Al-Sindiyana

Al-Sindiyana (Arabic: السنديانة‎, Es Sindiyâna) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Haifa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 12, 1948. It was located 29 km south of Haifa.

This article is about a depopulated Palestinian village. For the Syrian village, see al-Sindiyana, Syria.
Al-Sindiyana

السنديانة

Sindiyana, Sindianeh
Village
Etymology: "the evergreen oak"[1][2]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Sindiyana (click the buttons)
Al-Sindiyana
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°33′31″N 35°0′2″E
Palestine grid150/218
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictHaifa
Date of depopulationMay 12–14, 1948[3]
Area
 • Total15,172 dunams (15.172 km2 or 5.858 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total1,250[4]
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces
Current LocalitiesAviel[5]

History

Ottoman era

On 16 March 1799, during the Ottoman era, Napoleon had a battle here just north of the village.[6]

In 1859, the population was estimated to be 300, who cultivated 22 feddans of land.[7]

Victor Guérin visited the village in 1863. Transcribing its name as Sendianeh, he notes there are 400 inhabitants and that its name must derive from the Arabic word sendian, meaning "evergreen oak", as these abound on the hills flanking the village.[8]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Sindianeh as a "village of moderate size on high ground, with a spring below it, and a cave; it was here that the tunnel of the Cæsarea aqueduct is said to have broken into by women digging for clay".[7]

A population list from about 1887 showed that Al-Sindiyana had about 520 inhabitants; all Muslims.[9]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Al Sendianeh had a population of 576; all Muslims,[10] increasing in the 1931 census to 923; 922 Muslim and 1 Jew, in a total of 217 houses.[11]

Al-Sindiyana had an elementary school for boys, which by 1942-1943 had 200 students. The village had several wells and springs.[12]

In the 1945 statistics it had a population of 1,250 Muslims,[4] with a total of 15,172 dunams of land.[13] Of this, a total of 8,177 dunums of land was allocated to cereals; 225 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards,[14] while 24 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[15]

  • Al-Sindiyana 1942 1:20,000
  • Al-Sindiyana 1945 1:250,000
  • Children from Al-Sindiyana and Meir Shfeya (Jewish youth village) playing together, 1931

Post 1948

In 1992 the village site was described: "The site is fenced in with barbed wire. Scattered piles of stones, the debris of destroyed houses, are visible among thorns, cactuses and fig, olive, and palm trees. The surrounding lands are used by Israelis as a grazing area."[5]

References
  1. Khatib et al., 2003, p. 119.
  2. Quercus coccifera, according to Palmer, 1881, p. 153
  3. Morris, 2004, xviii, village #160
  4. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 15
  5. Khalidi, 1992, p. 193.
  6. van de Velde, 1854, vol 1, p. 344
  7. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 43
  8. Guérin, 1875, p. 342.
  9. Schumacher, 1888, p. 179
  10. Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p.34
  11. Mills, 1932, p. 96
  12. Khalidi, 1992, p. 192
  13. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 49
  14. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 92
  15. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 142

Bibliography
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.