decorated infantry units in the...
during Dekel Operation
Operation Dekel
Operation Dekel , was the largest offensive in the north of Israel after the first truce of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was carried out by the 7th Armoured Brigade, a battalion from the Carmeli Brigade along with some elements from the Golani Brigade between 8–18 July. Its objective was to...
on 17 July 1948 without a fight. During the following period the unarmed villagers often tried to return, but were chased off. In one instance the Golani unit ambushed a group of villagers as they entered Hittin -"to extract their belongings." The Golani unit chased the villagers away, killing some men and pack animals in the process.
The villagers remained at Salamah for almost a month, but as their food-supply dwindled and their hope of returning faded, the group left together for Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. Some of Hittin's former inhabitants also ended up in Nazareth
Nazareth
Nazareth is the largest city in the North District of Israel. Known as "the Arab capital of Israel," the population is made up predominantly of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel...
. There were about 560 internally displaced Palestinians
Internally displaced Palestinians
A present absentee is a Palestinian who fled or was expelled from his home in Palestine by Jewish or Israeli forces, before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, but who remained within the area that became the state of Israel. Present absentees are also referred to as internally displaced...
from the villages of Hittin and Alut in Nazareth in 1948, among a total internally displaced person
Internally displaced person
An internally displaced person is someone who is forced to flee his or her home but who remains within his or her country's borders. They are often referred to as refugees, although they do not fall within the current legal definition of a refugee. At the end of 2006 it was estimated there were...
(IDP) population of about 9,500 in the Nazareth area. The Israeli government was reluctant to have such a large concentration of IDPs in one place and a special ministerial committee recommended that those from Hittin and 'Alut be allowed to return to their villages, along with IDPs from Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
, Acre
Acre, Israel
Acre , is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country....
, and 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:...
. However, 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...
objected to the order as is concerned Hittin, citing "security reasons".
Aftermath
On the village lands of Hittin, the Jewish localities of ArbelArbel
Arbel is a moshav in northern Israel. Located on Mount Arbel next to the Sea of Galilee near Tiberias, it falls under the jurisdiction of Lower Galilee Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 364....
and Kfar Zeitim
Kfar Zeitim
Kfar Zeitim is a moshav in the Lower Galilee, Israel. It is adjacent to Tiberias and to the abandoned Palestinian village Hittin. It was established in 1950 by Jewish immigrants from Yemen, but some of them left the village later...
were founded in 1949 and 1950, respectively. The Druze were given official custodianship over the shrine to Jethro in the 1950s, along with 100 dunam circumference. Their request to build housing to settle Druze soldiers who fought alongside Israelis against other Arabs in the 1948 war was denied. The Druze annual pilgrimage continues to be held and was officially recognized as a religious holiday by the Israelis in 1954. In front of the shrine, there is a car-park which lies over a rubbish tip that is "gradually swallowing up the abandoned remains of the Hittin village," the built-up area of which remains uninhabited today.
According to Ilan Pappé
Ilan Pappé
Ilan Pappé is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK, director of the university's European Centre for Palestine Studies, co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies, and political activist...
, 73 year old Abu Jamal from Deir Hanna
Deir Hanna
Deir Hanna is a local council in the North District of Israel, located on the hills of the Lower Galilee, southeast of Acre. At the end of 2005, the town had a population of 8,500 approximately 80% of them being Muslims and the remaining 20% being Christian....
planned to hold a summer camp for restoring the Hittin mosque, which, according to tradition, was built by Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
in 1187 to commemorate his victory over the Crusaders. However, Abu Jamal was tricked by the Ministry of Education
Ministry of Education (Israel)
The Israeli Ministry of Education is the branch of government charged with overseeing public education institutions in Israel. The political head of the department is the Minster of Education, currently Gideon Sa'ar....
: its senior officials promised him that if he cancelled the camp, the ministry would donate money for the restoration work. After Abu Jamal had accepted the offer and cancelled the camp, the ministry sealed the site with barbed wire. Stones, including the foundation stone, were then removed by the nearby kibbutzniks who use the land for grazing.
In February 2007, Eitan Bronstein, Director of Zochrot
Zochrot
Zochrot is an Israeli-Jewish non-profit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Palestinian Nakba , the 1948 Palestinian exodus. The group's director is Eitan Bronstein...
, an Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i organization founded in 2002 to promote "recognition of the Nakba by the state, its residents and institutions, made an official complaint to the Regional Committee for Building and Planning in Israel's Northern District
North District (Israel)
The Northern District is one of Israel's six administrative districts. The Northern District has a land area of 4,478 km², which increases to 4,638 km² when both land and water are included...
, regarding a new development plan being proposed by the Israeli authorities that would result in new construction expanding into what was once the village center of Hittin. Israeli planning has generally not involved building on what were the built up village centers of localities that were depopulated or destroyed in 1948, and Bronstein urged the Israeli authorities not to forgo the opportunity to transform sites like Hittin into "places of reconciliation" by taking the people who once lived there into consideration.
On Land Day
Land Day
Land Day , March 30, is an annual day of commemoration for Palestinians of the events of that date in 1976. In response to the Israeli government's announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of dunams of land for "security and settlement purposes", a general strike and marches were organized...
, March 30, 2007, Zochrot joined the displaced residents of Hittin in a visit to the remains of the village.
Demographics
In 1596, Hittin's inhabitants numbered 605. In the 1922 census of Palestine, Hittin had a population of 889 inhabitants, rising to 931 in the 1931 census. There were 190 houses in the latter year. The population was estimated at 1,190 ArabArab
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...
s in 1945. The village had a projected population of 1,380 in 1948. By 1948, the village had a few large and influential families; Rabah, ´Azzam, Shaiyabtah, Sa´adah, Sha´ban, and Dahabra. Refugee
Palestinian refugee
Palestinian refugees or Palestine refugees are the people and their descendants, predominantly Palestinian Arabic-speakers, who fled or were expelled from their homes during and after the 1948 Palestine War, within that part of the British Mandate of Palestine, that after that war became the...
s and their descendants numbered 8,477 in 1998.
See also
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
- List of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict
External links
- Welcome to Hittin, palestineremembered.com
- Hittin, 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...
- Hitteen, Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh
- The Return to Hitteen, written in 1985, Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh
- Objection to Hittin Building Plan February 22, 2007, ZochrotZochrotZochrot is an Israeli-Jewish non-profit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Palestinian Nakba , the 1948 Palestinian exodus. The group's director is Eitan Bronstein...
- Tour of Hittin, Land Day 2007, March 30, 2007, Zochrot
- Testimony by Saham Faleh Shbaita-Kna'ane, Hittin, Collected for Zochrot's tour of Hittin on Land Day, March 30, 2007