Qaddita Explained

Qaddita
Native Name:قدّيتا
Native Name Lang:ar
Other Name:Kaditta
Settlement Type:Village
Etymology:from personal name[1]
Pushpin Map:Mandatory Palestine
Pushpin Mapsize:200
Coordinates:33.0047°N 35.4681°W
Grid Name:Palestine grid
Grid Position:194/267
Subdivision Type:Geopolitical entity
Subdivision Name:Mandatory Palestine
Subdivision Type1:Subdistrict
Subdivision Name1:Safad
Established Title1:Date of depopulation
Established Date1:May 11, 1948[2]
Established Title2:Repopulated dates
Unit Pref:dunam
Area Total Dunam:2,441
Population As Of:1945
Population Total:240[3]
Blank Name Sec1:Cause(s) of depopulation
Blank Info Sec1:Influence of nearby town's fall
Blank3 Name Sec1:Current Localities
Blank3 Info Sec1:Kadita

Qaddita (ar|قدّيتا, transliteration: Qaddîtâ) was a Palestinian Arab village of 240, located 4.5km (02.8miles) northwest of Safad. It was captured and depopulated in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, with some of its inhabitants expelled or fleeing to nearby 'Akbara where they live as internally displaced Palestinians and others to refugee camps in Lebanon or Syria.

History

It is possible that the name "Qaddita" is an Arabic distortion of the Aramaic word kaddish.[4]

Ottoman era

Qaddita was under the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and by 1596 it was administrated by the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Jira, part of Sanjak Safad. The population was 27 households, an estimated 149 inhabitants, all Muslims. They paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on wheat, barley, vineyards, beehives, and goats; a total of 4,030 akçe.[5] [6]

The village appeared under the name of Kadis on the map that Pierre Jacotin compiled during Napoleon's invasion of 1799.[7]

The village was reported to be totally destroyed in the devastating Galilee earthquake of 1837.[8] In 1838, Robinson noted: "Kadita has many vineyards and fig trees in its neighbourhood, and was greatly injured by the earthquake".[9] He also noted it as a village located in the Safad district.[10]

In 1875, Victor Guérin found "only ten houses, inhabited by as many Moslem families. Cisterns cut in the rock prove that it is the site of an ancient place."[11]

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Kadditha: "a mud and stone village, containing about 200 Muslems, situated on the slope of a hill, with gardens of figs. There is a birket and spring."[12]

A population list from about 1887 showed Kadditha to have about 315 inhabitants; all Muslims.[13]

British Mandate era

Under the rule of the British Mandate in Palestine, Qaddita expanded north and south, its houses were clustered together, and built of stone.[4] In the 1922 census of Palestine, Qaddita had a population of 110; all Muslims,[14] increasing in the 1931 census to 170, still all Muslims, in a total of 32 houses.[15]

Its economy was based on animal husbandry and crop cultivation, mainly grains, figs, pomegranates, and grapes as well as olives which by 1943 covered 77 dunams.[4] In the 1945 statistics the population was 240 Muslims,[3] and the total land area was 2,441 dunums;[16] Of this, 150 dunums was plantations and irrigable land, 1,452 cereals,[17] while 31 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[18]

1948, and after

Like many other Palestinian villages in the eastern Galilee, Qaddita was evacuated a day after Safad fell to the Israelis during Operation Yiftach on May 10. Some villagers were evicted to the village of Akbara, south of Safad, where they, according to Walid Khalidi, lived under harrowing circumstances. No Jewish towns were built on village lands.[4] Khalidi describes the remains of the village being "tombs from the cemetery and stone rubble from the destroyed homes".[19]

See also

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 76
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #46. Also gives cause of depopulation.
  3. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 10
  4. Khalidi, 1992, p.485.
  5. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p.175, cited in Khalidi, 1992, p.485.
  6. Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9
  7. Karmon, 1960, p. 165
  8. "The earthquake of 1 January 1837 in Southern Lebanon and Northern Israel" by N. N. Ambraseys, in Annali di Geofisica, Aug. 1997, p.933
  9. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, p. 367
  10. Robinson and Smith, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p. 134
  11. Guérin, 1880, p. 428; as given by Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p, 198
  12. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p, 198. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 485
  13. Schumacher, 1888, p. 188
  14. Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Safad, p. 41
  15. Mills, 1932, p. 109
  16. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 71
  17. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 120
  18. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 170
  19. Khalidi, 1992, p.486.

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