Arab al-Fuqara

Arab al-Fuqara (Arabic: عرب الفقراء) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Haifa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 10, 1948.[2] At that time, the land records of the village consisted of a total area of 2,714 dunams, of which 2,513 were owned by Jews, 15 owned by Arabs, and the remaining 186 dunams being public lands.

Arab al-Fuqara

عرب الفقراء/الشيخ حلو
Etymology: Sheikh Helu, p.n[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Arab al-Fuqara (click the buttons)
Arab al-Fuqara
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°27′08″N 34°54′21″E
Palestine grid140/206
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictHaifa
Date of depopulationApril 10, 1948[2]
Area
 • Total15 dunams (1.5 ha or 4 acres)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total310[4][5]
Cause(s) of depopulationExpulsion by Yishuv forces
Current LocalitiesHadera[6]

Location

The village was located 42 km southwest of Haifa, south of Wadi al-Mafjar and northwest of Hadera, in a flat, sandy area.[6]

History
"El Fuqara" land noted in 1932 in the Survey of Palestine, N-W of Hadera

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described a local Mukam Sheikh Helu here, and noted a few adobe houses near, which were not noticed in the official [Government] lists.[7]

British Mandate era

The Arab villagers were descendants of a section of the al-Balawina Bedouin tribe, whose primary territory was near Beersheba.[6] The area was generally swampy and malarial, and this limited population growth until the mid-1920s.

The gradual and legal expansion of the Jewish town Hadera reduced the free public land available to the Arab villagers, until only a thin strip of land between Hadera and Wadi al-Mafjar was retained (15 dunams),[6] where the land was considered non-cultivable.[8]

The village population in the 1945 statistics was 310, all Muslims.[4][5]

1948 and aftermath

On 6 April 1948, the Haganah implemented a new policy for the coastal plains, namely of clearing the whole area of its Arab inhabitants.[9] On 10 April, the villagers of Arab al-Fuqara, together with the villagers of Arab al-Nufay'at and Arab Zahrat al-Dumayri, were ordered to leave the area.[10]

Following the 1948 war, the area was incorporated into the State of Israel and the village's land is now part of the northwestern area of Hadera.[6]

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 141
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #180. Also gives cause of depopulation
  3. Hadawi, 1970, total area of 2,714 dunams was divided as Arab owned 15 dunams, Jewish owned 2513 dunams, public 186 dunams
  4. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 13
  5. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 47
  6. Khalidi, 1992, p.144
  7. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 4
  8. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 139
  9. Morris, 2004, p. 245, note 628
  10. Morris, 2004, p. 245, note 631

Bibliography
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