Malha
Malha (Template:Lang-he) is a neighborhood in southwest Jerusalem, between Pat, Ramat Denya and Kiryat Hayovel in the Valley of Rephaim. Before 1948, Malha was a Palestinian Arab village known as al-Maliha (Template:Lang-ar). The official Hebrew name of the neighborhood is Manahat (Template:Lang-he) named for the biblical town of Manahath, but residents of Jerusalem continue to call it Malha.
History
Template:Infobox former Arab villages in Palestine
Antiquity
Excavations in Malha revealed Intermediate Bronze Age domestic structures.[1] A dig in the Rephaim Valley carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the region of the Malha shopping mall and Biblical Zoo uncovered a village dating back to the Middle Bronze Age II B (1,700 – 1,800 BCE). Beneath this, remains of an earlier village were found from the Early Bronze Age IV (2,200 – 2,100 BCE).[2]
According to the archaeologists who excavated there in 1987-1990, Malha is believed to be the site of Manahat, a Canaanite town on the northern border of the Tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:59).[3] Remains of the village have been preserved at the Biblical Zoo.[3]
Ottoman era
In 1596, al-Maliha was part of the Ottoman Empire, nahiya (subdistrict) of Jerusalem under the Liwa of Jerusalem, with a population of 286. It paid taxes on wheat, barley, and olive and fruit trees, goats and beehives.[4]
In the late 1870s the village was described as being of moderate size, standing high on a flat ridge. To the south was Ayn Yalu.[5]
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Malhah had a population 1,038, all Muslims,[6] increasing in the 1931 census to 1,410; 1,402 Muslims and 8 Christians, in a total of 299 houses.[7]
In 1945 the population of Malha was 1,940, all Arabs, and the total land area was 6,828 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[8] Of the land, a total of 2,618 dunams were plantations and irrigable land and 1,259 were for cereals,[9] while a total of 328 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[10]
1948
In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the village of al-Maliha, with a population of 2,250, was occupied as part of the battle for south Jerusalem.[11] In the early part of the war, Al-Maliha, along with al-Qastal, Sur Baher and Deir Yassin, signed non-aggression pacts with the Haganah.[12] On April 12, 1948, in the wake of the Deir Yassin Massacre, villagers from al Maliha, Qaluniya and Beit Iksa began to flee in panic.[13] 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 Malha was in Jewish control, but 17 Irgun fighters were killed and many wounded.[citation needed] The Arab inhabitants fled to Bethlehem, which remained under Jordanian control. The depopulated homes were occupied by Jewish refugees from Middle Eastern countries, mainly Iraq. Some of the land in Malha had been purchased before the establishment of the state by the Valero family, a family of Sephardi Jews that owned large amounts of property in Jerusalem and environs.[14]
After 1948
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.[15]
Today
Under the aegis of the Jerusalem Municipality, the neighborhood 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 Shalom School. The Jerusalem Technology Park houses many companies, including some high-tech start-ups as well as international media offices.[16] The Jerusalem Biblical Zoo and Malha Basketball Arena are also located in Malha.
See also
- Jerusalem Malha Railway Station
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
References
- ^ An Intermediate Bronze Age Farmhouse at Newe Shalom
- ^ Refaim Valley: The Palestinian villages of Al Wallaja and Battir, Archaeological View
- ^ a b Nahal Refa-im - Canaanite Bronze Age villages near
- ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 118. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 304
- ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, III:21. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p.304
- ^ Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p. 14
- ^ Mills, 1932, p. 41
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Hadawi57was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 103
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 153
- ^ Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
- ^ Morris, 2004, pp. 75, 91
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. 239
- ^ Sephardi entrepreneurs in Jerusalem: The Valero family, 1800-1948, Joseph B. Glass, Ruth Kark
- ^ Ynet Encyclopedia
- ^ Malha Technological Centre
Bibliography
- Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Conder, Claude Reignier; Kitchener, H. H. (1883). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 3. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Guérin, Victor (1868). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 1: Judee, pt. 1. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
- Guérin, Victor (1869). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 1: Judee, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
- Hadawi, Sami (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
- Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
- Khalidi, Walid (1992). All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
- Palmer, E. H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Rogers, Mary Eliza (1865): Domestic Life in Palestine
External links
- Photos of the neighborhood
- Al-Maliha village at palestineremembered.com
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17: IAA, Wikimedia commons
- Al-Maliha
- Tour and Signposting in Al-Malha
31°45′08.5″N 35°10′55.2″E / 31.752361°N 35.182000°E
