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Miska, Tulkarm

Miska was a Palestinian village, located fifteen kilometers southwest of Tulkarm, depopulated in 1948.

Miska
مسكة
Village
Remains of the village mosque, 2007
Remains of the village mosque, 2007
Etymology: The water-hole[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Miska, Tulkarm (click the buttons)
Miska is located in Mandatory Palestine
Miska
Miska
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°13′04″N 34°55′29″E / 32.21778°N 34.92472°E / 32.21778; 34.92472
Palestine grid143/180
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictTulkarm
Date of depopulation15 April 1948[4][5]
Area
 • Total
8,076 dunams (8.076 km2 or 3.118 sq mi)
Population
 (1948)
 • Total
880[2][3]
Cause(s) of depopulationExpulsion by Yishuv forces
Current LocalitiesSde Warburg, Mishmeret[6]

History

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Miska was founded by descendants of the Arabian tribe of Miskain during the 7th century Islamic conquest of Palestine.[7]

According to the Arab geographer Yaqut, writing in the 1220s, Miska was known for its fruit, especially the misk (musk) apple variety which was said to have been transferred to Egypt by the Fatimid vizier Abu Muhammad al-Yazuri, who died in 1058.[8]

Ottoman era

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The French commander Jean Baptiste Kléber and his troops passed by the village on their way to Napoleon's siege of Acre in 1799.[9] Pierre Jacotin named the village Meski on his map from the same campaign.[10]

In the 1860s, the Ottoman authorities granted the village an agricultural plot of land called Ghabat Miska in the former confines of the Forest of Arsur (Ar. Al-Ghaba) in the coastal plain, west of the village.[11][12]

In 1870, Victor Guérin visited and estimated that the population of Miskeh was 300. He further noted that "In the court of the medhafeh (guest-house) I saw a column and a marble chapter, apparently of Byzantine work. Round the houses are gardens, planted principally with fig-trees, among which here and there rise palms."[13]

In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Bani Sa'b.[14]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Miska an adobe village of small size, with olives to the north and south, and a well to the south.[15]

British Mandate era

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In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Meskeh had a population of 443; all Muslims,[16] increasing in the 1931 census to 635, still all Muslim, in a total of 123 houses.[17]

In the 1945 statistics the population of Miska and Sde Warburg was 880 Arabs and 180 Jews,[2] while the total land area was 8,076 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[3] Of this, Arabs used 1,115 dunams for citrus and bananas, 304 dunams for plantations and irrigable land, 3,245 for cereals,[18] while 88 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[19]

 
Miska (Miske) 1942 1:20,000
 
Miska 1945 1:250,000

1948 and after

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On 15 April 1948, Miska's Arab inhabitants were expelled on the order of the Haganah, the primary Jewish force prior to the outbreak of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.[4] The village, with the exception of a boy's elementary school and a mosque, was destroyed on the orders of Yosef Weitz, a Jewish National Fund official.[7]

On 16 June 1948, David Ben-Gurion, almost certainly based on a progress report from Yosef Weitz, noted Miska as one of the Palestinian villages that they had destroyed.[20]

Sde Warburg was established in 1938 on land that traditionally belonged to the village. Mishmeret was established in 1946, to the northwest of the village site, on village land. Ramat HaKovesh, founded 1932, is about 1 km due west of the village site, though not on village land.[6]

The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the village in 1992: "The site is covered with citrus groves; cactuses grow along the perimeter of these groves. The two-room school still stands and is used as housing for the watchmen who guard the orchards. The mosque serves as a storehouse for bales of hay and agricultural tools. The large cement fragments of a demolished enclosure built around the village well are visible. Most of the surrounding land has been planted by Israelis with citrus trees."[21]

The school buildings were destroyed by order of the Israel Land Administration in 2006 following commemoration activities at the site organised by Palestinian Citizens of Israel and Israeli NGO Zochrot.[22][23]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 175
  2. ^ a b Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 21
  3. ^ a b Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 76
  4. ^ a b Pappe, 1999, pp. 204, 209
  5. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #191. Also gives cause of depopulation
  6. ^ a b Khalidi, 1992, p. 558
  7. ^ a b "Welcome to Miska". Palestine Remembered. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
  8. ^ Mu'jam Al-Buldan, Cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 558
  9. ^ Nelson: Napoleon in Egypt. Cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 558
  10. ^ Karmon, 1960, p. 170 Archived 2019-12-22 at the Wayback Machine
  11. ^ Marom, Roy, "The Contribution of Conder's Tent Work in Palestine for the Understanding of Shifting Geographical, Social and Legal Realities in the Sharon during the Late Ottoman Period", in Gurevich D. and Kidron, A. (eds.), Exploring the Holy Land: 150 Years of the Palestine Exploration Fund, Sheffield, UK, Equinox (2019), pp. 212-231
  12. ^ Marom, Roy (2022). "The Oak Forest of the Sharon (al-Ghaba) in the Ottoman Period: New Insights from Historical- Geographical Studies, Muse 5". escholarship.org. Retrieved 2023-10-06.
  13. ^ Guérin, 1875 pp. 388–389, as given by Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 135
  14. ^ Grossman, David (2004). Arab Demography and Early Jewish Settlement in Palestine. Jerusalem: Magnes Press. p. 255.
  15. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 135. Cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 558
  16. ^ Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Tulkarem, p. 28
  17. ^ Mills, 1932, p. 55
  18. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 126
  19. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 176
  20. ^ Entry for 16 June 1948, DBG-YH II, 523–24. Cited in Morris, 2004, pp. 350, 398
  21. ^ Khalidi, 1992, pp. 558–9
  22. ^ Destroyed Miske Schoolhouse[usurped], by Zochrot. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
  23. ^ Letter from District Manager's Bureau of ILA[usurped], published by Zochrot (30 August 2006). Retrieved 13 May 2010.

Bibliography

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