Malha
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Malha (Hebrew: מלחה) ) is a neighborhood in southwest Jerusalem, Israel situated between Patt and Kiryat Hayovel. Before 1948, Malha was an Arab village. The official Hebrew name of the neighborhood is Manahat, named after the biblical town, but residents of Jerusalem continue to call it Malha.
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[edit] History
Archaeological excavations in the area in 1987-1990 unearthed two large Bronze Age agricultural villages, built one above the other, believed to have been Manahat, a Canaanite town on the northern border of the Tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:59). [1] The remains of the village have been preserved in the Biblical Zoo.[1]
[edit] 1948
In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Palestinian Arab village of al-Maliha(Arabic: المالحه), with a population of 2,250[2], was occupied as part of the battle for south Jerusalem. In the early part of the civil war Al-Maliha along with al-Qastal, Sur Bahir and Deir Yassin concluded none aggression pacts with the Haganah.[3] After the fall of Deir Yassin Igun noted on 12 April 1948 that:
terror and dread among the Arabs in all the villages around; in al Maliha, Qaluniya and Beit Iksa a panic flight began that facilitates the renewal of road communications...between the capital [Jerusalem] and the rest of the country.[4]
The Irgun attacked Malha in early morning hours of July 14, 1948. Several hours later, the Palestinian Arabs launched a counter-attack and seized one of the fortified positions. When Irgun reinforcements arrived, the Palestinians retreated and al-Maliha was in Jewish control, but 17 Irgun fighters were killed and many wounded. [5]
The Palestinian Arab inhabitants fled to Bethlehem which remained under Jordanian control. The abandoned homes were repopulated by Jewish refugees from Middle Eastern countries, mainly Iraq. The first Palestinian fedayeen raid in Israel took place in November 1951 in Malha when a woman Leah Festinger was killed by infiltrators from Shuafat, at the time part of Jordan.[6][7]
[edit] Today
Under the jurisdiction of the Jerusalem Municipality, the village was modernised and a large housing development was established on the nearby hill and its eastern slopes. At the bottom of the hill are the Malha Shopping Mall, Teddy Stadium, and the Jerusalem Malha Railway Station. Malha is now considered an upscale neighborhood. Schools include a vocational high school (ORT) and an elementary school. The Malha Technological Centre houses high-tech start-ups. The Jerusalem Biblical Zoo is located in Malha.
[edit] See also
- Operation Kedem
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
- List of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict
- Mustafa Abu Ali
[edit] References
- ^ a b Nahal Refa-im - Canaanite Bronze Age villages near
- ^ Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
- ^ Morris, Benny, (second edition 2004 third printing 2006) The Birth Of The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-00967-7 p 75 and p 91
- ^ Morris, Benny, (second edition 2004 third printing 2006) The Birth Of The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-00967-7 p 239
- ^ The Jerusalem Battalion
- ^ Hebrew Ynet Encyclopedia
- ^ “As on Israel Foreign Ministry official put it: For years the army [i.e. IDF] has been informing the Ministry and the outside world that infiltration is being sponsored, inspired, guided, or at least utilised by the Legion or other powers that be. However...when [we] asked [the army for] ...some clear documentary proof of the [Arabs] Legion’s complicity [in the infiltrations]...no clear answer came from the army. Finally Fati [i.e. deputy DMI Yehoshafat Harbaki] told Leo [Savir, senior Foreign Ministry official] and myself, on two separate occasions, that no proof could be given because no proof existed. Furthermore, Fati told me that having personally made a detail study of infiltration, he had arrived at the conclusion that Jordanians and especially the Legion were doing their best to prevent infiltration, which was a natural decentralised and sporadic movement. In fact, listening to Fati or his colleagues these days, one could almost mistake them for British Foreign Office [which consistently argued in this vein].” Benny Morris (1993) Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198292627 P 67
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 31°45′08.5″N 35°10′55.2″E / 31.752361°N 35.182°E
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