Nitaf (, ''Natâf'') was a small, short-lived Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. It was established in the early 20th century. It was forcefully depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 15, 1948, during the second stage of Operation Dani. It was located 17 km west of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, just north of Bayt Thul. The Israeli village of Nataf was built in 1982, south of the ruins of Nitaf.

History

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, ''Nataf'' had a population 16, all Muslims.Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p
15
/ref> In the 1931 census it was counted with Qatanna, together they had 875 Muslim inhabitants, in 233 houses. Mills, 1932, p
42
/ref> It was then considered a ''khirbet'' belonging to Qatanna. In the 1945 statistics it had a population of 40 Muslims, and the total land area was 1,401

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 the land, a total of 166 dunams were plantations and irrigable land and 158 were for cereals, while a total of 1,077 dunams were classified non-cultivable land. Nitaf had a

maqam Maqam, makam, maqaam or maqām (plural maqāmāt) may refer to: Musical structures * Arabic maqam, melodic modes in traditional Arabic music ** Iraqi maqam, a genre of Arabic maqam music found in Iraq * Persian maqam, a notion in Persian clas ...

for local sage known as al-Shaykh ''Mas'ud''.Khalidi, 1992, p. 307

1948 and aftermath

The village was depopulated on 15 April 1948, during the

1948 Palestine war The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. During the war, the British withdrew from Palestine, Zionist forces conquered territory and established the Stat ...

. Following the war, the area was incorporated into the

State of Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. The village of Nataf, established in 1982, is located less than 1 km south of the village site. According to

Walid Khalidi Walid Khalidi (; born in Jerusalem on July 16, 1925) is a Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an inde ...

on land belonging to Bayt Thul, but other sources, including ''

Davar ''Davar'' (, lit. ''Speech, Word'') was a Hebrew-language daily newspaper published in the British Mandate of Palestine and Israel between 1925 and May 1996. A similarly named website was launched in 2016, under the name ''Davar Rishon'' as an ...

'' say the land was bought from Abu Ghosh. In 1992, the village site was described: "There is a large, deserted stone house on the site surrounded by old terraces. It is a one-storey house with an arched door and arched windows. Northwest of this house, at the bottom of a slope, stands another deserted house. Most of the village lands fell within the Demilitarized Zone that was delineated by the armistice agreement of 1949 between Israel and

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

." File:Nitaf 1948.jpg, Nitaf 1948 File:Nitaf view.jpg, View of Nitaf before demolition, 1948 File:Nitaf view 1948.jpg, Nitaf after occupation, 1948 File:Nitaf demolished.jpg, Demolished building following conquest by Harel Brigade 1948 File:Nitaf demolition.jpg, Nitaf during demolition

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links

Welcome To NitafNitaf
Zochrot *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17
IAA

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{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Jerusalem