The depopulated village of 'Atlit / District of Haifa

Subdistrict: Haifa

Palestinian population in 1945: 150

Estimated Palestinian population in 1948: 174

Date of occupation and depopulation: Not conclusively documented; 15 May 1948 appears in some compilations but cannot be independently verified

Military unit: Not documented

Zionist settlements established on the village lands before 1948: Atlit and Newe Yam

Israeli settlements established directly on the former Palestinian built-up site after 1948: None documented

‘Atlit was a Palestinian village in the Haifa Subdistrict, situated approximately 12.5 kilometres southwest of the city of Haifa. Its Palestinian community was depopulated during the Nakba, although the precise date and circumstances of its depopulation remain unclear in the available historical record.

The village occupied a sandstone hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Coastal agricultural land bordered it to the east, while extensive evaporation ponds used for salt production lay to the southwest. A railway station served the Palestinian village and the surrounding area.

A Zionist settlement bearing the same name was established near the Palestinian village in 1903. This distinction is important: historical demographic records sometimes combined the Palestinian village, the Zionist settlement, the salt works and other nearby facilities within a single statistical unit.

‘Atlit before the Nakba

In the late nineteenth century, the Survey of Western Palestine described ‘Atlit as a small hamlet built largely of adobe. Its approximately 200 Palestinian inhabitants cultivated land around the village. During the 1920s, the Palestinian village participated in a regional cooperative association that sought to improve agricultural and social conditions in approximately twenty-five villages of the Haifa Subdistrict.

In 1903, Zionist settlers founded a separate settlement near the Palestinian village and gave it the same name. During the First World War, that settlement became a centre for Nili, a Zionist intelligence network that assisted the British against the Ottoman Empire.

By 1938, the Palestinian village and the neighbouring Zionist settlement had a combined population of 732: 508 Palestinian Arabs and 224 Jews. The statement found in some versions of the article that the Palestinian population fell to 150 in 1954 is incorrect; the decline had already occurred by the official statistics of 1944/45.

Population of ‘Atlit

In 1945, ‘Atlit’s Palestinian population consisted of 90 Muslims and 60 Christians. The figure of 174 for 1948 is a retrospective population estimate rather than a contemporaneous census. The sharp decline in the Palestinian population before 1948 accompanied the transfer of most of the village’s registered land out of Palestinian ownership.

Land Ownership in ‘Atlit in 1945

* One dunam equals approximately 1,000 square metres.

Land Use in ‘Atlit in 1945

* One dunam equals approximately 1,000 square metres.

Historical and Archaeological Sites

‘Atlit and its surroundings contain evidence of settlement extending across several historical periods. Archaeological excavations east of the village uncovered a site occupied from approximately the second millennium BCE to the seventh century CE. A Hellenistic source referred to the locality as Adarus, described as a colony associated with Sidon.

The Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi, who died in 1228, referred to a fortress at ‘Atlit known as al-Ahmar. In 1218, Crusaders constructed a fortified town and a major coastal fortress there, known in Latin as Castellum Peregrinorum, or the Castle of the Pilgrims. It remained under Crusader control until 1291.

A Muslim cemetery east of the Crusader fortress contains an Arabic inscription dated to 1800. Archaeological investigations of the fortress and town were undertaken by the Palestinian Department of Antiquities during the 1930s.

Further evidence of prehistoric human occupation was discovered in the caves of al-Wad, al-Tabun and al-Sukhul in Wadi al-Mughara, approximately three kilometres southeast of the village. These sites belong to the wider prehistoric landscape of Mount Carmel and should not be confused with the comparatively modern Palestinian village itself.

The Detention Camp near ‘Atlit

The British Mandate authorities established a detention camp near ‘Atlit for Jewish migrants intercepted while attempting to enter Palestine without the immigration permits required by the Mandate administration. The camp was separate from the Palestinian village and should not be described as a prison originally established by Israel.

A detention facility in the vicinity was later used by Israel in 1989 to hold Lebanese and Palestinian detainees. These were two historically distinct uses of detention facilities in the ‘Atlit area.

Occupation and Depopulation of Palestinian ‘Atlit

The precise date and circumstances under which the remaining Palestinian inhabitants of ‘Atlit lost their village are not clearly documented. Palestine Remembered lists 15 May 1948 as the date of occupation, but Walid Khalidi’s reference work states that it is unclear when the Palestinian village came under Zionist control or by what means.

Benny Morris did not include ‘Atlit among the villages for which he identified a documented date and cause of depopulation. Accordingly, 15 May 1948 should be treated as an unconfirmed date rather than an established historical fact. No sufficiently documented military unit or named operation can presently be assigned to the village’s depopulation.

The nearby Zionist settlement of Atlit was already a centre of Haganah activity and a source of recruits. This, however, does not establish the precise sequence through which the Palestinian community was displaced. The evidence confirms that the Palestinian village had been depopulated during the Nakba and that no Arab houses subsequently remained, but the immediate mechanism—whether direct expulsion, flight under military pressure or another process—remains undocumented.

Settlements on the Lands of Palestinian ‘Atlit

The Zionist settlement of Atlit was established near the Palestinian village in 1903 and later expanded onto its lands. Newe Yam was established in 1939. According to Walid Khalidi’s land identification, both settlements now occupy land formerly belonging to the Palestinian village.

No separate Israeli settlement is documented as having been established directly over the former Palestinian built-up area after 1948. Instead, the village lands were incorporated into and used by the neighbouring settlements and associated facilities.

Palestinian ‘Atlit Today

No clearly identifiable traces of the Palestinian village’s houses remain. The railway station that once served the village and surrounding locality remained in use when the site was surveyed by Walid Khalidi’s research team.

The Zionist settlement of Atlit, founded in 1903, and Newe Yam, founded in 1939, remain in the area. The Palestinian residential landscape disappeared, while the village’s former lands were absorbed into the settlements and other installations surrounding the site.

Sources

• PalQuest, “‘Atlit”.
• Palestine Remembered, “‘Atlit—Haifa”.
• Walid Khalidi, ed., All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992, pp. 146–147.
• Government of Palestine, Census of Palestine, 1931: Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas.
• Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, Village Statistics, April 1945.
• Sami Hadawi, Village Statistics 1945: A Classification of Land and Area Ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Centre, 1970.
• Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, 2004.