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Welcome To Hunin - هونين (הונין)

District of Safad
Ethnically cleansed days ago
العربية

Google Earth
Picture for Hunin Village - Palestine: : Let us tour Hunin's school which was used by the Iraqi & Yemenite Jewish settlers of Margaliyyot until 1975 - مدرسة قرية هونين ألمهجرة قضاء صفد وحتى سنة 1975 تقريبا كان يتعلم فيها يهود مستوطنة مرجليوت -- May 2021 -- Nabela Salem
 Gallery (107)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date May 3, 1948
Distance From District 28.5 (km) North East of Safad
Elevation 650 (meters)
Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Detailswhat's new
Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction
Map Location See location #8 on the map

View from satellite
Military Operation Operation Yiftach (commanded by the ethnic cleansing champion Yigal Allon)
Attacking Units The Palmach's First Battalion
Defenders Local Palestinian militia
Acts of Terror Massacre occured by Zionist troops against the town's inhabitants.
Exodus Cause Fear of Jewish attack, or of being caught in the fighting
Village Temains The village has been mostly destroyed with the exception of the boys elementary school
Ethnically Cleansing Hunin inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 13,623
Jewish 486
Public 115
**Total 14,224
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)* Jewish (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation 859 19
Olive Groves 152 0
Planted W/ Cereal 6,092 290
Built up 81 0
Arable 6,951 309
Non-Arable 6,706 177
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
1931 1,075
1945 1,620
1948 1,879
Est. Refugees 1998 11,540
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Near By Townswhat's new
Lebanon
↑
(N)
Abil al-Qamh
↗        
Lebanon  ←
Hunin
→   al-Khalisa
↓
al-Manara
Schools One elementary school for boys (still standing, but it needs renovations guys)
Places of Warship One mosque
Archeological Sites The village contained a Crusaders castle called Chastel Neuf
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands		 Misgav 'Am and Margaliyyot (settled by Iraqi and Yamani Arab Jews)

Village Before Nakba

The village was situated on Mount 'Amil on the edge of a slope that overlooked the northern section of the al-Hula Plain. Hunin was very close to the Lebanese border and was part of Lebanon until 1923, when the Lebanese-Palestinian border was delineated by Britain and France. It had two springs and a reservoir on the southwestern edge of the site. The Crusaders built the castle of Chastel Neuf at Hunin in 1179. The Arab traveler Ibn Jubayr, who passed through the area in about 1183, described it as a fortress which still belonged to the Franks. [[Cited in Le Strange 1965:418]] The defenders of the castle surrendered to Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi (Saladin) toward the end of 1187. However, the Crusaders reoccupied it in 1240, and were driven out for the last time by the Mamluk sultan Baybars in 1266. Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1228) mentioned Hunin as a village in the mountains of 'Amila (Mount 'Amil) overlooking al-Hula. [[Mu'jam, cited in D 6/ 2:231]] The site was also described by al-Dimashqi (d. 1327) as 'the castle of Hunin' which, he said, was an administrative center with villages under its jurisdiction. [[Nukhbat, cited in D 6/2:231]] .

In the late nineteenth century, travelers described Hunin as a stone-built village joined to a ruined Crusaders' castle. The village, which stood on a low ridge, had about 100 (predominantly Muslim) residents. Although the hills surrounding the village were uncultivated, there was farmland in the valleys below it. [[SWP (1881) I:87]] Hunin had a mosque and an elementary school for boys. Agriculture was the mainstay of its economy; in the 1944/45 season, a total of 5,987 dunums was allocated to cereals, and 859 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

Like almost all of the villages in the Galilee panhandle, Hunin was occupied in the course of Operation Yiftach (see Abil al-Qamh, Safad sub-district), which was implemented in April-May 1948. An Israeli military intelligence report later stated that Hunin was evacuated by its residents on 3 May. By that time, Zionist forces had not yet reached the village, and a Palmach report claimed that Arab forces ordered the villagers of Hunin to leave by 14 May. These reports are not consistent with the recollections of eyewitnesses interviewed twenty-five years later. People from the nearby village of al-Khalisa (2.5 km to the southeast) recalled that, on the morning that Safad fell (11 May), they decided to evacuate women and children to Hunin. When al-Khalisa was captured a few days later, its village militia also retreated temporarily to Hunin. Al-Khalisa's militia probably moved on to Lebanon a few days later, along with the people of Hunin itself.

While discrepancies exist regarding the timing of this evacuation, there is broad agreement on the general picture. The commander of Operation Yiftach, Palmach chief Yigal Allon, wrote later: 'We regarded it as imperative to cleanse the interior of the Galilee and create Jewish territorial continuity in the whole of Upper Galilee.' This was achieved partly by direct attack and partly by using a campaign of psychological warfare.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

The settlement of Misgav 'Am (201294) was established in 1945 on the northern part of the village lands. Jewish immigrants from Iraq and Yemen established the settlement of Margaliyyot (201291) on village land in 1951, just south of the village site.

Village Today

The cemetery, the elementary school, and the castle built by the Crusaders remain. The castle is a tourist attraction, and the school is used by Israelis as an agricultural warehouse. The lands in the vicinity are cultivated by the settlers.

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
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Bibliography and References

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

Display Name Clan/Hamolah Country of Residence
abir klait - hounin
Ahmad Chahrour Chahrour Germany
ABURABIEH BERJAOUI BERJAOUI CARABOBO, VENEZUELA
Sami Kleit Kleit -
البطل ممحمد فالح صباح عوريف, عوريف
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