Umm Kalkha was a small

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

village in the Ramle Subdistrict of

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

. It was depopulated during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 7, 1948, during Operation Nachshon. It was located 12.5 km south of

Ramla Ramla (), also known as Ramle (, ), is a city in the Central District of Israel. Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with significant numbers of both Jews and Arabs. The city was founded in the early 8th century CE by the Umayyad caliph S ...

, situated on the northern banks of Wadi al-Sarar.

History

Umm Kalkha was established during the British Mandate era by the Nashashibi family. Its workers, settling in an area of orchards, came mostly from places near modern

Rehovot Rehovot (, / ) is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Etymology Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu (movement), Bilu movement, proposed the name "Rehovot ...

, including

Zarnuqa Zarnuqa (), also Zarnuga,Reuter, 2004, pp956 was a Palestinian people, Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine, Ramle Subdistrict. It was depopulated on 27–28 May 1948 during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Location ...

and al-Qubayba.

Ottoman period

In 1838, ''Um Kelkha'' was noted as a place "in ruins or deserted."Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
119
/ref> In 1882, the PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) noted: "There are traces here of an old town, caves,

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 of rubble, masonry, and pottery fragments."

British Mandate era

In 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 ...

, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Umm Kalka'' had a population of 1 Muslim, increasing sharply in the 1931 census 24 Muslims, in 6 houses.Mills, 1932, p
24
/ref> In the 1945 statistics the population was 60, all Muslims, while the total land area was 1,405

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, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 21 dunums of land were used for citrus and bananas, 93 dunums were plantations or irrigated land, 1,119 were for cereals, while a total of 63 dunams were classified as non-cultivable areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
167
/ref> Mansura 1930

1948, aftermath

The Israeli settlement of Yesodot was established on Umm Khalkha land.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Umm KalkhaUmm Kalkha
Zochrot *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 16
IAAWikimedia commons
at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center {{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Ramla