Welcome To al-Rihaniyya - الريحانية (א-ריחאניה)

District of Haifa Ethnically cleansed days ago	العربية Google Earth
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Statistic & Fact

Value

Occupation Date

April 30, 1948

Distance From District

25 (km) South East of Haifa

Elevation

225 (meters)

Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Details

Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction

Map Location

See location #25 on the map

View from satellite

Military Operation

The battle for Mishmar ha-'Emeq

Defenders

Arab Liberation Army headed by Fawzi al-Qawuqji

Exodus Cause

Expulsion by Zionist troops

Village Temains

The village has been completely destroyed, and only house rubble left behind.

Ethnically Cleansing

al-Rihaniyya inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.

Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership

Ethnic Group	Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab	1,885
Jewish	0
Public	45
**Total	1,930

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps

Land Usage
As of 1945

Land Usage	Arab (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation	73
Planted W/ Cereal	1,761
Built up	46
Arable	1,834
Non-Arable	50

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Population

Year	Population*
1922	266
1931	293
1945	240
1948	278
Est. Refugees 1998	1,710

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Number of Houses

Year	Number of Houses
1931	55
1948	55

Near By Towns

Ijzim ↖	Umm al-Zinat ↑ (N)	Qira ↗
Umm al-Zinat ←	al-Rihaniyya	→ Abu Zurayq
↙ Daliyat al-Rawha'	↓ al-Kafrayn	↘ Abu Shusha

Schools

al-Rihaniyya had an elementary school for boys founded in 1888, but it was later closed during the British Mandate period.

Places of Warship

One mosque

Nearby Wadies & Rivers

The village was situated 3 km northwest of Wadi al-Mileh

Archeological Sites

Khirbat Furayr lay about 1.5 km northwest of the village

Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands

Ramat ha-Shofet & 'En ha-'Emeq

Village Before Nakba

The village stood on a hilltop in a generally hilly area. The hills behind the village to the east rose sharply while those to the west were more gentle, leading down to the Wadi Milh highway some 3 km to the northwest. The village's name derived from rihan, Arabic for "sweet basil," a cultivated herb used in Mediterranean cuisine. Al-Rihaniyya had a mosque and a boys' elementary school, established around 1887 during Ottoman rule. This school was closed during the Mandate. There were numerous springs along the wadi which bounded the village on the north and west; both the wadi and the springs were used as sources of water. Agriculture and animal husbandry dominated the village's economy. Its most important crops were grain and fruit. In 1944/45 a total of 1,761 dunums was allotted to cereals; 73 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Khirbat Furayr, which has been identified as an archaeological site, lay about 1.5 km northwest of the village it has not yet been dated.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

The village was reportedly one of the last to be occupied in the aftermath of the battle of Mishmar ha-Emeq . The New York Times reported that al-Rihaniyya was occupied along with Daliyat al-Rawha' and al-Butaymat on 14 April. By that time, the Arab Liberation Army forces in the vicinity had been routed and some ten other villages had also been overrun, according to the Times correspondent. However, al-Rihaniyya may not have been securely under Haganah control for a couple of weeks, since the villages to the north and west of it were captured at the end of April following the fall of Haifa. Some Haganah units were ordered to 'secure' the approaches to the city in the context of Operation Bi'ur Hametz ('Passover Clearing), the offensive launched to secure the hinterland of Haifa after the fall of that city.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

Ramat ha-Shofet, established in 1941, and En ha- Emeq, built in 1944, together occupy an arc of land that partially encircled the village on the north, east, and south. At the time of their construction they were not on village lands but were very close (about 0.5 km) to the village site. Currently their inhabitants make use of village land.

Village Today

The rubble of the houses lies in piles that are covered with dirt, bushes, and thorns. The village cemetery (now covered with cactuses) and a well are visible at the bottom of a hill north of the site. Large sections of the adjacent land are used for agriculture to the south there is an avocado orchard.

Source

Dr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains.

Want to browse more? 80,000 pictures were grouped in these gallaries:

Nakba Oral History Interview with Ahmad and Rustam Ali al-Naji

Display Name	Clan/Hamolah	Country of Residence
غزل صبح	-	-
ابو خضر	عليان	طولكرم, فلسطين
خالد صبح	-	-
Yousef Suboh	Suboh	-
ابو يزن	صبح	-
مأمون - أبو مراد	صبح	-
علاء عليان	-	-
يوسف صبح	صبح	فلسطين, فلسطين
القناص	-	-
هيثم صبح	-	-
عصفورة الفارعة	صبح	الرياض

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