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Welcome To al-Shajara - الشجرة (אלשַגַ'רָה)

District of Tiberias
Ethnically cleansed days ago
العربية

Google Earth
Picture for al-Shajara Village - Palestine: : قرية الشجرة المهجرة قضاء طبرية عام 1930
 Gallery (97)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date May 6, 1948
Distance From District 14 (km) West of Tiberias
Elevation 250 (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 #15 on the map

View from satellite
Attacking Units Units from the Golani Brigade
Defenders Arab Liberation Army and local Palestinian militia.
Exodus Cause Military assault by Zionist troops
Village Temains al-Shajara was completely obliterated, and only house rubble left behind.
Ethnically Cleansing al-Shajara inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 2,757
Jewish 61
Public 936
**Total 3,754
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)* Jewish (Dunum)*
Olive Groves 700 0
Planted W/ Cereal 2,114 28
Built up 100 0
Arable 2,658 61
Non-Arable 935 0
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
1596 396
19th century 150
1922 543
1931 584
1945 770
1948 893
Est. Refugees 1998 5,485
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses
Year Number of Houses
1931 124
1948 189
Near By Townswhat's new
Tur'an
          ↖
Tur'an
↑
(N)
Lubya
↗        
Kafr Kanna  ←
al-Shajara
→   Kafr Sabt
↓
Zionist Colonies
Town's Name Through History The Crusades referred to al-Shajara by Seiera.
Schools al-Shajara had an elementary school for boys which was founded during the British Mandate period.
Town's Notable People Although the great Palestinian poet Abed al-Raheem Mahmoud was born in 'Anabta (Tulkarm district in the occupied West Bank), he was killed by the Israelis during one of the counter attacks launched to recapture the village by the ALA on July 13th, 1948. He was later buried in Nazareth, Palestine.
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands		 Naniyya, Sde Nan, and the agricultural station of Chawwat ha-Shomer.
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Village Before Nakba

The village was located on the eastern slope of a moderately elevated hill. A broad wadi ran north to south along its eastern perimeter. AI-Shajara was located on a highway that led to Tiberias, in the northwest, and Nazareth, in the southeast. Its name, al-Shajara, meant 'the tree' in Arabic. It was known as Seiera during Crusader times. In 1596, al-Shajara was a village in the nahiya of Tiberias (liwa' of Safad) with a population of 396. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, olives, fruits, and cotton. Taxes were also paid on other types of property, such as goats, beehives, orchards, and a press that was used for processing either olives or grapes. [[Hut. and Abd.:190]] The Swiss traveler Burckhardt noted in 1812 that the plain around the village was covered with wild artichoke. [[Burckhardt 1822:333]] In the late nineteenth century, al-Shajara was a stone-built village and had about 150 residents. The village was surrounded by arable land on which there were fig and olive trees, and there was a spring to the south. [[SWP (1881) I:361]]

Al-Shajara was the fourth largest village in the Tiberias district in terms of area. The majority of its houses were clustered together in the northeastern part of the site, with most of the others scattered throughout the western part. Woodlands and fields of wild grass covered the foothills facing the village in the south. Of the 770 people in al-Shajara, 720 were Muslims and 50 were Christians. The village had an elementary school that was established during the British Mandate.

The villagers relied on agriculture for their living. In 1944/45 they allocated a total of 2,102 dunums to cereals; 544 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Al-Shajara was an archaeological site that contained remains such as the foundations of a church, inscriptions carved in stone, and tombs hewn from the rock. Two khirbas lay nearby, one to the northeast and the other to the southwest; they contained ruins, cisterns, and burial grounds.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

In mid-February 1948, as a battle flared between Arab and Haganah forces in the Baysan Valley, the Haganah forces carried out a diversionary attack on al-Shajara. The Palestinian newspaper Filastin wrote that after midnight on 17 February, a Haganah unit infiltrated into the village and blew up two houses. (An official British communiqué said that the destroyed houses were deserted.) [[F:19/2/48]]

The village was captured on 6 May 1948 in the aftermath of the fall of Tiberias and as a prelude to the attack on Baysan. The attack was part of a Haganah effort to consolidate its hold on lower Galilee before 15 May. Units of the Golani Brigade (mainly the Twelfth or Barak Battalion) struck at dawn and took the village after a 'powerful attack,' according to the History of the Haganah. An unspecified number of villagers were killed during the attack; the Haganah account states that the village's 'inhabitants fled leaving their dead behind.' A New York Times story said that the bodies of twenty Arabs were found after the Haganah overran the village. Meanwhile, another Haganah unit surrounded the neighboring village of Lubya to prevent reinforcements from arriving to aid the villagers. Later that morning, at 8:00 A.M., local Arab forces launched a counterattack from the direction of Kafr Kanna and Tur'ana. The battle lasted the whole day, but by nightfall, al-Shajara remained in the hands of Haganah forces, according to the History of the Haganah. [[NYT:7/5/48; S:1419, 1584]]

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

There are no Israeli settlements on village lands, but a number of settlements are quite close to the village site. Zionists established the settlement of Sejera in 1902, to the northeast of the village. Its name was taken directly from that of al-Shajara. The settlers later changed its name to Ilaniyya (188240), from the Hebrew ilan ('tree'), a translation of the name of the Arab village. Kibbutz Sde Ilan (190239) was established east of the agricultural lands of the village in 1949. The agricultural station of Chawwat ha-Shomer (188240), established in 1956, was not on village lands but was very close to the site. [[List of Localities 1975:38-39]] It no longer appears to be inhabited.
The Village Today

Village Today

The ruins of houses and broken steel bars protrude from beds of wild vegetation. One side of an arched doorway still stands. The western part of the site and the nearby hill are covered with cactus. Cattle barns belonging to the nearby settlement of Ilaniyya stand on the southern and eastern sides of the site. On the northern edge is a wide, deep well with a spiral stairway inside (used for periodic cleaning and maintenance of the well). Fig, doum-palm, and chinaberry trees grow in the area.

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
Shahd M Awad الخطباء saida, lebanon
سعيد فالح بكارنة بكارنة -
amal hayatleh yassine hayatleh -
سمر سلايمه سلايمه -
Bilal Yassine Yassine England, UK
ليلى بكارنة -
سامح بكر بكر -
Muna Salaymeh Michgan, USA
علاء بكارنة بكارنة -
مجدي - -
amjad bakr bakr -
عمر بكارنة -
فلسطيننا الخطبا حلب مخيم النيرب, سوريا
عدي محمد عارف تيّم تيّم سوريا, سوريا
آية عبد الرحمن تيّم تيّم فلسطين, جنين
منال يوسف تيّم أحمد فلسطين, جنين
سارة عبد الرحمن تيّم تيّم فلسطين, جنين
Ula Hayatleh Hayatleh damascus, syria
منال احمد تيّم - جنين
Ziyad Hayatli Hayatli Oxford, United Kingdom
عائشة تيم - دمشق, سوريا
عبدالله درويش - الرياض, السعودية
عمر سلايمه سلايمه Canada
عبدالله بدران بدران دمشق
عدنان سلايمة -
منال - -
Douha Shagara -
mudar salaymeh syria, syria
Dr.Alaa Yassin Salaymeh Damascus, Syria
Alaa Yassin Salaymeh Damascus, Syria
Dr Mohamad Omar بكر الرياض, السعودية
ابراهيم سلايمة Salaima UAE, UAE
mohamad hayatleh HAYATLEH homs
عبدالرحمن تيّم جنين
عواطف تيم تيم ليبيا
طارق سلايمه سلايمة دمشق, سوريا
قتيبة الخطبا dara,a&. Damascuse
أبو طارق سلايمة حمص, سوريا
thaer الشجرة yarmouk, yarmouk
د. سليمان مهنا دحابرة Damascus, SYRIA
Mousa Diabat Diabat -
عاشقة تراب الوطن - كفركنا
Khaled Hayatleh Hayatleh Damascuss, Syria
haytool - -
ala'a Hayatleh Hayatleh damascuse, Syria
Lubna Hayatleh Hayatleh damascuse, Syria
Hosam Alkhateb Alkhteeb Syria, Syria
Mar'ie Diabat Diabat -
muhammad shora shora florence, italy
Manal Hayatleh Hayatleh damascus, syria
Sa'id Diabat Tura'an, israel
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Shadi Diab Diab -
Kassem Darwish - Damas, Syria
Bassam Diab Diab Germany, Germany
Ahmad Yassine Yassine/Hayatli London, United Kingdom
Akram Al-Ali Al-Ali Seattle, USA
Winblore Diab NY, USA
Hazem Hayatli Hayatli Exeter, UK
salaymah salaymah holland, holland
basil al khatib syria
tamersalaima ALSHAGARA grenoble, France
Murhaf Diab Diab Dubai, UAE
muhannad hayatleh hayatleh OXFORD, ENGLAND
الوحدات صباح فلسطين, قفين
Yasser Hayatli Hayatli oxford, england
IYAD HAYATLEH HAYATLEH sscotland
Hussam Hayatleh Hayatleh oxford, england
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reed rayes salaymeh homs, syria
loai haiatlh - -
loai haiatlh - -
mahmud alsahli ALSAHLI DAMASCUS, SYRIA
monther khouri- saajrawi khouri sajrawi Catalonea, Spain
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