Al-Jiyya

al-Jiyya
al-Jiyya
Arabic الجية
Name meaning "water collector"[1][2]
Also spelled al-Jeya, al-Jiya, Ed-Deir, Ejjeh
Subdistrict Gaza
Coordinates 31°37′38″N 34°35′51″E / 31.62722°N 34.59750°E / 31.62722; 34.59750Coordinates: 31°37′38″N 34°35′51″E / 31.62722°N 34.59750°E / 31.62722; 34.59750
Palestine grid 111/115
Population 1,230.[3] (1945)
Area 8,506[3] dunams
8.5 km²
Date of depopulation November 4–5, 1948[4]
Cause(s) of depopulation Military assault by Yishuv forces
Current localities Beit Shikma,[5] Ge'a[6]

al-Jiyya (Arabic: الجية‎‎, also transliterated Algie) was a Palestinian village that was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Located 19 kilometers northeast of Gaza City, according to a 1945 census, the village had a population of 1,230. The village was occupied by Israel's Giv'ati Brigade on 4 November 1948 during Operation Yoav.

History

The village was situated on a sandy spot, surrounded by hills, on the southern coastal plain. Several wadis descended around it and it was periodically subjected to flooding. This perhaps explains its name, which means "water collector" in Arabic.[1][7] The village has been identified with a town referred to in the Crusader records as "Algie".[1]

Among the archaeological remains found in al Jiyya were a stone column and the remains of a Roman mill.[1]

Ottoman era

The village appeared without its name on the map of Pierre Jacotin compiled in 1799.[8] The villagers reported that their village had been ruined at one point and then rebuilt by Muhammed Aby Nabbut, the governor of Jaffa and Gaza between 1807 and 1818.[1]

In 1863 the French explorer Victor Guérin called the village Ed-Deir, and he estimated it had three hundred and fifty inhabitants. Near the wells he saw several parts of columns and one Corinthian capital, all made of gray-white marble. He further noted sycamores, pines and acacias mimosas, at intervals, in the middle of tobacco plantations.[9] In 1883, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine called it Ejjeh, and described it as "a moderate -sized mud village, with a pool to the north. On the east is a Sebil, or drinking-fountain. Beside the road to the west are olive groves."[10]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Jiya had a population of 776 inhabitants, all Muslims,[11] increasing in the 1931 census to 889, still all Muslims, in 188 houses.[12]

Al-Jiyya's population had its own mosque. The children attended school in the neighboring village of Barbara. The villagers installed a pump on one of the wells in the area to draw water for domestic use.[13] The villagers worked primarily in agriculture, planting various types of grain, especially corn. Al-Jiyya was known for its cheese and dairy products, which were sold in Gaza and in Majdal.[14]

In 1944/45 a total of 189 dunums was used for citrus and bananas, while 8,004 dunumus were allocated to cereals and 26 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards,[1][15] while 45 dunams were built-up land.[16]

1948 War, and aftermath

The village was captured by Israel's Giv'ati Brigade on 4 November 1948 during Operation Yoav. At the end of November 1948, Coastal Plain District troops carried out sweeps of the villages around and to the south of Majdal. Al-Jiyya was one of the villages named in the orders to the IDF battalions and engineers platoon, that the villagers were to be expelled to Gaza, and the IDF troops were "to prevent their return by destroying their villages." The path leading to the village was to be mined. The IDF troops were ordered to carry out the operation "with determination, accuracy and energy".[17] The operation took place on 30 November. The troops found "about 40" villagers in Barbara and al-Jiyya, "composed of women, old men and children", who offered no resistance. They were expelled to Beit Hanun, in the northern Gaza strip. Eight young men who were found were sent to a POW camp.[18]

According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi (1992):

"All traces of the village have been completely obliterated. Some sycamore trees grow on the site. Cantaloupes have been planted by the settlement of Beyt Shiqma on the surrounding lands."[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Khalidi, 1992, p.114
  2. ↑ but meaning "confusion" according to Palmer, 1881, p. 367
  3. 1 2 Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 45
  4. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xix, village #311; Also gives the cause for depopulation
  5. ↑ In 1950, according to Khalidi, 1992, p.114
  6. ↑ Morris, 2004, p. xxi: settlement #60, 1949.
  7. ↑ but "confusion" according to Palmer, 1881, p. 367
  8. ↑ Karmon, 1960, p. 173
  9. ↑ Guérin, 1869, p. 173
  10. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, pp. 259-260
  11. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Gaza, p. 8
  12. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 4.
  13. ↑ Hammad, ´Abd al-Qadir Ibrahim (1990): "Al-Jiyya." Al-Bayader Assiyasi, No. 398 (5 May 1990) p. 68. Cited in Khalidi, 1992, p.114
  14. ↑ Hammad, cited in Khalidi, 1992, p.114
  15. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 87
  16. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 137
  17. ↑ Coastal Plain District HQ to battalions 151 and ´1 Volunteers`, etc., 19:55 hours, 25 Nov. 1948, IDFA (=Israeli Defence Forces and Defence Ministry Archive) 6308\49\\141. Cited in Morris, 2004, p.517
  18. ↑ Coastal Plain HQ to Southern Front\Operations, 30 Nov. 1948, IDFA 1978\50\\1; and Southern Front\Operations to General Staff Divisions, 2. Dec. 1948, IDFA 922\75\\1025. Cited in Morris, 2004, p.518

Bibliography

External links

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