Madahil Explained

Madahil
Native Name:مداحل
Native Name Lang:ar
Settlement Type:Village
Pushpin Map:Mandatory Palestine
Pushpin Mapsize:200
Coordinates:33.205°N 35.6417°W
Grid Name:Palestine grid
Grid Position:210/290
Subdivision Type:Geopolitical entity
Subdivision Name:Mandatory Palestine
Subdivision Type1:Subdistrict
Subdivision Name1:Safad
Established Title1:Date of depopulation
Established Date1:April 30, 1948[1]
Established Title2:Repopulated dates
Blank Name Sec1:Cause(s) of depopulation
Blank Info Sec1:Fear of being caught up in the fighting

Madahil (Arabic: مداحل ) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 30, 1948, by the Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach. It was located 30 km northeast of Safad in a flat area on the northeastern edge of the al-Hula Plain, about 1 km east of Wadi Banyas.

History

Madahil was located just south of a small mound named Tall al-Turmus, which has provided evidence of a settlement dating to the fourth millennium B.C.[2]

In the 1931 census of Palestine the population of Madahil was 100, all Muslims, in a total of 17 houses.[3]

During the 1948 war, the evacuation occurred before the Zionist assault on Safad on 10 to 11 May.[2] According to Morris, based on Haganah-sources, the villagers feared reprisals or feared being caught in a cross-fire after local Jewish communities had been attacked. Therefore, the villagers of Madahil (together with those of Khiyam al-Walid, Al-Hamra', Ghuraba, and (partially) Al-Muftakhira) fled.[4] However the American historian Rosemarie Esber gives as depopulation cause "Attack or atrocity in neighboring village or community" and "Fear of impending attack, or fall of neighboring town or village."[5] The Israeli settlement of Kefar Szold, founded in 1942, is located 1.5 km southeast of the village site, but not on village land.[2]

The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the village in 1992: "There are no traces of any village structures. The site is covered with grass, cane, and cactuses. The surrounding land is cultivated by the settlement of Kefar Szold."[2]

References

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #11. Also gives cause of depopupaltion
  2. Khalidi, 1992, p. 470
  3. Mills, 1932, p. 108
  4. Morris, 2004, pp. 249, 302
  5. Esber, 2008, p. 391