Welcome To Zayta - زيتا (זיתא)

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

Value

Occupation Date

July 17, 1948

Distance From District

29 (km) Northwest of Hebron

Elevation

75 (meters)

Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Details

Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction

Map Location

See location #10 on the map

View from satellite

Military Operation

Operation An-Far

Defenders

Local Palestinian militias and some Arab Liberation Army volunteers

Exodus Cause

Military assault by Zionist troops

Village Temains

Zayta was completely destroyed and defaced.

Ethnically Cleansing

Zayta inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.

Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership

Ethnic Group	Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab	3,127
Jewish	1,273
Public	6,090
**Total	10,490

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

Land Usage
As of 1945

Land Usage	Arab (Dunum)*	Jewish (Dunum)*
Planted W/ Cereal	8,899	1,251
Built up	32	0
Arable	8,899	1,251
Non-Arable	286	22

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Population

Year	Population*
1596	165
1922	139
1931	234
1945	330
1948	383
Est. Refugees 1998	6,839

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Number of Houses

Year	Number of Houses
1931	44
1948	209

Near By Towns

Summil ↖	Barqusya ↑ (N)	Thikrin ↗
	Zayta	→ Kudna
↙ 'Iraq al-Manshiyya		↘ Bayt Jibrin

Nearby Wadies & Rivers

The village stands on a hill 1 km north of Wadi Zayta.

Water Supply

Drinking water was supplied by artesian wells, most of which were dug to the south of the village, near Wadi Zayta, where the underground water level was close to the surface. Another well was also located to the north.

Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands

No Israeli settlements on village lands

Village Before Nakba

The village stood on a hill 1 km north of Wadi Zayta. It was linked by a dirt track to 'Iraq al-Manshiyya, which was located on a highway that ran from east to west between the city of al-Majdal on the coast and Bayt Jibrin. The old Zayta (Khirbat Zayta al-Kharab, 133115) was located 1.5 km south of this village on the southern bank of the wadi. (Because the wadi's stagnant waters bred insects and diseases, the population was moved during the Mandate to the new site.) In 1596 Zayta was a village in the nahiya of Gaza (liwa' of Gaza), with a population of 165. It paid taxes on wheat, barley, goats, and beehives. In the late nineteenth century, Zayta was described as a small hamlet on the edge of the wadi, flanked on two sides by low hills and built of adobe brick.

The new village of Zayta was laid out in a northeast-southwest direction its houses were built of mud, wood, and cane, and its population was Muslim. Drinking water was supplied by artesian wells, most of which were dug south of the village, near Wadi Zayta, where the underground water level was close to the surface. Another well was located north of Zayta. The villagers worked mainly in rainfed agriculture and stock raising, specializing in goats and sheep. They cultivated grain on large tracts of the land and utilized the rest as grazing land for their animals. In 1944/45 a total of 3,027 dunums was allocated to cereals.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

Zayta was one of the villages captured during Operation An-Far . Israeli historian Benny Morris indicates that Zayta was occupied at the very end of this offensive, on 17-18 July 1948, but the History of the War of Independence states that the occupation occurred around a week earlier, on 9-10 July.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

There are no Israeli settlements on village lands. About a month after the occupation of the village, the Jewish National Fund submitted a settlement plan to the Israeli cabinet which called for establishing a kibbutz on the village site. The 20 August blueprint called this settlement Kibbutz Gal-On, according to Morris. Other sources, however, state that a kibbutz called Gal-On was already in place on land that traditionally belonged to the village of Ra'na it was established early in 1947, only 2 km east of the village site

Village Today

There are no traces of houses; only a well, still in use, is left. Tall grasses, wild flowers, and trees cover parts of the site. The surrounding lands are cultivated by Israeli farmers.

Source

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

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

Display Name	Clan/Hamolah	Country of Residence
خليل محمود خليل ابو عطا الله	-	عمان, الأردن
اسماعيل السيناوي	-	-
Mohammad Wajeeh Abuljoud	-	-
الجوهري	-	عمان
شاكر	الدمنهورى	زيتا
مصطفى ابو حماد	زيتا	عمان, الاردن
معاذ	-	عمان, عمان
اتش دبور	اسعد	gfdf, فلسطين
wael_abumidan	abumidan	jordan, amman
Mahmood Abu Samak	abusamak	Riyadh 11466, Saudi Arabia
Mohammad Abu Samak	Abu Samak	Dammam, Saudi Arabia

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