Welcome To Qira - قيرة وقامون (קירה וקאמון)

District of Haifa Ethnically cleansed days ago	العربية Google Earth
	Gallery (8)

Statistic & Fact

Value

Occupation Date

March 1, 1948

Distance From District

23 (km) South East of Haifa

Elevation

200 (meters)

Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Details

Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction

Map Location

See location #23 on the map

View from satellite

Attacking Units

Terror campaign by a Haganah intelligence unit.

Exodus Cause

Haganah 'Wispering' campaign (psychological warfare)

Village Temains

The village has been completely obliterated with the exception of some house rubble.

Ethnically Cleansing

In early March 1948, Qira and Qamun were both ethnically cleansed based on the the orders of Yosef Weitz (a JNF official), and soon after the houses and crops of these villages were destroyed to make sure that the inhabitants do not come back.

Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership

Ethnic Group	Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab	711
Jewish	13,265
Public	790
**Total	14,766

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

Population

Year	Population*
1931	86
1945	690
1948	476
Est. Refugees 1998	2,921

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Number of Houses

Year	Number of Houses
1931	21
1948	116

Near By Towns

	al-Mansura, Khirbat ↑ (N)
Umm al-Zinat ←	Qira	→ Zionist Colonies
	↓ Abu Zurayq

Town's Name Through History

The Canaanites referred to Qira by Yokneam, the Roman called it Cimona, and before occupation the village was known by Qira wa Qamun (closely related to the nearby village of Qamun).

Nearby Wadies & Rivers

The village was situated 6 km north of al-Muqatta' River.

Archeological Sites

Qira contained at least 19 archeological sites in its lands, and the most famous sites are Tel Qiri and Tel Qamun.

Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands

Yoqne'am, Yoqne'am 'Illit, & Kibbutz ha-Zore'a.

Village Before Nakba

The village was situated on the western, rocky bank of Wadi Qira and overlooked the plain of Marj ibn Amir. A closely related community, Tall Qamun , lay only 2 km to the northeast, and because the two were so closely associated, some people in the region spoke of them as 'Qira wa Qamun,' (Qira and Qamun). The al-Muqatta' River, which was 4 km to the north, formed the northern border of Qira's lands. Qamun was number 113 in the list of towns conquered by the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose Ill in 1468 B.C. It was probably the site of the royal Canaanite city of Yokneam, which fell to Joshua (Joshua 12:22), and the Roman city of Cimona. The Crusaders built the castle of Caymont on the tell where Qamun stood.

Qira (wa Qamun), classified as a hamlet by the Mandate-era Palestine Index Gazetteer, had a square layout; its houses were made either of cement or of stone and mud. Bedouin pitched their tents in Qira during the sedentary months of their migratory cycle. Its population was Muslim, and it had several springs in various parts of its lands. Its agricultural economy was based on grain, which was planted on 261 dunums in 1944/45. The villagers also planted vegetables on small plots of land and earned extra income from livestock breeding. From the archaeological evidence on the surface of the site, it appears that Qira wa Qamun was built over an earlier settlement. Surveys of the region have produced evidence of at least nineteen archaeological sites in the area east of the village. The most important of these are Tall Qiri and Tall Qamun, both of which were excavated by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

The people of Qira wa Qamun were targeted for eviction by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in March 1948, on the grounds that they were tenant farmers working on Jewish owned lands. A top official in the JNF's Lands Department, Yosef Weitz, told a Haganah intelligence officer to 'advise' the inhabitants of the village to leave. When they did, Weitz and other officials in the JNF decided to raze their homes and destroy their crops, later offering them compensation for the losses. Israeli historian Benny Morris says that this took place in late March, but says nothing about the destination of the villagers or the fate of the village lands.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

The settlement of Yoqne'am was established in 1935 on what were traditionally village lands, northeast of the village site. By 1945, the settlers owned all the lands of the village. An extension of the settlement, Yoqne'am 'Illit, was established in 1950. Kibbutz ha-Zore'a was established in 1936 on the border between Qira wa Qamun's lands and those of Abu Zurayq.

Village Today

Rubble from village homes can be seen among the bushes and pine trees that have been planted on the village site. A spring still flows through a rock-cut channel. The area around it has been turned into an Israeli park. Almond, pomegranate, and fig trees grow on the site, and pine trees cover the hilly lands surrounding it. The other lands are planted in grain.
Related Places

Source

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

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