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Welcome To al-Wa'ra al-Sawda', Khirbat - خربة الوعرة السوداء (ח ירבת אל-וערה א-סודא)

District of Tiberias
Ethnically cleansed days ago
العربية

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Picture for al-Wa'ra al-Sawda', Khirbat Village - Palestine: : جولة بين انقاض البيوت المدمرة وحواكير القرية المهجرة -- نبيلة سالم .
 Gallery (91)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date April 18, 1948
Distance From District 7.5 (km) Northeast of Tiberias
Elevation 25 (meters)
Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Detailswhat's new
Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction
Map Location See location #6 on the map

View from satellite
Military Operation Possibly Operation Dekal
Acts of Terror Little unknown massacre committed while the village was being occupied. Fifteen plus villagers were rounded up and shot dead. Some villagers who survived the massacre, lived to talk about it in Syria. Further details about this little massacre are missing, so please be free to share any information you may know about it.
Refugees' Migration Routes Some of 'Arab al-Mawasi escaped to Syria and some stayed behind in the inner Galilee.
Exodus Cause Expulsion by Zionist troops
Village Temains The village was completely obliterated
Ethnically Cleansing al-Wa'ra al-Sawda', Khirbat inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.
Clans The villagers belonged mainly to the 'Arab al-Mawasi clan, but some families were of the 'Arab Wuhayb
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 7,036
Jewish 7
Public 0
**Total 7,036
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)*
Planted W/ Cereal 2,027
Built up 10
Arable 2,027
Non-Arable 4,999
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
1931 1,060
1945 1,870
1948 2,169
Est. Refugees 1998 13,321
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses In (1931): 190 (161 'Arab al-Mawasi, 29 Arab al-Wuhayb)
Shrines / Maqams Two shrines: the 1st was for al-Shaykh 'Umar and 2nd was for al-Shaykh Musa al-Qadhim.
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands		 Ravid and Arbel
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Village Before Nakba

The village stood on a small plateau of volcanic rock, overlooking Wadi al-Hamam and Lake Tiberias. Classified by the Palestine Index Gazetteer as a hamlet, it was linked by a secondary road to a highway that ran along the lake shore to Tiberias. A dirt road linked it to the village of Hittin in the southwest. The village houses were grouped in an irregular pattern around the intersection of these two roads. The villagers belonged mainly to the 'Arab al-Mawasi clan, but some families were of the 'Arab Wuhayb. Their stone houses were surrounded by the tents of the Bedouin who had not constructed permanent housing. All of the villagers were Muslim. Two shrines that were dedicated to local shaykhs-'Umar and Musa al-Qadhim-were located in a khirba on the northern outskirts of the village. Villagers performed religious ceremonies at the latter shrine. Agriculture was the mainstay of the village economy; olive trees were planted in the northern parts of the land, and grain was grown in the bed of Wadi al-Hamam. In 1944/45 a total of 2,027 dunums was allotted to cereals. There were a few archaeological sites near the village, including two khirbas that contained building foundations, stone cairns, cisterns, a cave, a well, and a trough hewn in rock.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

No accounts of the occupation of this village have been published. Judging from its location, two scenarios are possible. The first is that it was captured in the wake of the fall of Tiberias on 18 April 1948. After occupying the city, Haganah forces struck at a few of the villages in the area to consolidate their hold on Tiberias and drive out the inhabitants of its hinterland. Khirbat al-Wa'ra al-Sawda' may have been one of these villages. The second possibility is that it was captured in the course of Operation Dekel (see 'Amqa, Acre sub-disctrict), as the forces that had occupied Nazareth advanced eastwards in the direction of Tiberias. If so, it probably came under occupation in mid-July, along with nearby Hittin, shortly before the second truce of the war. [[see M:70-73, 203]]

There is an oral report of a massacre of 'Arab al-Mawasi villagers that took place in late October or early November 1948, following the second truce of the war. According to villagers, Jewish soldiers rounded up 15 men, took them to the nearby village of Eilabun, and shot them. Two men survived, but pretended to be dead, as the soldiers had retreated only a short distance. After some minutes wait, the soldiers returned and shot each of the bodies again, this time in the head. Fourteen villagers died and were buried in a nearby cave. The only survivor escaped to Syria, along with other 'Arab al-Mawasi. Some others joined tribes in the inner Galilee.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

The settlement of Ravid (193250) is 3 km west of the village site but is not on village lands. Arbel (196246), built in 1949, is about 2 km southeast of the site on the village lands of Hittin.

Village Today

No traces of the houses remain. Stone terraces provide the only indication of a former village on the site. The site and the lands around it are used largely as grazing areas, although some of the lands are cultivated by Israelis.

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
View from satellite
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Bibliography and References

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Display Name Clan/Hamolah Country of Residence
منير صالح جبر المواسى HEERHUGOWAARD, Nederland
قصي عوض عرب المواسى -
الامير ناجي العويمر المواسي -
قتيبة عوض عرب المواسى -
mohd kasem almesawe syria, syria
ابو محمد المواسي - -
أبو مرعي المواسى دمشق, سوريا
خليلية خليلية جبع
fadi abbas - -
Assad Elabbasa almawasi -
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