Welcome To al-Zanghariyya - زحلق (الزنغرية) (א-זנע'ריה)

District of Safad Ethnically cleansed days ago	العربية Google Earth
	Gallery (10)

Statistic & Fact

Value

Occupation Date

May 4, 1948

Distance From District

8.5 (km) South East of Safad

Elevation

250 (meters)

Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Details

Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction

Map Location

See location #69 on the map

View from satellite

Military Operation

Operation Matate (Broom) part of Operation Yiftach

Attacking Units

Some unknown brigade from the Haganah

Refugees' Migration Routes

Refugees fled eastwards into Syria.

Exodus Cause

Expulsion by Zionist troops

Village Temains

The village has been burned and destroyed on the 17th of June 1948.

Ethnically Cleansing

al-Zanghariyya inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.

Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership

Ethnic Group	Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab	27,856
Jewish	0
Public	62
**Total	27,918

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

Land Usage
As of 1945

Land Usage	Arab (Dunum)*
Planted W/ Cereal	7,265
Arable	7,265
Non-Arable	20,653

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Population

Year	Population*
1922	374
1931	526
1945	840
1948	974
Est. Refugees 1998	5,984

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Number of Houses

Year	Number of Houses
1931	97
1948	179

Town's Name Through History

The village was named after the 'Arab al-Zanghariyya Bedouin tribe, who first used the village as a camping ground and then gradually settled on village lands.

Nearby Wadies & Rivers

The village was situated close to Wadi al-Ghara.

Water Supply

Wadi al-Ghara supplied the village with several springs

Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands

Elifelet and the private farm of Kare Deshe

Village Before Nakba

The village was situated in a hollow in the side of a wide hill that gently sloped eastward. It faced the Golan Heights and overlooked the Jordan Valley. Several springs were present to the northwest, along Wadi al-Ghara. AI-Zanghariyya was linked via a dirt road to the Safad-Tiberias highway. It was named after the 'Arab al-Zanghariyya Bedouin tribe, who first used the site as a camping ground and then gradually settled there. The alternative name, Zuhluq (meaning "to slide" in Arabic), may have been given to the village because the slope on which it was located was subject to land slides. AI-Zanghariyya's houses, made of mud and stone, were divided into two groups: one to the east (known as Zanghariyya al-Sharqiyya) and one to the west (Zanghariyya al-Gharbiyya); these groups lay about 300-400 yards apart. Its population was predominantly Muslim.

The lands around the village served mainly as pasture, although parts were planted in crops that were watered by both rainfall and irrigation. The villagers grew grain, fruit, and onions and also raised water buffalo and cattle. In 1944/45 a total of 7,265 dunums was allocated to cereals. Herdsmen from 'Arab al-Zanghariyya grazed their animals on adjacent pastures, alternating between the Jordan Valley in the winter and the eastern slopes of the Galilee Mountains in the summer. Fishing in Lake Tiberias and the Jordan also constituted an important activity for a segment of the population. AI-Zanghariyya contained evidence of earlier habitation, including building foundations and an enclosure built of basaltic stone.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

Operation Matate (Broom) was a Haganah offensive launched on 4 May 1948 in the course of Operation Yiftach (see Abil al-Qamh, Safad sub-disctrict). The goal of this offensive was to 'clear' an area east of Safad close to the Jordan River. The orders given to Palmach company commanders before the sub-operation stated specifically that the villages of al-Zanghariyya, al-Tabigha, and 'Arab al-Shamalina should be attacked, 'their inhabitants expelled and the [ir] houses blown up.' According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, the orders added that 'friendly Arabs' should not be harmed. Morris states that, as the Palmach columns approached these villages, the residents fled eastwards into Syria; the following day, sappers methodically blew up over fifty houses in al-Zanghariyya and the other villages. A cable sent by the Arab Liberation Army commander to the High Command in Syria confirms that al-Zanghariyya was occupied on 4 May, and adds that the occupation of the village was followed by an attack on Safad.

The New York Times wrote: 'In this operation [Operation Broom] Israeli forces have spread confusion among Arab populations of Galilee towns and sent Arab civilians scurrying for the borders of Syria and Lebanon.' Syrian authorities told the British that this thrust alone created a further 2,000 refugees. One week into the first truce of the war, on 17 June, the New York Times quoted Syrian officials who asserted that Israeli forces had broken the cease-fire by setting al-Zanghariyya on fire, possibly completing the destruction of the village.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

Israel established the settlement of Elifelet (201261) on village lands west of the village site in 1949. The private farm of Kare Deshe (201252), founded in 1954, is about 8 km to the southwest. An Israeli gazetteer mentions the settlement of Pedahe'el (205262) and says that its original name was Zangariya Bet. However, there is no other information available about this settlement, and it may have been abandoned during the 1950s. [[M:xx; P:313]]

Village Today

All that is left are blocks of basalt that once had been parts of twelve houses (see photos section). Although the houses have been demolished, some of their walls are still standing. Near the remnants of the village houses are stone barriers that form parts of livestock enclosures. The area serves as pasture for the cattle of the nearby Israeli farm, Kare Deshe, to the southwest.

Source

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

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

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الملاك الأخير	الزنغري	Dar3a, Syria
زنغري من سوريا	-	المانيا
hussein	alzangaria	-
ashraf	-	]lar
Midhat Ali	-	-

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الذاكرة مفتاح العودة - الحلقة 1- قرية زحلق الزنغرية Duration: 23 min 22 sec

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