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Welcome To Hittin - حطين (חיטין)

District of Tiberias
Ethnically cleansed days ago
العربية

Google Earth
Picture for Hittin Village - Palestine: : Before and after the
Gallery (213)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date July 16, 1948
Distance From District 8 (km) Northwest of Tiberias
Elevation 125 (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 #9 on the map

View from satellite
Military Operation Operation Dekel
Attacking Units The terror gangs of Sheva' (Seventh) Brigade
Defenders Local militia & Arab Liberation Army
Refugees' Migration Routes Many of the villagers took refuge in Salama, an area between Dayr Hanna and al-Mughar. Later on, they were mostly ethnically cleansed to Lebanon.
Exodus Cause Military assault by Zionist troops
Village Temains Hittin was mostly destroyed with the exception few deserted houses, the shrine, and the village mosque remain standing.
Ethnically Cleansing Hittin inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 22,086
Jewish 147
Public 531
**Total 22,764
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)* Jewish (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation 1,936 28
Olive Groves 200 0
Planted W/ Cereal 10,439 23
Built up 70 0
Arable 12,375 51
Non-Arable 10,172 96
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
1922 889
1931 931
1945 1,190
1948 1,380
Est. Refugees 1998 8,477
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses
Year Number of Houses
1931 190
1948 281
Near By Townswhat's new
Eilabun
          ↖
al-Wa'ra al-Sawda', Khirbat
↑
(N)
Nimrin  ←
Hittin
→   Tiberias
↓
Lubya
Town's Name Through History The Canaanites referred to Hittin by Siddim or Ziddim, the Israelites called it Kefar Hattin, and the Romans called it Kfar Hittaya.
Schools Hiitin had an elementary school for boys, which was founded in 1897 by the Ottomans.
Places of Warship One mosque (still standing)
Shrines / Maqams A shrine for al-Nabi Shu'ayb. The shrine is still sacred for the Palestinian Druze! If they like it or not, they are still Palestinian Arabs!
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands		 Arbel, Kefar Zetiln, Kefar Chittiln, and Mitzpa.
Featured Video

Village Before Nakba

The village was located on the banks of a small wadi, at the northern foot of Mount Hittin. Historically, the village was strategically and commercially significant because it dominated the Plain of Hittin. The plain opened onto the coastal lowlands of Lake Tiberias, to the east, and to the west was linked to the plains of lower Galilee through mountain passes (see photos). These plains, with their east-west passages, had served as routes for commercial caravans and military invasions throughout the ages. The village may have been built over the Canaanite town of Siddim or Ziddim (Joshua 19:35), which in the third century B.C. acquired the Hebrew name Kefar Hattin ('village of grain'). It was known by the name Kfar Hittaya in the Roman period and served as a rabbinical seat in the fourth century. The Plain of Hittin was the site of the famous battle of Hittin (1187), in which Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi (Saladin) defeated the Crusaders' armies, thereby securing the entire Galilee.

Hittin also was the place where numerous prominent figures in the early Islamic period were born or buried. Their names were linked to the village by a number of early Arab and Muslim geographers and chroniclers, including Yaqut al-Hamawi (d. 1228) and al-Ansari al-Dimashqi (d. 1327), who himself was called the Shaykh of Hittin. Ali al-Dawadari, the writer, Qur'anic exegetist, and calligrapher died in the village in 1302. In 1596, Hittin was a village in the nahiya of Tiberias (liwa' of Safad) with a population of 605. 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 early nineteenth century, the Swiss traveler Burckhardt described it as a small village whose houses were built of stone. In the late nineteenth century, Hittin was circled by fruit and olive trees; the village's 400 residents cultivated part of the surrounding plain.

The modern village layout was triangular in shape. Its streets were level and straight due to the flatness of the site. The village center, located in the northwest, included a small market, an elementary school (established around 1897 under Ottoman rule) and a mosque for the entirely Muslim population. Religious landmarks in the village area included the shrine of the prophet (nabi) Shu'ayb on the southwestern outskirts of Hittin. This shrine was especially sacred to people of the Druze faith, who made a pilgrimage to the site each April. The shrine had several rooms for visitors and a prayer hall that was believed to house the tomb and footprint of the prophet Shu'ayb. A spring near the shrine provided the visitors with drinking water.

The land was well-endowed with good soil and enjoyed plentiful rain and ground water, especially in the northern part of the plain, where there was a group of springs and wells. Combined with the moderate weather, these attributes led to the development of a successful agricultural economy. Most villagers engaged in agriculture, which was based on grain and fruits, including olives. In 1944 a total of 10,253 dunums was planted in cereals; 1,936 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The village was constructed over the archaeological remains of earlier settlements; these remains were scattered throughout the village. There were also a number of khirbas in the vicinity.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

The villagers' first direct experience of the war was on 9 June 1948, when an Israeli attack on nearby Lubya was repulsed just before the beginning of the first truce. Interviewed some twenty-five years later, villagers said that as the Israeli armored unit was retreating eastwards, the militiamen of Hittin opened fire on the vehicles from their positions overlooking the Nazareth-Tiberias highway. After forcing the Israeli unit to retreat further, most of the militiamen returned to the village to join in the funeral procession of one of their fallen comrades. The lookouts who remained at the 'Horns of Hittin'-the two high hills separated by a valley that are a landmark of the ancient battlefield-soon spotted an armored unit accompanied by infantry advancing towards the village from the direction of the Jewish settlement of Mitzpa. One of the participants described the subsequent developments to Palestinian historian Nafez Nazzal: 'We joined our lookouts on the Horns of Hittin. Numerically, we were fewer; however, our positions overlooked theirs... we saw every move they made. As they advanced towards us... we fought them fiercely for more than four hours and forced them to halt. A few of us went down the mountain and dug in behind the rocks; when they opened fire, the Jews thought that they were trapped and decided to retreat.'

The next attack was mounted by the Sheva' (Seventh) Brigade after the first truce ended, during Operation Dekel. Villagers told Nazzal that when Nazareth fell (on 16 July), some twenty-five to thirty Arab Liberation Army soldiers stationed at Hittin began to withdraw. Most villagers left on the night of 16-17 July, taking refuge in Salama, an area between Dayr Hanna and al-Mughar. One of the militiamen who stayed behind later recounted what happened that night:

We remained at the Horns of Hittin until the last minute. We saw the Jewish armoured unit advancing … we were too few and had too limited a supply of ammunition to withstand the attack. … During the first Jewish attack, many of the villagers used up all the ammunition they had. … We retreated to the village and with a few remaining villagers, we fled north.

Shortly after the village was taken, the second truce went into effect. In the next few days, five men returned to assess the possibility of retaking the village, but were fired upon by Israeli soldiers. At least one person managed to return and escort his parents out. The villagers also reported that they remained on the village outskirts for a month, waiting for a chance to return. Eventually, they headed for Lebanon.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

Israel established the settlement of Arbel to the north of the village site in 1949. Kefar Zetim was established one year later, to the northeast. Both are on village land. Kefar Chittim, founded in 1936 to the east of the village, and Mitzpa, founded in 1908 to the east, are close to the village site, but they are not on village land.

Village Today

The site is overgrown with grass, and heaps of stones are scattered across it. Aquatic plants grow in the shallow streams that run past it. The mosque is deserted; its minaret is intact but its arches are crumbling (see photos). Mulberry, fig, and eucalyptus trees, as well as cactuses, grow on the site. The surrounding lands of the plain are cultivated, while the mountainous lands are used as grazing areas. The shrine of al-Nabi Shu'ayb, on the slope of a hill near the village, still stands as a holy place for Druze pilgrims.

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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More Information مخطط البلد
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Bibliography and References

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Osama شبايطة حطين, Lebanon
Khaled Mahmoud Abou-Radi Abou-Radi/Azzam Aarhus, Danmark
Bassam Azzam Azzam Abu Dhabi, UAE
وسيم محمود إبراهيم رباح - Berlin, Berlin
Rayian Nayef (Al Sa3di) - Ontario, Canada/Lebanon
May Chabayta - الرياض
Riad Kayem Kayem -
Hiba Muhanna dahabra syria
kamal azzam - denmark, denmark
محمد حسين أبوسويد ABU SWAID U.A.E SHARJAH
Chabayta Anwar chabayta Denemark, Denemark
حسين رباح رباح Dubai
Taha Mohamad Dahabra Dahabra Abu Dhabi , United Arab Emirates
ابوسامي السبع -
محمود السعدي السعدي -
بسام شعبان شعبان syria
حسين ابوسويد الحطاطنه -
Mazin Chabayta Chabayta United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates
abdallah azzam Azzam texas, USA
abo thaer Abou Sweid Recklinghausen, Germany
Etab AL-Dakka الدقة -
عدي السعدي Al_sadi damascs, syria
buco61 HOURAN Kuwait, Croatia
فادي عوض - دبي, الإمارات
Nadia Azzam - Lebanon
محمد لطفي الدقة الدقة -
Ahmed Horani حوراني دبي, الامارات العريبة المتحدة
سامي السعدي syria
Eyad Al Saadi - UAE
reem azzam azzam kuwait
badreyeh muammer -
Kamal Chabayta Chabayta GA, U.S.A
mohamed al imam AL IMAM abo dabi, abo dabi
Dana Azzam Azzam UAE- Abu Dhabi, UAE- Abu Dhabi
khazna El-khatib El-khatib Gothenborg, Sweden
bilal abdulhadi elsaadi gothenburg, sweden
nora abdulhadi elsaadi gothenburg, sweden
rania elsaadi elsaadi gothenburg, sweden
bisan abdulhadi elsaadi gothenburg, sweden
bassam abdulhadi alsaadi gothenborg, sweden
Ali - Sweden, sweden
BlinKy Elimam Gothenburg, Sweden
Lara Eliasson El-Imam Malmö, Sweden
Nimer nimer Gothenborg, Sweden
Tarek El-Saadi Sweden, gotenborg
Abdulrauof El imam El imam Sweden, Sweden
chadi EL SAADI - RIYADH
Raed El Imam El Imam Gothenburg, Sweden
Wafia Mahmod Al Kateib AL-KATEIB Saida, LEBANON
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Rabah Rabah Rabah U.A.E, U.A.E
Mohamad Rabah Rabah Dubai, UAE
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Abo AL Abed Dahabrah Damascus, SYRIA
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