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Welcome To Zakariyya - زكريا (זכריא)

District of Hebron
Ethnically cleansed days ago

العربية

Google Earth
Picture for Zakariyya Village - Palestine: : The Palestinian school, which was looted by the
Gallery (79)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date October 23, 1948
Distance From District 25 (km) Northwest of Hebron
Elevation 275 (meters)
Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Detailswhat's new
Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction
Pre-Nakba Aerial Viewwhat's new
Pre-Nakba Aerial View
Map Location See location #2 on the map

View from satellite
Military Operation Either Operations ha-Har or Operation Ya'ov
Attacking Units Possibly Giv'ati Brigade's Fourth Battalion
Defenders Egyptian Muslim Brotherhoods, local Palestinian militias and some Arab Liberation Army volunteers
Exodus Cause Military assault by Zionist troops
Village Temains Zakariyya was partially destroyed, and the all remaining houses and its mosque became the property of the Jewish National Fund and Israeli government. Some Kurdish or Khazari Jews have taken residence in some of its houses.
Ethnically Cleansing Zakariyya was completely ethnically cleansed on June 9th, 1950 based on the orders of Yosef Weitz, a Jewish National Fund (JNF) official. We hope that JNF will be taken to court for their terror acts one day, especially in US and Europe courts. This racist organization has been the engine behind confiscating and destroying many of the Palestinian properties to make sure Palestinians do not come back to their homes and farms.
Terminating Refugee Camps Many of the villagers still live in the Dihaysha and al-'Aroub Refugee Camps in the Occupied Bethlehem and Hebron districts. Few of its orginial residents became internal refugees in Israel, and some were ethnically cleansed to al-Ramla.
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 15,311
Jewish 0
Public 9
**Total 15,320
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation 961
Olive Groves 440
Planted W/ Cereal 6,523
Built up 70
Arable 7,484
Non-Arable 7,766
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
1596 259
1922 682
1931 742
1945 1,180
1948 383
Est. Refugees 1998 2,351
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses In (1931): 189
Near By Townswhat's new
al-Burayj
         
Bayt Jimal
       
Tall al-Safi  
   Bayt Nattif
           
'Ajjur
Town's Name Through History Zakariyya was known to the Romans by Caper Zacharia.
Places of Warship One Mosque (still standing)
Water Supply The villagers obtained their drinking water from two communal wells:- al-Saflani well which was drilled next to Wadi 'Ajjur, and al-Sarara well located north of the village.
Archeological Sites According to the Bible David fought Goliath at Tall Zakariyya!
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands
Zekharya and possibly Beit Shamesh too.
Featured Video

Village Before Nakba

The village stood on undulating ground that was underlain by soft white eocene limestone, in the western foothills of the Hebron Mountains. It was next to the road between Bayt Jibrin and the Jerusalem-Jaffa highway. This road linked it to other lateral roads and led to Bethlehem and a number of villages, among them 'Ajjur, Dayr al-Dubban, and Tall al-Safi. The village name reflected the cultural continuity of the area's population with the Roman and Byzantine periods; the site was called Caper Zacharia during those times and fell within the administrative jurisdiction of Bayt Jibrin. In 1596, Zakariyya was a village in the nahiya of Jerusalem (liwa' of Jerusalem), with a population of 259. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, and olives, as well as on other types of produce, such as goats and beehives.

In the late nineteenth century, Zakariyya stood on the slope above a broad, flat valley, surrounded by extensive olive groves. The village had a rectangular layout and the residents, who were Muslim, built their houses of stone and mud. The older parts of the village were located at its center and in its northern and southern quarters. The center consisted of a mosque, a shrine for a Shaykh Hasan, a busy marketplace, and an elementary school. The village expanded on all sides in modern times, especially to the north and south. The villagers obtained their drinking water from two communal wells -the al-Saflani well, drilled next to Wadi 'Ajjur, and the al-Sarara well, north of the village. Some water also came from domestic wells that gathered rainwater.

Rainfed agriculture represented the backbone of the economy; the main crops included grain, beans, fruit, and olives. In 1944/45 a total of 6,523 dunums was allocated to cereals; 961 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, of which 440 dunums were planted with olive trees. The second most important occupation for the villagers was animal husbandry. They grazed their goats and sheep on the wild shrubs and grasses that grew on the slopes of the hills and wadis. Near the site of the village were many ancient localities. About 1 km to the southwest was Tall Zakariyya, which rises 117 m above the plain. The plain to the east has been identified with the Valley of Elah where, according to the Bible (1 Samuel 17), David fought Goliath. Tall Zakariyya was excavated in 1898 and has been identified with Azekah, a town which may have been referred to in a text written on a broken shard that was found at Tall al-Duwayr. Azekah was said to be the place where Joshua triumphed over the Canaanites (Joshua 10:10).

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

Zakariyya first came under attack early in the war in the course of the battles around the Kfar Etziyon Bloc of Jewish settlements south of Bethlehem. Along with Dayr Aban and Bayt Nattif, it was besieged by a Haganah unit estimated at 100 men by 'Arab sources' quoted by the New York Times. The 'punitive expedition' against the villages, in retaliation for the ambush of a Palmach shock force nearby, persisted for about twenty-four hours. The Times also said that Israeli forces directed their fire at the villages on 17 and 18 January 1948, but the number of casualties among the villagers was not reported.

Zakariyya was occupied over nine months later, towards the end of Operations Ha-Har and Yoav, when Israel's operational areas became contiguous in the last week of October 1948. Israeli units (probably the Giv'ati Brigade's Fourth Battalion) broke through to the village on 23 October 1948, linking the Israeli-held parts of the Hebron hills with the Jerusalem corridor. Unlike most of the inhabitants of villages conquered in these operations, the villagers were not displaced at the time of occupation. However, Israeli historian Benny Morris reports that over a year later, towards the end of 1949, the Israeli military drew up a plan to evict the people of Zakariyya, along with those of some seven other villages (mostly in northern Galilee). But Morris adds that 'political objections by the Foreign Ministry (and perhaps others) blocked implementation.'

Efforts to expel the people of Zakariyya, as well as those of several communities in a similar position, persisted into the following year. Zakariyya was one of the longest-lasting of these communities, despite the 'appalling' health and food situation in the village, according to Morris. In March 1949, the Israeli Interior Ministry official in charge of the Jerusalem sub-disctrict noted that 'in the village there are many good houses, and it is possible to accommodate in them several hundred new immigrants.' In January 1950, Ben-Gurion met with his foreign minister, Moshe Sharett, and Jewish National Fund official Yosef Weitz and decided to evict the inhabitants of Zakariyya '[but]without coercion.' They were eventually evicted on 9 June 1950 -the means of expulsion are not mentioned- and most were transferred to Ramla, with some possibly going to Jordan

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

The settlement of Zekharya was established in 1950 on village land, close to the village site.

Village Today

The mosque and a number of houses, some occupied by Jewish residents and others deserted, remain on the site. Large sections of the site itself are covered with wild vegetation. The mosque is in a state of neglect segments of its walls and roof and the surrounding ground are overgrown with wild vegetation. An Israeli flag is planted on top of the minaret . One of the occupied houses is a two-storey stone structure with a flat roof. Its second storey windows have round arches and grillwork. Parts of the surrounding lands are cultivated by Israeli farmers.

Source

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

Related Maps Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
خرائط للقضاء توضح حدود القرى والاودية
Town's map on MapQuest
View from satellite
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Bibliography and References

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Display Name Clan/Hamolah Country of Residence
Nur Alden Abu-Laben Abu-Laben, Alhwamdi, Harb Toronto, Canada
Eyad Hammad الخمور Amman, Jordan
سعاد عباد عيسه mafraq
احمد الفرارجة الفرارجة عين الباشا, الاردن
hmdd عدوي -
عبدالغفار الحاج - الزرقاء, زكريا
عبدالغفار الحاج - -
مالك الفرارجة الزرقاء, الرصيفة
نور الدين الكواملة ماليزيا & الأردن
ابو بشار عدوي الدمام, السعودية
Ehab Mohaisen محيسن Jordan, Jordan
الاء ابوجابر الخمور -
nabeel shaheen shaheen texas, usa
خالد فرارجة - الرياض , السعودية
Eihab fararjeh new jersey, usa
عاشق الجهاد فرارجة -
Jamal Obied Obied Texas, USA
Dr nabeel fararjeh zarqa
rama صافي السلطان amman, jordan
ابو صالح زكارنة جنين
haitham Fararjeh Al Fararjeh Amman, Jordan
omar shaheen shaheen -
م. مصطفى ابوحسن العيسة الخبر, السعودية
Al-Hayek Family Al-Hayek Central, Saudi Arabia
samar عدوي فلسطين , 45635696878678
ABDELNASIR KHANNA Khmour -
Hammad Khanneh Al Khmour Amman
malik shahin al shamarkha -
Moath AL-Fararjeh - -
ابن العبد جبرين الفرارجه عمان, الاردن
حسام ابوزنيد ابوزنيد الشرحة الشرحة -
Ghaith Al-Fararjeh -
baker Fararjeh amman, jordan
moataz alfararjih fararjih amman, rosefah
tariq زقطان doha, QATAR
saleh khanna alkhmour Hebron,Palestine
samer zaqtan ZAQTAN TX, TX
nasr ayaseh ayaseh -
وسن عدوان العيسة العقبة , الأردن
عزالدين - عمان, الاردن
mohammed fararjeh saudi arabia, saudi arabia
الحلاق - -
gumaa zakaryya jordan, jordan
nedal mohammad fararjeh fararjeh new york, u.s.a
abdellatif Shamarkha MI, USA
Waddah Shamroukh - -
Usama Abujoda alkhmour Palestine, Palestine
Walid Abdu Al-fattah Frarjeh Frarjeh Riyadh- KSA
maudwan Mohesen JORDAN, AQABA
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Jawdat Manna' farajeh Palestine, Palestine
said manna farajeh amman, jordan
leo cheng - Guangdong, china
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حسن ابو جوده ابو جوده ,
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Majdi Said Abd Alhadi Abujudeh Abujudeh Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Shadi Fararjeh Fararjeh Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
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al-khmour - Riyadh
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Raed Mohammad Abu-laban Amman, Jordan
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JIHAD fararjeh FARARJEH TURKEY, TURKEY
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Ra'ed Mohammad Al-fararjeh Al-Fararjeh JORDAN/AMMAN
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عيسى عدوي adawi riyadh, saudi arabia
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