The depopulated village of Hadatha / District of Tiberias

Subdistrict: Tiberias

Estimated population of Hadatha in 1948: 603

Documented population in 1945: 520

Probable date of occupation and depopulation: 12 May 1948

Occupying unit: Golani Brigade

Israeli settlements established on village land before 1948: None

Israeli settlements established on the village’s built-up site after 1948: None

Hadatha was a depopulated Palestinian village in the Tiberias Subdistrict, located approximately 12.5 kilometres southwest of Tiberias and about 10 kilometres east of Mount Tabor. It stood at an average elevation of approximately 225 metres above sea level. The village was surrounded by other Palestinian villages, including Ma‘dhar, Awlam, Sirin, and Kafr Sabt. According to the British Mandate village statistics, its lands covered 10,310 dunams in 1944/45.

The village stood between two small wadis, with its houses extending to the east and west of a gently sloping rocky hill. It was surrounded by a basin fed by several watercourses that carried runoff from the neighbouring heights and converged to form Wadi al-Bira, a tributary of the Jordan River. A spring east of the village supplied its inhabitants with fresh water.

Hadatha was connected by a secondary road to Kafr Kama, which was itself situated on a road leading to Samakh at the southern end of Lake Tiberias.

Boundaries of Hadatha

Hadatha was surrounded by the following Palestinian villages:

• North: Kafr Sabt.
• West: Ma‘dhar.
• South: Awlam.
• East: Al-Ubaydiyya.

Architecture of Hadatha

In the late nineteenth century, Hadatha was described as a stone-built village situated on a hilltop. Its approximately 150 inhabitants cultivated grapes, figs, and olives. During the British Mandate, the village had a broadly triangular plan, and its houses extended northwestward along the road leading to Kafr Kama.

Population and Economic Life in Hadatha

The inhabitants of Hadatha depended on the cultivation of wheat, barley, grapes, figs, olives, and vegetables, in addition to raising goats and keeping beehives. A local account describes the village’s twenty-four qirats, representing the entirety of its lands, as waqf property. The official British Mandate land statistics, however, classified the land cadastral categories as 8,621 dunams under Palestinian ownership and 1,689 dunams of public land.

Hadatha had approximately 150 inhabitants in the late nineteenth century. Its population reached 333 in the 1922 census and 368 in 1931, when the village contained 75 houses. The official 1945 statistics recorded 520 inhabitants, while the population in 1948 has been estimated at 603.

Historical descriptions state that the inhabitants were overwhelmingly Sunni Muslims, with one Christian and one Druze resident recorded during the British Mandate period. The official 1945 village statistics classified all 520 inhabitants as Muslims.

Land Ownership in Hadatha

* One dunam equals approximately 1,000 square metres.

Land Use in Hadatha, 1944/45

* One dunam equals approximately 1,000 square metres.

The 226 dunams of olive groves were recorded as a crop-specific figure and formed part of the broader cultivated-land categories; they should not be added separately when calculating the village’s total land area.

Population of Hadatha

The figures for 1596, 1948, and 1998 are demographic estimates rather than contemporary census counts.

Number of Houses in Hadatha

The 1948 figure is a later estimate rather than an official housing census.

Education and Religious Life in Hadatha

An elementary school was established in Hadatha in 1897 during the Ottoman period, but it closed during the British Mandate. Thereafter, elementary religious instruction continued through the village kuttab, while pupils wishing to pursue further education travelled to Tiberias or Nazareth.

The villagers built a mosque in Hadatha. Local accounts state that the village did not have a resident formally trained preacher, and religious duties were therefore performed with limited local resources.

Archaeological Remains in Hadatha

Hadatha occupied an archaeological site containing a vaulted stone structure built over a spring and the remains of a press. These remains indicate earlier activity at the site, although the available village surveys do not provide a precise date for all the structures.

Occupation and Depopulation of Hadatha

The circumstances and date of Hadatha’s depopulation are disputed. One intelligence report cited by Benny Morris alleged that Hadatha and the neighbouring villages of Sirin, Awlam, and Ma‘dhar were evacuated on 6 April 1948 following instructions attributed to the Arab Higher Committee. Walid Khalidi, however, draws attention to a conflicting account stating that the four villages remained inhabited until they were occupied by units of the Golani Brigade on 12 May 1948.

The latter account states that the inhabitants fled as the Golani forces advanced, indicating that their departure was connected to the military assault. In view of the conflicting narratives and the absence of independent evidence confirming an evacuation on 6 April, 12 May 1948 is the better-supported date for the occupation and depopulation of Hadatha. The earlier claim concerning an Arab Higher Committee order should not be presented as an established fact.

Israeli Settlements on Hadatha’s Land

No Israeli settlement was established on Hadatha’s registered village land or directly over its former built-up area. Kefar Qish, established in 1946, stood on land belonging to the neighbouring Palestinian village of Ma‘dhar rather than on the land of Hadatha.

Hadatha Today

Stone rubble is the principal surviving indication of the former village site. The fenced site is used as cattle pasture, and mulberry and fig trees, together with cactus plants, grow among the remains. Residents of nearby Kefar Qish cultivate parts of the surrounding land with vegetables and almond trees. Sections of the lower wadis have also been fenced.

Sources

• PalQuest: Hadatha.
• Palestine Remembered: Hadatha, Tiberias.
• Institute for Palestine Studies: Walid Khalidi’s All That Remains.
• Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, Village Statistics, April 1945.
• Government of Palestine, Census of Palestine, 1931: Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas.
• Walid Khalidi, ed., All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992, p. 518.
• Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 177.