Tamra (, or ) is an

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

in the North District of Israel located in the

Lower Galilee The Lower Galilee (; ) is a region within the Northern District of Israel. The Lower Galilee is bordered by the Jezreel Valley to the south; the Upper Galilee to the north, from which it is separated by the Beit HaKerem Valley; the Jordan Rift ...

north of the city of

Shefa-Amr Shefa-Amr or Shefar'am (; ) is an Arab citizens of Israel, Arab city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. In it had a population of with a Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslim majority and large Arab Christians, Christian Arab an ...

and approximately east of

Acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

. In it had a population of . As of May, 2025, the population was 36,832 people, of those 11,264 children, 2,470 senior citizens and 23,098 in the category of working age. The population is almost entirely Arab and Muslim.

History

Tamra is an ancient village on a hill. Old squared stone blocks have been reused in village homes.

Cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

s and tombs carved into rock have also been found here. Tamra has been identified with Kefar Tamartha, a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

village mentioned in the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

as the home of 3rd century amora Rabbi

Shila of Kefar Tamarta Rabbi Shila of Kefar Tamarta () was a Jewish Talmudist from the Land of Israel, who lived in the 3rd century (third generation of amoraim). In the Jerusalem Talmud he is usually called by his personal name, but in the Babylonian Talmud the name ...

. On a hill 3 km west of Tamra's historical core lies a ruin called in Arabic Khirbet et-Tira ("ruin of the castle") and in Hebrew Horbat Tirat Tamra ("Tamra castle ruin"), which has been studied by European and Israeli archaeologists since the 19th century. The site is dated through its finds to the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Medieval periods. The site is bisected by Highway 70 and is covered the modern city's agricultural lands. A church constructed in Tamra during the Byzantine era remained active through the Umayyad and Abbasid periods before it was finally abandoned. An inscription using the hijra calendar discovered on the church's floor can be dated to AD 725.

Crusader period

In the 1253, during the Crusader period,

John Aleman John Aleman (died after 1264) was the Lord of Caesarea (as John II) in the Crusader states, Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, exercising this right through his wife, Margaret of Caesarea from at least 1243 until his death. John was active politically a ...

Lord of Caesarea The Kingdom of Jerusalem, one of the Crusader states that was created in 1099, was divided into a number of smaller Manorialism, seigneuries. According to the 13th-century jurist John of Ibelin (jurist), John of Ibelin, the four highest crown va ...

, sold several villages, including Tamra, to the

Hospitallers The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there ...

. In 1283 it was mentioned as part of the domain of the Crusaders, according to the ''

hudna A ''hudna'' (from the Arabic meaning "calm" or "quiet") is a truce or armistice. It is sometimes translated as " cease-fire". In his medieval dictionary of classical Arabic, the '' Lisan al-Arab'', Ibn Manzur defined it as: : "''hadana'': he ...

'' (temporary

truce A ceasefire (also known as a truce), also spelled cease-fire (the antonym of 'open fire'), is a stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions often due to mediation by a third party. Ceasefires may b ...

) between the Crusaders in

and the

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

sultan

Qalawun (, – November 10, 1290) was the seventh Turkic Bahri Mamluk sultan of Egypt; he ruled from 1279 to 1290. He was called (, "Qalāwūn the Victorious"). After having risen in power in the Mamluk court and elite circles, Qalawun eventually hel ...

. Scholars have suggested that Khirbet et-Tira may be the site of ''Tatura'', a Crusader period settlement belonging to the

Templar order The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a military order of the Catholic faith, and one of the most important military orders in Western Christianity. They were founded in 11 ...

. The name of the ruin might be a corruption of the Arabic toponym "Turat Tamra", from the same period. Excavation at the site revealed remains of Crusader structures destroyed by fire in the 13th century.

Mamluk period

The village from the

period seems to have persisted until the late 16th to early 17th centuries CE. Around this time, immigrants belonging to the Zu'abiyah clan settled in what is now known as Tamra, the place where their descendants reside to this day.

Ottoman period

Tamra was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

in 1517. In the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 1596 the village was located in the ''

Nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' of Acca, part of

Safad Sanjak Safed Sanjak (; ) was a '' sanjak'' (district) of Damascus Eyalet ( Ottoman province of Damascus) in 1517–1660, after which it became part of the Sidon Eyalet (Ottoman province of Sidon). The sanjak was centered in Safed and spanned the Galil ...

. The population was 22

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

households. They paid a fixed tax rate of 20% on wheat, barley, fruit trees, cotton, occasional revenues, beehives and winter pastures; a total of 2,929

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

. In 1799 it was named ''Tomrat'' on the map of

Pierre Jacotin Pierre Jacotin (1765–1827) was the director of the Surveying, survey for the ''Carte de l'Égypte (Description de l'Égypte)'', the first triangulation-based map of Egypt, Syria and Palestine. The maps were drafted in 1799–1800 during Napole ...

. In 1859 the British Consul Rogers estimated the population to be 1,200, all Muslims, and the cultivated area 80

feddan A feddan () is a unit of area used in Egypt, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Oman. In Classical Arabic, the word means 'a yoke of oxen', implying the area of ground that could be tilled by oxen in a certain time. In Egypt, the feddan is the only n ...

s,Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p
273
/ref> while

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

found it in 1875 to have 800 inhabitants, all Muslim. In 1881, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described Tamra as: "A large village, with a small mosque on the east and well on the north. There is a rock-cut tomb west of the houses. South of the village, in the valley, a fine olive-grove extends as far as

er Rueis Al-Ruways (), was a Palestinian Arab village on a rocky hill located southeast of Acre and south of the village of al-Damun. Its population in 1945 was 330. Al-Ruways was depopulated following its capture by Israeli forces during the 1948 Arab ...

." A population list from about 1887 showed that Tamra had about 535 inhabitants, all Muslims.

British Mandate

At the time of the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

Tamra had a population of 1,111, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 1,258, all Muslims, in a total of 282 houses.Mills, 1932, p
103
/ref> In the 1945 statistics, Tamra had 1,830 inhabitants, all Muslims,Department of Statistics, 1945, p
5
/ref> while the total jurisdiction of the village was 30,559

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s of land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
41
/ref> 1,564 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 14,434 dunams for cereals, while 206 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

State of Israel

Tamra was captured by Israeli forces from the

Arab Liberation Army The Arab Liberation Army (ALA; , better translated as Arab Rescue Army (ARA) or Arab Salvation Army (ASA), was an army of volunteers from Arab countries led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji. It fought on the Arab side in the 1948 Palestine war. It was set ...

and the

Syrian Army The Syrian Army is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. Up until the fall of the Assad regime, the Syrian Arab Army existed as a land force branch of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces, which dominanted the military service of the fo ...

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

as a part of

Operation Dekel Operation Dekel (), was the largest offensive by Israeli forces in the north of Palestine after the first truce of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It was carried out by the 7th Armoured Brigade led by Canadian volunteer Ben Dunkelman (called B ...

. On 20 May 1948 the civilian population had been evacuated on orders from Arab irregular forces. According to

Benny Morris Benny Morris (; born 8 December 1948) is an Israeli historian. He was a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Beersheba, Israel. Morris was initially associated with the ...

, they feared that the village would surrender to the

Yishuv The Yishuv (), HaYishuv Ha'ivri (), or HaYishuv HaYehudi Be'Eretz Yisra'el () was the community of Jews residing in Palestine prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The term came into use in the 1880s, when there were about 2 ...

. The city grew rapidly in the period of Israel's first years as a nation due to the influx of Palestinian

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

from destroyed nearby villages such as

al-Birwa Al-Birwa (, also spelled ''al-Birweh'') was a Palestinian Arab village, located east of Acre (Akka). In 1945, it had a population of 1,460, of whom the majority were Muslims and a significant minority, Christians. Its total land area consiste ...

al-Damun Al-Damun (, ''al-Dâmûn''), was a Palestinian Arab village located from the city of Acre that was depopulated during 1948 Arab-Israeli war. In 1945, the village had 1,310 inhabitants, most of whom were Muslim and the remainder Christians. Al-Da ...

. Large percentages of the city's farming land was expropriated by Israeli authorities and allocated to farming cooperatives and nearby Jewish settlement towns such as

Mitzpe Aviv Mitzpe Aviv () is a community settlement in northern Israel. Located in the Galilee near I'billin and Tamra, it falls under the jurisdiction of Misgav Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The village was established in 1981. Th ...

. Tamra achieved local council status in 1956 and was declared a city in 1996. In 2020 the Israeli government approved plans to construct 5,270 housing units in the southern quarter. The plan includes public and transport infrastructure. On 14 June 2025, during an Iranian missile attack on Israel, a ballistic missile directly struck a house in Tamra, killing four people, including a mother, her two daughters, and another relative, and injuring 20 others. Asaf Cohen, an ex-officer of the

Israeli Military Intelligence The Israeli Military Intelligence (), often abbreviated to Aman (), is the central, overarching military intelligence body of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Aman was created in 1950, when the Intelligence Department was spun off from the IDF' ...

, commented shortly afterward that the Iranian strike was an obvious error, with Iran having aimed at an important target nearby, which he did not name explicitly. After the strike, a video surfaced online showing Israelis celebrating the attack with anti-Arab chants like "On the village, on the village" and "May your village burn," which was often sung by ultranationalist Jews. President

Isaac Herzog Isaac "Bougie" Herzog (; born 22 September 1960) is an Israeli politician who has been serving since 2021 as the president of Israel. He is the first president to have been born in Israel after its Declaration of Independence. Son of former Is ...

described it as "appalling and disgraceful", echoing a general sentiment in Israel.

Economy

The city became famous for its large dairy factory named "Rajeb-Tamra", accounting for a sizeable portion of the dairy market in Israel's Arab sector.

Demographics

According to the

Israel Central Bureau of Statistics The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (, ''HaLishka HaMerkazit LiStatistika''; ), abbreviated CBS, is an Israeli government office established in 1949 to carry out research and publish statistical data on all aspects of Israeli life, including ...

(CBS), at the end of 2007 the city had a total population of 27,300. In 2001, the ethnic makeup of the city was almost entirely Arab (99.6%

), with no significant

population. See Population groups in Israel. According to CBS, in 2001 there were 11,900 males and 11,400 females. The population of the city was spread out, with 48.5% 19 years of age or younger, 18.0% between 20 and 29, 19.7% between 30 and 44, 9.0% from 45 to 59, 1.6% from 60 to 64, and 3.0% 65 years of age or older. The population growth rate in 2001 was 3.3% and by 2005 had dropped to 2.5%. The largest and most influential clan in Tamra is the Diab, which consists of several branches. Other clans include the Hejazi, and the smaller clans of Abd al-Hadi, Abu Na'ama, Abu Rumi, Amar, Arshid, Awwad, Kanaan, Muhsin, Nasser, Natour, Ourabi, Radi, Shama, Shaqir, Sheikh Ali and Yassin. In addition to the aforementioned clans, whose presence in Tamra predates the state of Israel, the city is home to

internally displaced Palestinians Present absentees are Arab internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled or were expelled from their homes in Mandatory Palestine during the 1947–1949 Palestine war but remained within the area that became the state of Israel. In 1950, 46,000 ...

and their descendants from the nearby villages of

Hadatha Hadatha, also El Hadetheh or Hadateh, was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Tiberias, located 12.5 km southwest of Tiberias. It was depopulated in the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine. History Ceramics from the l ...

Mi'ar Mi'ar (), was a Palestinian village located 17.5 kilometers east of Acre. Its population in 1945 was 770. The Crusaders referred to it as "Myary". By the 19th century, during Ottoman rule, it was a large Muslim village. The village was a center ...

and

al-Ruways Al-Ruways (), was a Palestinian Arab village on a rocky hill located southeast of Acre and south of the village of al-Damun. Its population in 1945 was 330. Al-Ruways was depopulated following its capture by Israeli forces during the 1948 Arab ...

, which were depopulated during the

1948 Arab-Israeli war Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

Income

According to CBS, there were 3,908 salaried workers and 375 self-employed persons in 2000.

Education

According to CBS, there are 13 schools and 5,779 students in the city. They are spread out as 9 elementary schools and 4000 elementary school students, and 3 high schools and 2,324 high school students. 54.6% of 12th grade students were entitled to a matriculation certificate in 2001. During the late 1990s sociologist As'ad Ghanem set up an NGO in Tamra. It was called ''Ibn Khaldun'' and campaigned for more Arab history to be taught in Israeli schools. Pappe, 2011, p. 219

Sports

The current football teams in the city are Maccabi Tamra and F.C. Tzeirei Tamra, both play in

Liga Gimel Liga Gimel (, lit. ''League C'') is, since 2009, the fifth and bottom division of Israeli football league system, Israeli Football League. From Liga Alef and downwards, including Liga Gimel, each league is separated by region. History Liga Gimel ...

, the fifth tier of Israeli football. Maccabi Tamra and Hapoel Bnei Tamra (which is now defunct), played in the past in

Liga Artzit Liga Artzit (, lit. ''Country League'') is the defunct third division of Israeli Football League, beneath its highest division Premier League and the second division Liga Leumit. Before being cancelled in 2009, it was run by the Israel Football A ...

, having been promoted from

Liga Alef Liga Alef () is the third tier of the Israeli football league system. It is divided into two regional divisions, north and south. History League football began in Israel in 1949–50, a year after the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Howe ...

in 1988 and 2006 respectively.

Notable people

Mohammed Awaed Mohammed Awaed (sometimes Muhamad Awad or Mohammad Awad, , ; born ) is an Israeli professional association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for Primera Divisió club FC Pas de la Casa, Pas de la Casa. ...

(born 1997), football player for

Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Haifa () is one of the biggest sports clubs in Israel and a part of the Maccabi association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Haifa which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as Football, Basketball, Weightl ...

* Yussef Diab (1917–1984), member of the

Knesset The Knesset ( , ) is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Israel. The Knesset passes all laws, elects the President of Israel, president and Prime Minister of Israel, prime minister, approves the Cabinet of Israel, cabinet, and supe ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Official website

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 5
IAAWikimedia commons
* Susan Nathan
An Israeli Jew in a Muslim town
Flags of the World

Reilly Vinall
"Combining Empathy with Problem Solving: The Tamra Model of Facilitation in Israel" by Eileen F. Babbitt and Pamela Pomerance Steiner, with Jabir Asaqla, Chassia Chomsky-Porat, and Shirli Kirschner, Chapter 8 of 'Building Peace: Practical Reflections from the Field'
{{Authority control Arab localities in Israel 1996 establishments in Israel Cities in Northern District (Israel)