Al-Butaymat (, ''El Buteimât'') was a

Palestinian Arab 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 ...

village the Haifa Subdistrict, located southeast of

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

. It was depopulated during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 1, 1948, under the

Battle of Mishmar HaEmek The Battle of Mishmar HaEmek was a ten-day battle fought from 4 to 15 April 1948 between the Arab Liberation Army ( Yarmouk Battalion) commanded by Fawzi al-Qawuqji and the Haganah (Palmach and HISH) commanded by Yitzhak Sadeh and Dan Laner. ...

History

In 1882, the PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

'' (SWP) found "traces of ruins" here. Haifa merchant Mustafa al-Khalil acquired land in among other places, Al-Butaymat, in the late Ottoman era. During the 19th and first half of the 20th century, al-Butaymat was one of the settlements of the so-called "Fahmawi Commonwealth" established by Hebronite clans belonging to

Umm al-Fahm Umm al-Fahm ( , ''Umm al-Faḥm''; ''Um el-Faḥem'') is a city located northwest of Jenin in the Haifa District of Israel. In its population was , nearly all of whom are Palestinian citizens of Israel. The city is situated on the Umm al-Fahm ...

. The Commonwealth consisted of a network of interspersed

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place (geography), place, set of Norm (social), norms, culture, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Ide ...

connected by ties of

kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...

, and socially, economically and politically affiliated with Umm al Fahm. The Commonwealth dominated vast sections of Bilad al-Ruha/Ramot Menashe, Wadi 'Ara and Marj Ibn 'Amir/Jezreel Valley during that time.

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, ‘’Al Buteimat’’ had a population 137, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table xi, Sub-district of Haifa, p
34
/ref> decreasing in the 1931 census to 112 Muslims, in a total of 29 houses.Mills, 1932, p
89
/ref> In the 1945 statistics the village had a population of 110 Muslims, and they had 3,832

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 according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 8 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 2,508 for cereals, while 4 dunams were built-up (urban) land. In 1945 the

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

Gal'ed Gal'ed () is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the Menashe Heights with an area of 14,500 dunams, it falls under the jurisdiction of Megiddo Regional Council. In it had a population of . History Kibbutz Gal'ed was established in 1945 by ...

was established on what was traditionally village land. File:Shauf 1942.jpg, Al-Butaymat 1942 1:20,000 File:Qannir 1945.jpg, Al-Butaymat 1945 1:250,000

1948 and aftermath

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 ...

gives May 1948 as depopulation date, and "Fear of being caught up in the fighting" as the cause, but with a question mark.Morris, 2004, p
406
/ref> In 1992 the village site was described: "The site is fenced in, overgrown with grass and cactuses. There are no traces of houses except for adobe bricks scattered around the site. Most of the surrounding lands are used as grazing areas, but some of them are cultivated."

References

Bibliography

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External links

al-Butaymat

Zochrot Zochrot (; "Remembering"; ; "Memories") is an Israeli nonprofit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Nakba, including the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight. The group was co-founded by Eitan ...

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 8:
IAAWikimedia commons

from the

Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center () is a leading Palestinian arts and culture organization that aims to create a pluralistic, critical liberating culture through research, query, and participation, and that provides an open space for the communit ...

{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War Arab villages depopulated prior to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Haifa