Qisarya
Encyclopedia
The village of Qisarya was located 37 kilometres (23 mi) south of Haifa.
area, the ruins of Caesarea Maritima by the Crusader fortress near Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast was uninhabited. First in 1664 a settlement is mentioned. It consisted of 100 "Moroccan" families, and 7-8 Jewish ones. In the 17th hundred it again declined. In 1884 a community was established by Bushnak
s (Muslim immigrants from Bosnia) who built a small fishing village. The village decline in economic importance occurred when a railway was built bypassing the port, ruining their livelihood. Qisarya had a population of 930 Muslims and 30 Christians in 1945. In 1944/45 a total of 18 dunums of village land was used for citrus and bananas, 1,020 dunums were used for cereal
s, while 108 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.
attack on a bus leaving Qisarya, killing 2 and injuring 6 people, precipitated an evacuation of the population, who fled for fear of further attacks, mainly to al-Tantura
. Also during February 1948 the 'Arab al Sufsafi and Saidun Bedouin
, who inhabited the dunes between Qisarya and Pardes
left the area. After that the remaining inhabitants were expelled
and the village houses were demolished by the Palmach
4th battalion between 19–20 February and October 1948.
Before demolishing the buildings, the few Arabs who remained were killed... According to a testimony collected from Battalion members obtained by Israeli historian Uri Milstein: "In February 1948, the 4th Battalion of Palmach, under the command of Josef Tabenkin, conquered Caesaria." Historians Aryeh Yitzhaki and Uri Milstein described the incidents as a massacre. During the conquest of Caesaria a number of the Arab inhabitants were killed. According to a testimony collected from Battalion members obtained by Israeli historian Uri Milstein: "In February 1948, the 4th Battalion of Palmach, under the command of Josef Tabenkin, conquered Caesaria."
The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi
described the village remains in 1992: "Most of the houses have been demolished. The site has been excavated in recent years, largely by Italian, American, and Israeli teams, and turned into a tourist area. Most of the few remaining houses are now restaurants, and the village mosque has been converted into a bar"
Petersen, visiting the place in 1992, writes that the nineteenth-century houses were built in blocks, generally one storey high (with the exception of the house of the governor.) Some houses on the western side of the village, near the sea, have survived. There were a number of mosques in the village in the nineteenth century, but only one ("The Bosnian mosque") has survived. This mosque, located at the southern end of the city, next to the harbour, is described as a simple stone building with a red-tiled roof and a cylindrical minaret. It was used (in 1992) as a restaurant and as a gift shop.
A Great Mosque was seen there in 439H (1047) by Nasir-i-Khusraw. This was converted into the church of St. Peter in Crusader times. A wall, which could belong to this building, has been identified in modern times.
History
After the Muslim conquest, during the MamlukMamluk
A Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
area, the ruins of Caesarea Maritima by the Crusader fortress near Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast was uninhabited. First in 1664 a settlement is mentioned. It consisted of 100 "Moroccan" families, and 7-8 Jewish ones. In the 17th hundred it again declined. In 1884 a community was established by Bushnak
Bushnak
Bushnak is a surname common among the small minority of Palestinians who are of Bosnian origin. Those sharing this surname are the descendants of Muslim soldiers who were brought to Palestine at the end of the nineteenth century by the Ottoman authorities to provide reinforcements for its army, or...
s (Muslim immigrants from Bosnia) who built a small fishing village. The village decline in economic importance occurred when a railway was built bypassing the port, ruining their livelihood. Qisarya had a population of 930 Muslims and 30 Christians in 1945. In 1944/45 a total of 18 dunums of village land was used for citrus and bananas, 1,020 dunums were used for cereal
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
s, while 108 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.
1947/1948, Massacre, and Aftermath
In December 1947 the local leader, Tawfiq Kadkuda, had made approaches to Jewish officials in an effort to establish non-belligerency agreements with local Jewish settlements. The 31 January 1948 LehiLehi (group)
Lehi , commonly referred to in English as the Stern Group or Stern Gang, was a militant Zionist group founded by Avraham Stern in the British Mandate of Palestine...
attack on a bus leaving Qisarya, killing 2 and injuring 6 people, precipitated an evacuation of the population, who fled for fear of further attacks, mainly to al-Tantura
Al-Tantura
Tantura was a Palestinian Arab fishing village located 8 kilometers northwest of Zikhron Ya'akov on the Mediterranean coast of Israel. It was built on the ruins of the ancient Phoenician city of Dor.-Antiquity:...
. Also during February 1948 the 'Arab al Sufsafi and Saidun Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
, who inhabited the dunes between Qisarya and Pardes
Pardes Hanna-Karkur
Pardes Hanna-Karkur is a town in the Haifa District of Israel. In 2009, it had a population of 31,800.-History:In 1913, 15 square kilometers of land was purchased by the Hachsharat Hayishuv society from Arabs in Jenin and Haifa for 400,000 francs...
left the area. After that the remaining inhabitants were expelled
1948 Palestinian exodus
The 1948 Palestinian exodus , also known as the Nakba , occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs left, fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the Civil War that preceded it. The exact number of refugees is a matter of dispute...
and the village houses were demolished by the Palmach
Palmach
The Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate of Palestine. The Palmach was established on May 15, 1941...
4th battalion between 19–20 February and October 1948.
Before demolishing the buildings, the few Arabs who remained were killed... According to a testimony collected from Battalion members obtained by Israeli historian Uri Milstein: "In February 1948, the 4th Battalion of Palmach, under the command of Josef Tabenkin, conquered Caesaria." Historians Aryeh Yitzhaki and Uri Milstein described the incidents as a massacre. During the conquest of Caesaria a number of the Arab inhabitants were killed. According to a testimony collected from Battalion members obtained by Israeli historian Uri Milstein: "In February 1948, the 4th Battalion of Palmach, under the command of Josef Tabenkin, conquered Caesaria."
The Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is General Secretary and co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an independent research and publishing center...
described the village remains in 1992: "Most of the houses have been demolished. The site has been excavated in recent years, largely by Italian, American, and Israeli teams, and turned into a tourist area. Most of the few remaining houses are now restaurants, and the village mosque has been converted into a bar"
Petersen, visiting the place in 1992, writes that the nineteenth-century houses were built in blocks, generally one storey high (with the exception of the house of the governor.) Some houses on the western side of the village, near the sea, have survived. There were a number of mosques in the village in the nineteenth century, but only one ("The Bosnian mosque") has survived. This mosque, located at the southern end of the city, next to the harbour, is described as a simple stone building with a red-tiled roof and a cylindrical minaret. It was used (in 1992) as a restaurant and as a gift shop.
A Great Mosque was seen there in 439H (1047) by Nasir-i-Khusraw. This was converted into the church of St. Peter in Crusader times. A wall, which could belong to this building, has been identified in modern times.