Al-Samakiyya was a

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 ...

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 ...

village in the Tiberias Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 4, 1948, under Operation Matateh. It was located 11 km northeast of

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; , ; ) is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Heb ...

, near the Wadi al-Wadabani. The village was located at Tel Hum, which has been identified with Capernaum.

History

In 1838, Edward Robinson noted the bedawin (Bedouin) tribe of ''es-Semekiyeh'', who kept some buildings in Abu Shusha as magazines.

British Mandate

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, the population of ''Samakiyeh'' was 193 Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 290; 266 Muslims and 24 Christians, in a total of 60 houses.Mills, 1932, p
85
/ref> In the 1945 statistics ''Es Samakiya'' had a population of 380; 330 Muslims and 50 Christians, with 10,526 dunams of land. Of this, 2 dunams were used for citrus and bananas, 66 for plantations and irrigable land, 4,034 dunams for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
123
/ref> while a total of 6,424 dunams were classified as non-cultivable area.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
173
/ref> Al-Samakiyya had an Italian monastery, a Franciscan church, and a Greek Orthodox church.

1948 war and aftermath

On 4 May 1948, Yigal Allon launched Operation Matateh ('Operation Broom'), in order to clear the area of its Bedouin inhabitants.Morris, 2004, pp
249
250, notes #694-698, p
302
/ref> The Bedouin site is listed by

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 ...

as "'Arab al Samakiya (Samakiya/Talhum)". Historian Saleh Abdel Jawad writes that five or more villagers were killed in "indiscriminate" killings by the

Haganah Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...

. Amnun and Korazim were both established on Al-Samakiyya land in 1983. In 1992, Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi wrote: "The village site is covered with wild vegetation, piles of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

stones, and date palm trees. Part of the surrounding land is used as pasture, and the other part is planted with fruit and walnut trees."

References

Bibliography

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External links

Welcome To al-Samakiyya al-Samakiyya
Zochrot *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 6
IAAWikimedia commons
from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center * from Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh {{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Tiberias