Najd, Gaza

Najd
Village ruins, 2010
Najd
Arabic	نجد
District	Gaza
Coordinates	31°33′02.29″N 34°35′54.49″E / 31.5506361°N 34.5984694°E / 31.5506361; 34.5984694Coordinates: 31°33′02.29″N 34°35′54.49″E / 31.5506361°N 34.5984694°E / 31.5506361; 34.5984694
Population	620[1] (1945)
Area	13,576 dunums 13.6 km²
Date of depopulation	12 May 1948[2]
Cause(s) of depopulation	Expulsion by Yishuv forces
Current localities	Sderot[3], Or HaNer[4]

Najd (Arabic: نجد‎) was a Palestinian Arab village, located 14 kilometers (8.7 mi) northeast of Gaza City. During the British Mandate in Palestine, children from Najd attended school in the nearby village of Simsim. On 13 May 1948, Najd was occupied by the Negev Brigade as part of Operation Barak, and the villagers were expelled^[5] and fled to Gaza. In 1951, the town of Sderot was built on the village's lands.

History

Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, in 1596, Najd formed part nahiya (subdistrict) of Gaza under the liwa' (district) of Gaza with a population of 215. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley and fruit, as well as on goats, beehives and vineyards.^[6]

Edward Robinson, who travelled through Palestine in 1838, noted that Najd lay south of a wadi, and described how the villagers were winnowing barley by throwing it into the air against the wind with wooden forks.^[7]

In the late 19th century, Claude Conder writes that Najd was a small village with a well and a pond.^[8]

As the population grew during the Mandate period, the village expanded northwestward. The village population was Muslim, and the children attended school in Simsim, 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) to the northeast. The villagers worked primarily in agriculture and animal husbandry. Fields of grain and fruit trees surrounded Najd on all sides. The fruit trees were concentrated to the north and northeastern sides, where irrigation water was available from wells.^[9]

At the time of the 1931 census, Najd had 82 occupied houses and a population of 422 Muslims.^[10]

Cultivated lands in the village in 1944-45 included a total of 10 dunums allocated for citrus and bananas and 11,916 dunums for cereals. An additional 511 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The population at this time was 620.^[9][11]

1948 War and aftermath

According to Benny Morris, the villagers of Najd were "driven out" by soldiers from the Negev Brigade on 12–13 May, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.^[5]

The Israeli city of Sderot was founded in 1951 on village land, to the south of the village,^[9] while Or HaNer was founded in 1957 also on village land, to the northeast.^[9]

See also

• List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War

References

1. ^ Hadawi, 1970, p.46
2. ^ Morris, 2004, p. XIX, village #315. Also gives cause of depopulation.
3. ^ Founded in 1951 on village land, to the south of the village. In Khalidi, 1992, p. 128.
4. ^ Founded in 1957 on village land, to the northeast. In Khalidi, 1992, p. 128.
5. ^ ^{a b} Morris, 2004, p. 258.
6. ^ Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter and Kamal Abdulfattah (1977), Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. p. 144. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 128
7. ^ Robinson (1841), p. 371. Also cited in Khalidi, 1992, p128.
8. ^ Conder and Kitchener, SWP III, 1881, p.260. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.128
9. ^ ^{a b c d} Khalidi, 1992, p.128
10. ^ E. Mills, ed (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine. p. 6. 
11. ^ Hadawi, 1970, p.88

Bibliography

• Conder, Claude Reignier and H.H. Kitchener (1881): The Survey of Western Palestine: memoirs of the topography, orography, hydrography, and archaeology. London:Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. vol 3
• Glass, Charles: "The Ordeals of Gaza", Lecture at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London 22 Jan 09
• Hadawi, Sami (1970), Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center, http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html 
• Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0887282245 
• Morris, Benny (2004), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521009677 
• Edward Robinson, Eli Smith (1841): Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the Year 1838, Published by Crocker & Brewster. Volume 2.

External links

• Welcome to Najd, palestineremembered.com
• Najd from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
• Israel: The Bernie Madoff of Countries - The online magazine for independent conservatives, edited by Taki Theodoracopulos January 07, 2009