| Al-Khayma | |
| Native Name: | الخيمة |
| Native Name Lang: | ar |
| Settlement Type: | Village |
| Etymology: | The Tent[1] |
| Pushpin Map: | Mandatory Palestine |
| Pushpin Mapsize: | 200 |
| Coordinates: | 31.7622°N 34.8297°W |
| Grid Name: | Palestine grid |
| Grid Position: | 133/130 |
| Subdivision Type: | Geopolitical entity |
| Subdivision Name: | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdivision Type1: | Subdistrict |
| Subdivision Name1: | Ramle |
| Established Title1: | Date of depopulation |
| Established Date1: | Not known[2] |
| Established Title2: | Repopulated dates |
| Unit Pref: | dunam |
| Area Total Dunam: | 5,150 |
| Population As Of: | 1945 |
| Population Total: | 190[3] [4] |
| Blank Name Sec1: | Cause(s) of depopulation |
Al-Khayma (ar|الخيمة) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on July 9, 1948, by the Givati Brigade of Operation An-Far. It was located 18.5 km south of Ramla.
In 1863, Victor Guérin found that it had two hundred and fifty inhabitants.[5]
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine noted it as principally an adobe village of "on low ground", and with a well to the east.[6]
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Khaimeh had a population of 132 Muslims,[7] increasing in the 1931 census to 141 Muslims, in 30 houses.[8]
In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 190, all Muslim,[3] and the total land area was 5,150 dunums.[4] Of this, 4 dunams were irrigated or used for plantations, 5,007 were used for cereals,[9] while 9 dunams were classified as built-up urban areas.[10]
Morris list both date and reason for depopulation as "not known".[2] However, he also notes it in connection with Operation An-Far, in mid July 1948.[11] [12]
Following the 1948 war, the area was incorporated into the State of Israel and in August 1948 al-Khaymas was one of 21 Palestinian villages whose land was proposed for resettlement with an Israeli village named Revadim.[13] In November, 1948, the proposal to establish Revadim on al-Khayma's land was passed.[14]
Revadim was eventually established close to village land, according to Morris,[15] however, according to Khalidi, Revadim is located north of al-Khayma, on the land of the depopulated Palestinian village of al-Mukhayzin.[16]
In 1992 the village site was described: "All that remains of the village are three mounds to the east, west, and south of the site that contain the remnants of houses. A girder protrudes from the eastern mound and there is a large, deserted well at the mounds centre. A large artificial pond lies about 100 m northeast of the site, and there is a monument next to a well about 0.5 km to the north. An inscription on the monument reads: To the eMemory of the Members of Kibbutz Revadim, who Settled on the Land in 1948."[17]
