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Welcome To al-Dawayima - الدوايمة (א-דואימה)

District of Hebron
Ethnically cleansed days ago
العربية

Google Earth
Picture for al-Dawayima Village - Palestine: : That is how the
Gallery (108)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date October 29, 1948
Distance From District 18 (km) Northwest of Hebron
Elevation 350 (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 #16 on the map

View from satellite
Military Operation Operation Ya'ov (commanded by the ethnic cleansing champion Yigal Allon).
Attacking Units Eighty-Ninth Battalion of Eighth Brigade, commanded by General Yitzchaq Sadeh, the founder of the Palmach.
Defenders Egyptian Army
Acts of Terror On October 29th, 1948, al-Dawayima was the site of one of the larger, little-known massacres of the war. Over 100 people ,including women and children, were massacred and buried in a village well, see Stories and Memories section for details.
Refugees' Migration Routes Many refugees headed for the Hebron hills, and some stayed in the nearby caves for some time.
Exodus Cause Expulsion by Zionist troops
Village Temains al-Dawayima was completely obliterated with the exception of one village house.
Ethnically Cleansing al-Dawayima inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 60,560
Jewish 0
Public 25
**Total 60,585
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation 1,206
Olive Groves 1,952
Planted W/ Cereal 29,191
Built up 179
Arable 30,397
Non-Arable 30,009
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
1922 2,441
1931 2,688
1945 3,710
1948 4,304
Est. Refugees 1998 26,429
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses In (1931): 559 (includes four adjacent khirbas)
Near By Townswhat's new
al-Qubayba
          ↖
Bayt Jibrin
↑
(N)
Idna
↗        
Beersheba Bedouins  ←
al-Dawayima
→   Dayr Samit
            ↙
Beersheba Bedouins
↓
Kh. Umm al-Shaqaf
↘           
Bayt 'Awwa
Town's Name Through History In the Old Testament, al-Dawayima was identified with Bozqat or Bosqat.
Places of Warship al-Dawayima had a mosque, Darawish Mosque, which was maintained by the followers of al-Tariqa al-khalwatiyya, a Sufi mystic order founded by Shaykh 'Umar al-Khalwati, who died in 1397. In the 1930s, the villagers added a tall minaret to the Mosque.
Shrines / Maqams The village contained several religious shrines, chief among them was dedicated to al-Shaykh 'Ali.
Nearby Wadies & Rivers To the north, the village overlooks Wadi Qubayba.
Water Supply In the 1940s, the villagers drilled three new artesian wells, and they also dug numerous cisterns for collecting rainwater.
Archeological Sites A large number of khirbas lay nearby the village.
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands		 Amatzya
Featured Video

Village Before Nakba

The village was spread along the top of a wide rocky ridge on the western side of the Hebron Mountains. It overlooked Wadi Qubayba to the north and commanded a view of higher mountains to the east. Although the entire area generally sloped down toward the south coastal plain, this was not obvious from the village because hills to the west of it blocked the view of the plain. A secondary road connected al-Dawayima to the village of Idna, to the northeast. Yet another secondary road led from al-Dawayima to al-Qubayba, to the northwest, and this in turn was linked to the al-Faluja-Bayt Jibrin highway.

The site of al-Dawayima has been tentatively identified with the Old Testament village of Bozqat or Bosqat. In the late nineteenth century, al-Dawayima stood on a high stony ridge that had olive groves beneath it. On a higher ridge to the west stood a shrine that was topped by a white dome.

The people of al-Dawayima were Muslims. They maintained several religious shrines, chief among them the shrine of a Shaykh Ali. This shrine had a large courtyard, a number of rooms, and one large hall for prayers, and was surrounded by fig and carob trees and cactuses. It attracted visitors from neighboring villages. A mosque was located in the village center; it was maintained by the followers of al-tariqa al-khalwatiyya, a Sufi mystic order founded by Shaykh Umar al-Khalwati, who died in 1397. The villagers expanded and renovated the mosque in the 1930s, and added a tall minaret.

The village had a star-shaped layout, which permitted construction to expand in all directions, particularly northeast and northwest along the above-mentioned roads. Shops were scattered throughout the various neighborhoods of the village center. Houses were made of stone and mud, separated by narrow streets and alleys. The older houses were clustered closely together. Each set of houses shared a hawsh, a large courtyard that provided space for women to do their domestic chores, for children to play, and for families to gather in the evening and on special occasions. As the village expanded people began to build new houses outside of the village core. These new houses were larger and built of whitewashed stone some of them had thick, stone walls and were called jidaris (from the Arabic word for wall, jidar). Typically, each of these houses stood apart from the others and did not form part of a hawsh. However, the floor plan of the new houses was the same as that of the old. Each house had two levels: the upper level was occupied by the family members and the lower level by their animals. The houses of the well-to-do villagers had their own courtyards and large guest rooms, in addition to animal stables.

Al-Dawayima had an elementary school that was opened in the village in 1937. The villagers obtained part of their drinking water from wells that collected rainwater. In the 1940s they drilled three new wells. During this period they also built numerous cisterns for collecting rainwater.

Rainfed agriculture was an important basis of al-Dawayima's economy. The chief crops included a variety of grains, especially wheat, barley, and maize vegetables and fruits, especially figs and grapes, were also cultivated. In 1944/45 the villagers allotted a total of 21,191 dunums of their land to cereals; 1,206 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The rugged terrain around the village was covered with trees, such as oaks and suwayd (Rhamnus Palestina).

Equally important to the village economy was animal husbandry. There were twenty-seven clans, or hamulas, in the village , and every hamula owned an average of 200 to 300 head of goats or sheep, and a few camels and cows. The villagers pastured their animals on the large blocs of uncultivated land nearby.

In addition to agriculture and animal husbandry, the villagers engaged in the spinning and weaving of tents and sacks for storing grain. They also tanned hides and wove baskets for the market. Al-Dawayima had about thirty to fifty small shops, ten butchers, and two grain mills. The economy of the village became more dynamic in 1944 with the introduction of a weekly Friday market. The market brought in residents from other villages and towns, including Bayt Jibrin, Hebron, and Gaza, who traded in produce, clothes, pastry, and other goods. The market was held on the village's threshing floor and was called the suq al-barrayn ('the market of the two terrains') because it was believed to combine the trade of the mountains and the plains.

Al-Dawayima was built on an archaeological site. In addition, a large number of khirbas lay in the vicinity. This suggests intense occupation of the area in the past

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

Al-Dawayima was the site of one of the larger, little-known massacres of the war. Carried out on 29 October 1948, during the Israeli army's Operation Yoav, the massacre precipitated a massive flight of people from the area, according to Israeli historian Benny Morris. He quotes a participant in the attack on the village as saying that about 80 to 100 people, including women and children, were killed by 'the first wave of conquerors.' The following are excerpts of a description published in the Israeli daily 'Al ha-Mishmar: 'The children they killed by breaking their heads with sticks. There was not a house without dead…. One commander ordered a sapper to put two old women in a certain house… and to blow up the house with them. The sapper refused.... The commander then ordered his men to put in the old women and the evil deed was done. One soldier boasted that he had raped a woman and then shot her….'

Another description of the massacre was given by the former mukhtar of the village, interviewed in 1984 by the Israeli daily Hadashot. The mukhtar recalled: 'The people fled, and everyone they saw in the houses, they shot and killed. They also killed people in the streets. They came and blew up my house, in the presence of eye-witnesses.' The mukhtar added: 'The moment that the tanks came and opened fire, I left the village immediately. At about half-past ten, two tanks passed the Darawish Mosque. About 75 old people were there, who had come early for Friday prayers. They gathered in the mosque to pray. They were all killed.' The mukhtar also said that about thirty-five families were hiding in caves outside al-Dawayima, including some from the previously occupied village of al-Qubayba. When the Israeli forces discovered them, 'They told them to come out and get into line and start to walk. And as they started to walk, they were shot by machine guns from two sides…. We sent people there that night, who collected the bodies, put them into a cistern, and buried them.'

The mukhtar was taken back to the site of his village in 1984 for the first time since the massacre. He showed an Israeli journalist where his home had been, as well as the cistern where the bodies had been buried. A few days later, the journalist returned with four laborers. They dug for a short while and discovered several human bones, including three skulls-one of them a child's. They did not continue digging, but reburied the bones.

Morris writes that a number of investigations were launched into the massacre, but does not mention what they found. They were generally ineffectual and ended with the disciplining of some soldiers and the issuing of a set of rules on treatment of Arab civilians by the Israeli army. The unit responsible for the massacre was the Eighty-Ninth Battalion, which was part of the Eighth Brigade, commanded by General Yitzchaq Sadeh, the founder of the Palmach. Operation commander Yigal Allon told Sadeh to look into the 'rumours,' but his response is not given.

In December 1948, during a general discussion of atrocities by an Israeli ministerial committee, the issue of al-Dawayima was raised again. Morris writes that Agriculture Minister Aharon Zisling was probably reacting to a letter he received about this massacre, when he said: 'This is something that determines the character of the nation…. Jews too have committed Nazi acts.' Although he complained that the investigation was not proceeding as it should, he agreed with other ministers that Israel should admit nothing outwardly, in order to preserve its image

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

The settlement of Amatzya, founded in 1955, was built on the ruins of al-Dawayima.

Village Today

The site has been fenced in. A cowshed, a chicken coop, and granaries have been built at its center (which has been levelled). The southern side of the site contains stone terraces and the remnants of a house. The eastern side is occupied by the residential area of the moshav. Cactuses, together with many carob and olive trees, grow on the site's slopes

Source

Dr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains.
Related Maps Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
خرائط للقضاء توضح حدود القرى والاودية
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Bibliography and References

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Display Name Clan/Hamolah Country of Residence
أبو ياسر هديب -
Haneen Alabsi العبسي Amman
Jamal Abu-Rubieh - mass., usa
ashrafsirbel العيسة طبربور, الاردن
كمال هديب هديب -
انس يوسف حمدان - amman, amman
حجي الحجوج al-zarqa
nabeel ayyash القيسية -
الدكتور أمجد علي محمد سعادة سعادة عمان, الاردن
أبو مالك هديب - الزرقاء
تيسير احمد ابراهيم الغوانمة عمان,
THAER ABU SUBEH abu subeh Amman
نظمي الغوانمة - عمان-القويسمة
يوسف ابوريان ابوريان -
ابراهيم الغوانمه الغوانمه عمان
كمال ابوصبيح ابوصبيح -
رمضان أبوخضره - -
عماد هديب هديب البقعة - الاردن
hatem issa alghawanmeh alqwesmah, jordan
ابو احمد هديب عمان, الاردن
يوسف الزعاترة - -
احمد الحجوج الحجوج -
حجه - الزرقاء, الاردن
fadi gawanmeh gawanmeh amman, jordan
PEACE المشارفة مادبا, الاردن
يوسف طه الحجوج - الزرقاء
ashraf sabateen sabateen تلمسان, الدوايمة
خلدون محمد حسن عشا عشا الزرقاء, الاردن
بشار ابوصبيح ابوصبيح الاردن
ابو علاء العداربه عمان
yousef al hajar السباتين -
جمال قنب قنب الدوايمة
طلب خليل محمد الجواودة الجواودة عمان, الاردن
عيون الاقصى العيسه عمان, الاردن
ابو العوف الدوايمة / عفانة -
الباحث عن أرضه العيسة الخليل, فلسطين
ابراهيم بسام ابراهيم لافي لافي فلسطين, الدوايمة
mMohammad AL-Absi AL-ABSI zarqa, jordan
ايهاب ناصر صباح الدوايمة -
الخطيب - -
الحجر - -
ابو عبد الرحمن - -
SALEM ASHA asha amman, jordan
Mo sarbal - -
diana Sami Abu Sbeih -
Ashraf Hamdan Al-Dawaymeh حمدان وبصبوص Jordan, Jordan
Abu Yazan AL-Adarbeh Qatar, Qatar
Raji Al-Zaatreh Al-Zaatreh istanbul, تركيا
ماهر عبدالدين - -
ايمن رجوب رجوب الخليل, الخليل
اسامه محمد الغوانمه الغوانمه Amman, Jordan
اسامة بصبوص بصبوص الخليل
اكرم العيسة الخليل
صفاء أبو جابر الدوايمة -
الحرة ابوصبيح عمان, الاردن
Dr TAHA الغوانمة عمان, الاردن
yusuf ahmad sirbel سربل البقعه, الاردن
محمد عبد الدين العبدين -
أحمد الدوايمة أبوريان عمان
A. Najajreh - -
جمال محمد عبد الدين عبد الدين م - البقعة, الاردن
بنت فلسطين - -
jamal adarpeh العداربه عمان, الأردن
اشرف الدوايمة هديب amman
war القيسية -
غادة القيسي - الاردن
Moawiya Al Qaisieh Abu Dhabi, UAE
ahmad harb Harb -
حسام ابوزنيد ابوزنيد الشرحة الشرحة -
مقدسي لافي -
بكــــر الدوايـمـــــة بصبوص الزرقاء, الاردن
إحساس مؤلم hamdan -
إبراهيم عشا الدوايمة عشا عمان, الاردن
مصطفى - -
بشير هديب هديب jordan, jordan
مصعب يوسف ابو صبيح Amman
Leen abu hashish amman, jordan
نشوان نشوان عمان
سامي العيسى -
هديب هديب alzarka
mahd asha ohio, usa
(أبوالطيب محمود) أبوصبيح أبوصبيح -
okasha salman -
فداء - -
Iyad Sabateen sabateen Saudi Arabia
abu_hasan ابوصبيح jordan, jordan
Ismail Qaisieh القيسية -
محمد هديب ابو سمية الاردن
ayman Hnaif قيسيسه -
Mansour Al-Qaissirh - -
لين قيسية عمان, الاردن
محمد العيسة العيسة amman, jordan
matrix السباتين مادبا
محمد قنديل العيسة عمان
ابو العسود العسود HEBRON, IDNA
رامي حسين - -
خالد مناصرة - مخيم سوف, الاردن-
Shadi Yousef Moh'd Hameedeh Al Adarbeh Doha, Qatar
omarabedelrahman alabsi alabsi jordan
sara dawaymiyeh amman, amman
ghassan hdieb hdieb hebron/alfawwar, palestine
musa serbel - ohio, united states
dr.muna asha الدوايمة -
m.khalil.issa abu-shalanfeh - ALRIYADH, ALRIYADH
hossam abu sbieh jordan, jordan
abed Lafi lafi -
Mohammed Albsi Alabsi New York, USA
TALAT - RAMMALH
mohammed al ayasah - -
Talent Asha Amman, Jordan
jamil abed al din abed al din Helsinki/ Finland
ahmad afaneh alqtaishat -
Mohammed Al-Aqtash al-Dawayima Madaba, Jordan
yousef almaqousi - amman, jordan
Abu Ahmad Hdieb GA, USA
Falasteen Abu Moilish -
Thabet Al Qaissieh Al Qaissieh Abu DHabi, United Arab Emirates
Nasser ALQissiah - AMMAN, JORDAN
ايات نشوان - -
Rami Gawanmeh Gawanmeh -
Aldwaymeh alayasieh -
جميل الدوايمة المناصرة -
Mohammed Abu-Shalanfeh Le Khudoor New York
AnTaR Al-Absi New York, USA
khaled Abd SALAMA AYYASH AL QAISSIEH FRANCE
hussamuddin al-zaaterah - -
BAKER ABO SHALANFEH dawaimeh amman
Anas Orabi Al-Adarbeh -
i ghawanmeh Ghawanmeh -
struggle unit
Amer Hdaib msallam amman, jordan
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