Daliyat al-Rawha' – Depopulated Palestinian Village of the Haifa Subdistrict

Daliyat al-Rawha' was a depopulated Palestinian village in the Haifa Subdistrict, located approximately 24.5 kilometers southeast of Haifa. It stood on a small hill between two shallow wadis running north to south, at an average elevation of about 200 meters above sea level.

The village gave its name to the wider region known as Bilad al-Rawha'. A secondary road connected it to a main highway that ran southwest toward the Mediterranean coast and northeast toward the plain of Marj ibn Amir.

District

Haifa

Distance from Haifa

Approximately 24.5 km southeast of Haifa

Elevation

Approximately 200 m above sea level

Natural Setting

A small hill between two shallow wadis in Bilad al-Rawha'

Population in 1944/1945

280 Arabs in Daliyat al-Rawha'; 600 total in the statistical unit including Dalia, of whom 320 were Jewish

Estimated Palestinian Population in 1948

325 inhabitants – a later estimate published by Palestine Remembered, not an official census

Occupation and Depopulation Period

Palestinian residents were expelled in February 1948; the village site was occupied on 14 April 1948 during the Battle of Mishmar HaEmek

Military Context

Battle of Mishmar HaEmek; no separately named village-specific operation is established in the principal sources

Military Unit

Haganah; the principal village sources do not independently identify a specific battalion or brigade

Total Land Area

10,008 dunums – the statistical unit includes Dalia

Settlement Established on Village Lands

Dalia, established in 1939 on land originally belonging to the village; Ramot Menashe stands on Sabbarin lands

The Name Daliyat al-Rawha' and Bilad al-Rawha'

Walid Khalidi renders the name Daliyat al-Rawha' as referring to a fragrant vine. The wider area extending eastward toward Umm al-Fahm was known as Bilad al-Rawha', the “fragrant country.”

Daliyat al-Rawha' Through History

Al-Maqrizi recorded that the Mamluk Sultan Qalawun stayed at Daliyat al-Rawha' in 1281 while campaigning against the Crusaders and that a temporary truce between the two sides was concluded there.

In the late nineteenth century, the authors of the Survey of Western Palestine described the village as standing on the western side of a watershed, with a good spring to the south. They estimated its population at approximately 60 and stated that its inhabitants cultivated ten faddans.

Location and Built Environment

The village had a rectangular plan extending from east to west. Its houses were clustered together and built of stone held with either mud or cement mortar.

Daliyat al-Rawha' stood on a small hill between two shallow wadis running north to south. A secondary road linked it to a main highway leading southwest toward the Mediterranean and northeast toward Marj ibn Amir.

A khirba stood northwest of the village, although the principal sources used here do not provide sufficient evidence to date all of its remains.

Population of Daliyat al-Rawha'

The Palestinian residents of Daliyat al-Rawha' were Muslims. The 1944/45 figures require particular care because the statistical unit included the Jewish settlement of Dalia; the total of 600 therefore should not be presented as the Palestinian population of the village itself.

Number of Houses

Land Ownership in Daliyat al-Rawha'

The statistical unit containing Daliyat al-Rawha' and Dalia covered a total of 10,008 dunums. Palestine Remembered presents the simplified ownership categories as follows:

The official 1944/45 Village Statistics use the categories Arab, Jewish, and Public, listing 178 Arab dunums, 9,614 Jewish dunums, and 216 public dunums. These figures include Dalia.

Land Use in 1944/1945

The categories add correctly to the total land area of 10,008 dunums. Cultivated or cultivable land amounted to 9,749 dunums, while built-up and non-cultivable land together accounted for 259 dunums.

Economic Life in Daliyat al-Rawha'

The Palestinian inhabitants depended on agriculture and animal husbandry. By 1944/45, however, the land remaining in Arab ownership within the statistical unit was limited relative to the area already classified under Jewish ownership.

Palestinian farmers allocated 56 dunums to cereals and 98 dunums to irrigated land or orchards. Livestock raising was another component of the village economy.

Water Resources

The inhabitants obtained water from the numerous springs surrounding the village. The nineteenth-century Survey of Western Palestine specifically mentioned a good spring south of the settlement.

Education in Daliyat al-Rawha'

The principal sources used for this article do not provide sufficiently documented information about an independent village school, its establishment date, or its enrollment. No unsupported school date or student figure is therefore supplied.

Occupation and Depopulation of Daliyat al-Rawha'

Daliyat al-Rawha' passed through more than one stage of displacement and occupation, and its history cannot accurately be reduced to a single date.

Walid Khalidi, discussing an account attributed to Benny Morris, states that by the eve of the Nakba much of the village land had already been acquired by Zionist organizations and that the Palestinian residents were living as tenant farmers. In January 1948, officials of the Jewish National Fund discussed the fate of Daliyat al-Rawha' and similar communities.

According to the same account, in February 1948 Yosef Weitz used contacts with local Haganah units and Haganah intelligence officers to have tenant farmers removed from several villages, including Daliyat al-Rawha'. The principal displacement of the Palestinian villagers therefore preceded the later documented military occupation of the site.

The village site itself was reportedly occupied on 14 April 1948 during the fighting around Mishmar HaEmek. A contemporary report cited by Khalidi stated that Daliyat al-Rawha' was among a group of villages captured in an arc south of the settlement.

Palestine Remembered separately displays 1 March 1948 as an occupation date in its summary field. Its detailed historical narrative, however, distinguishes between the February eviction and the military occupation on 14 April. The 1 March date is therefore not treated here as an independently established final occupation date.

Occupation Chronology

1. 01
   January 1948

   Discussion of the Villagers' Fate

   Jewish National Fund officials discussed the future of Daliyat al-Rawha' and similar tenant-farming communities.

2. 02
   February 1948

   Expulsion of Palestinian Residents

   According to the account reproduced by Khalidi, local Haganah units and intelligence contacts were used to remove tenant farmers from the village.

3. 03
   1 March 1948

   Conflicting Database Date

   This appears as the occupation date in a Palestine Remembered summary field but conflicts with the detailed chronology that places military occupation in April.

4. 04
   14 April 1948

   Occupation of the Village Site

   Daliyat al-Rawha' was occupied during the fighting around Mishmar HaEmek.

5. 05
   By mid-June 1948

   Complete Destruction Documented

   The historical account states that the village had been completely destroyed by this time.

Battle of Mishmar HaEmek and Military Unit

Military Context: The occupation of Daliyat al-Rawha' took place during the final phase of the fighting around Mishmar HaEmek in April 1948, when Haganah forces took control of a number of Palestinian villages in the surrounding area.

Military Unit: Haganah. The village-specific historical entry does not independently identify the battalion or brigade that entered Daliyat al-Rawha' on 14 April, so no more specific unit is assigned without village-level documentation.

Cause of Depopulation

The depopulation of Daliyat al-Rawha' occurred in more than one stage. The February eviction of Palestinian tenant farmers preceded the military occupation of the village site in April. Palestine Remembered classifies the cause of departure as a direct military assault.

Destruction of Daliyat al-Rawha'

The historical material reproduced by Khalidi indicates that the destruction of the village was complete by mid-June 1948. The principal sources do not establish the exact day on which the demolition itself took place.

Settlements on Daliyat al-Rawha' Village Lands

Dalia was established in 1939 south of the Palestinian village site on land that had originally belonged to Daliyat al-Rawha'. It was therefore established before the Nakba on part of the village lands.

Ramot Menashe, established on 31 July 1948, was attributed in one account to Daliyat al-Rawha' land. Khalidi, however, corrects this and states that Ramot Menashe actually stands on land belonging to neighboring Sabbarin. It is therefore not listed here as a settlement established on Daliyat al-Rawha' village land.

Daliyat al-Rawha' Today

According to Walid Khalidi's field description documented before the publication of All That Remains in 1992, stone rubble from village houses remained visible beneath soil, grass, bushes, and thorny vegetation. Large clusters of cactus covered substantial parts of the site, while several olive, chinaberry, and poplar trees remained scattered across it.

A large eucalyptus stood at the southern edge. Stones among the cactus plants nearby were thought to represent the remains of the village cemetery, while walls from a house with a stone floor survived in the wadi at the southern edge of the site.

This is historical field documentation from the period preceding the book's publication in 1992 and should not be treated as direct verification of conditions in 2026.

Palestine Remembered also published a community documentation page on 22 August 2026 containing a filmed visit to the Daliyat al-Rawha' site. The publication date does not necessarily establish the recording date, however, so this material is best treated as later community documentation rather than an independent comprehensive field survey of the site in 2026.

Sources

• PalQuest – Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question: Daliyat al-Rawha'
• Palestine Remembered – Daliyat al-Rawha', Haifa District
• Palestine Remembered – Historical account of Daliyat al-Rawha' from Walid Khalidi's All That Remains
• Palestine Remembered – Later community documentation of Daliyat al-Rawha', published August 2026
• Government of Palestine – Census of Palestine, 1922
• Birzeit University Repository – Census of Palestine, 1931, E. Mills
• Sami Hadawi – Village Statistics 1945, reproducing Government of Palestine statistics