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Al-Shaykh Muwannis الشيخ مونّسSheikh Muwannis
The former home of the village sheikh, aka "The Green house", presently part of Tel Aviv University
Etymology: "The Sheikh Muwannis"
1870s map 1940s map modern map 1940s with modern overlay map A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Shaykh Muwannis (click the buttons)
Al-Shaykh MuwannisLocation within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°06′30″N 34°48′15″E / 32.10833°N 34.80417°E / 32.10833; 34.80417
Palestine grid	131/168
Geopolitical entity	Mandatory Palestine
Subdistrict	Jaffa
Date of depopulation	March 30, 1948
Area
• Total	15,972 dunams (15.972 km or 6.167 sq mi)
Population
• Total	1,930
Cause(s) of depopulation	Military assault by Yishuv forces
Secondary cause	Fear of being caught up in the fighting
Current Localities	Tel Aviv

Al-Shaykh Muwannis (Arabic: الشيخ مونّس), also Sheikh Munis, was a small Palestinian Arab village in the Jaffa Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine, located approximately 8.5 kilometers from the center of Jaffa city in territory earmarked for Jewish statehood under the UN Partition Plan. The village was abandoned in March 1948 due to the threats of Jewish militias, two months before the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. Today, Tel Aviv University lies on part of the village land.

History

According to local legend, the village was named for a local religious figure, al-Shaykh Muwannis, whose maqam was in the village.

Ottoman era

During the Ottoman era, Pierre Jacotin named the village Dahr on his map from 1799.

Al-Shaykh Muwannis was noted in December 1821, as being "located on a hill surrounded by muddy land that was flooded with water despite the moderate winter". In 1856 the village was named Sheikh Muennis on Kiepert's map of Palestine published that year.

In 1870, Victor Guérin noted about al-Shaykh Muwannis: "It contains four hundred inhabitants and is divided into several quarters, each under the jurisdiction of a particular sheikh. On the outskirts one can note some gardens where succulent watermelons grow, with hardly any horticultural care." In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) noted "ruins of a house near the kubbeh", while Al-Shaykh Muwannis was described as an ordinary adobe village. Most of the villagers were members of the Abu Kishk tribe.

The village population was 315 in 1879.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Shaik Muannes had a population of 664 residents, all Muslims. This had increased in the 1931 census when Esh Sheikh Muwannis had 1154 inhabitants, still all Muslims, in 273 houses.

In the 1920s, the government of the British mandate attempted to gain title to lands lying to the west of Al-Shaykh Muwannis and extending to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea on the grounds that it was "waste and uncultivated." According to the authors of a book on the Israeli-Arab conflict, the Arabs of the Jaffa-Tel Aviv region "understood the implications of the Zionist-cum-British discourses of development generally and their implementation through town planning schemes." In 1937, the Arabic daily al Ja'miah al-Islamiyya commented on British plans to build a bypass road for Tel Aviv residents on what they claimed were village lands: "n reality the plan in the Town Planning Commission now including Sheikh Muwannis is not really a 'plan', but rather a plan to take the land out of the hands of its owners."

There were two schools in the village, a boys' school built in 1932 and a girls' school built in 1943. 266 students were registered in these schools in 1945. The villagers worked in agriculture, particularly citrus cultivation. In the 1945 statistics, 3,749 dunums were used for growing citrus and bananas, and 7,165 dunums of village land was used for cereals. 66 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, irrigation water was drawn from al-Awja river and a large number of artesian wells. 41 dunams of village lands were classified as built-up areas.

In 1946, three Arab villagers raped a Jewish girl. In the midst of the court proceedings, members of the Haganah shot and wounded one of the attackers, and kidnapped and castrated another. In 1947, in the wake of growing hostility in the days leading up to the war, some of the villagers began to leave. Most stayed, as village notables had secured Haganah protection in exchange for keeping the peace and preventing Arab Liberation Army (ALA) irregulars from using the village to attack Yishuv forces.

Before the 1948 war, the population of al-Shaykh Muwannis was 2,000.

1948 war and aftermath

In 1948, the population was largely made up of fellaheen who enjoyed friendly relations with Jews, despite occasional tension. While occasional shots were fired from the village toward Jewish residential areas in January and February 1948, there were no casualties, and the Abu Kishk abided by their promise to keep out ALA irregulars. The emissary of the ALA was informed by the Abu Kishk that "the Arabs of the area will cooperate with the Jews against any outside force that tries to enter."

Some intelligence reports, which were never corroborated, suggested that in early 1948 the village, which overlooked both the Sde Dov Airport and the Reading Power Station, was being infiltrated by heavily-armed Arab irregulars. On 7 March, the Haganah's Alexandroni Brigade imposed a 'quarantine' on the village by closing off all access roads to it and the two smaller satellite villages of Jalil al Shamaliyya and Jalil al Qibliya and may even have occupied houses on the edge of the village. The underground Stern Gang (LHI) maintained one of its encampments in the village, and, five days later, on 12 March, militants from either the Irgun or Lehi groups kidnapped five village notables. The Jewish Intelligence Services noted that

"many of the villagers ... began fleeing following the abduction of the notables of Sheikh Muwannis. The Arab learned that it was not enough to reach an agreement with the Haganah and that there were 'other Jews' of whom to beware, and possibly to be aware of more than the Haganah, which had not control over them."

The villagers then protested that Jewish forces in the area were subjecting them to intimidation, looting and shooting at them randomly. Though the notables were turned over to the Haganah on the 23 March and returned to Shaykh Muwannis, most of the villagers there and in other villages north of the Yarkon River continued to leave, as their confidence had been "mortally undermined". Tawfiq Abu Kishk threw a large parting 'banquet' for the remaining villagers and their Jewish friends on the 28 March 1948. After their departure, the village lands were promptly allocated for Jewish use by the Yishuv leaders, and were ultimately incorporated into the municipality of Tel Aviv.

In the days following, the Abu Kishk leaders attributed their abandonment of the village to: "a) the roadblocks ... b) the limitations on movement by foot, c) the theft of vehicles, and d) the last kidnapping of Sheikh Muwannis men by the LHI." The villagers of Shaykh Muwannis became refugees, with the majority taking up residence in Qalqilya and Tulkarem.

According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, the village's remaining structures in 1992 consisted of several houses occupied by Jewish families and the wall of a house. Soon after the war, it was used to accommodate members of the new Israeli Air Force and men from Mahal units. It was initially repopulated, from 1949 onwards, by Jews from North Africa, called "Moroccans" by other Jews in the area, and much of its land, as the North African Jews were relocated, was taken over for the development of Tel Aviv University, and the former home of the village sheikh, known as the 'Green House', serves as the University's faculty club. The Israelian historian Shlomo Sand suggested to the Tel Aviv University to set up a museum in the 'Green House' to commemorate the Nakba of the uprooted inhabitants of Al-Shaykh Muwannis.

In a right of return march organized by the Israeli group Zochrot on Nakba Day in 2004, participants called upon the Tel Aviv municipality to name six streets in the city after Palestinian villages that had existed there until 1948, among them, Al-Shaykh Muwannis.

See also

• Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel

References

1. Palmer, 1881, p. 218
2. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 53
3. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 28
4. Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #200. Also gives causes of depopulation.
5. ^ Daniel Monterescu and Dan Rabinowitz (2007). Mixed Towns, Trapped Communities: Historical Narratives, Spatial Dynamics, Gender Relations and Cultural Encounters in Palestinian-Israeli Towns. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 298. ISBN 978-0-7546-4732-4.
6. Benny Morris (Autumn 1991). "Response to Finkelstein and Masalha". Journal of Palestine Studies. 21 (1): 98–114. doi:10.1525/jps.1991.21.1.00p00682.
7. ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 260
8. Karmon, 1960, p. 170 Archived 2017-12-01 at the Wayback Machine
9. Berggren, "Resor i Europa och österlanderna", Stockholm, 1828, p.61; cited in Sand, 2012, p. 262
10. Kiepert, 1856, Map of Southern Palestine
11. Guérin, 1870, p. 274
12. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 275
13. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 254
14. ^ Morris, 2004, pp. 127–128
15. PEF; cited in Sand, 2012, p. 262
16. Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jaffa, p. 20
17. Mills, 1932, p. 14
18. ^ Haim Yacobi (2004). Constructing a Sense of Place: Architecture and the Zionist Discourse. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 199. ISBN 0-7546-3427-2.
19. ^ Sufian and LeVine, p. 298
20. Huri İslamoğlu-İnan (2004). Constituting Modernity: Private Property in the East and West By Huri İslamoğlu-İnan. I.B.Tauris. p. 141. ISBN 1-86064-996-3.
21. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 97
22. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 147
23. ^ Omer Bartov, 'From Buchach to Sheikh Muwannis:Building the Future and Erasing the Past,' ,' in Michele R. Rivkin-Fish, Elena Trubina (eds.), Dilemmas of Diversity After the Cold War: Analyses of "cultural Difference" by U.S. and Russia-based Scholars, Woodrow Wilson Center, 2010 ISBN 978-1-933-54992-7 pp.52-81.
24. Bartov p.68
25. ^ Benny Morris, 'The causes and character of the Arab exodus from Palestine: the Israeli defense forces intelligence service analysis of June 1948,' in Ilan Pappé (ed.), The Israel/Palestine Question, Routledge ISBN 978-0-415-16497-9 1999 pp.169-183 pp.173-174.
26. Bartov p.52,67-68
27. Bartov p.67
28. Cited in Sand, 2012, p. 251
29. "The Threat of Disengagement: Can Israel Separate from the Palestinians?" (PDF). Al-Majdal. Issue. 22. Badil. June 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-11-08.

Bibliography

• Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
• Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
• Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945.
• Guérin, V. (1875). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 2: Samarie, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
• Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center. Archived from the original on 2018-12-08. Retrieved 2009-02-01.
• Karmon, Y. (1960). "An Analysis of Jacotin's Map of Palestine" (PDF). Israel Exploration Journal. 10 (3, 4): 155–173, 244–253. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2015-04-16.
• Khalidi, W. (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, B. (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00967-7.
• 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.
• Pappe, I. (1999). The Israel/Palestine Question. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-16947-X.
• Sand, S. (2012). The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland. Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-84467-946-1.
• Sufian, Sandra Marlene; LeVine, M. (2007). Reapproaching borders: new perspectives on the study of Israel-Palestine. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-4639-4.

External links

• Welcome to al-Shaykh-Muwannis,
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 13: IAA, Wikimedia commons
• Shaykh Muwannis, from Zochrot
• Meeting the bulldozers at the Baydas House, Shaykh Muwannis (Ramat Aviv), Zoroch
• Tel Aviv University is asked to acknowledge its past and to commemorate the Palestinian village on which grounds the university was built, 2003, Zochrot
• al-Shaykh Muwannis tour - report 2003.
• Map, 1946

v t e Palestinian Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestinian exodus by subdistrict
Acre	Amqa Arab al-Samniyya al-Bassa al-Birwa al-Damun Dayr al-Qassi al-Ghabisiyya Iqrit Iribbin Jiddin al-Kabri Kafr 'Inan Kuwaykat al-Manshiyya al-Mansura Mi'ar al-Nabi Rubin al-Nahr al-Ruways Suhmata al-Sumayriyya Suruh al-Tall Tarbikha Umm al-Faraj az-Zeeb
Beisan	Arab al-'Arida Arab al-Bawati Arab al-Safa al-Ashrafiyya al-Bira Beisan Danna Farwana al-Fatur al-Ghazzawiyya al-Hamidiyya al-Hamra Jabbul Kafra Kawkab al-Hawa al-Khunayzir Masil al-Jizl al-Murassas Qumya al-Sakhina al-Samiriyya Sirin Tall al-Shawk al-Taqa al-Tira Umm 'Ajra Umm Sabuna Yubla Zab'a al-Zawiya
Beersheba	al-Imara al-Jammama al-Khalasa Auja al-Hafir
Gaza	Arab Suqrir Barbara Barqa al-Batani al-Gharbi al-Batani al-Sharqi Bayt 'Affa Bayt Daras Bayt Jirja Bayt Tima Bil'in Burayr Dayr Sunayd Dimra al-Faluja Hamama Hatta Hiribya Huj Hulayqat Ibdis Iraq al-Manshiyya Iraq Suwaydan Isdud al-Jaladiyya al-Jiyya Julis al-Jura Jusayr Karatiyya Kawfakha Kawkaba al-Khisas al-Masmiyya al-Kabira al-Masmiyya al-Saghira al-Muharraqa Najd Ni'ilya Qastina al-Sawafir al-Gharbiyya al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya al-Sawafir al-Sharqiyya Simsim Summil Tall al-Turmus Yasur
Haifa	Abu Shusha Abu Zurayq Arab al-Fuqara Arab al-Nufay'at Arab Zahrat al-Dumayri 'Atlit Ayn Ghazal Ayn Hawd Balad al-Sheikh Barrat Qisarya Burayka al-Burj al-Butaymat Daliyat al-Rawha' al-Dumun al-Ghubayya al-Fawqa al-Ghubayya al-Tahta Hawsha Ijzim Jaba' al-Jalama Kabara al-Kafrayn Kafr Lam al-Kasayir Khubbayza Lid al-Manara al-Mansi al-Mansura al-Mazar Naghnaghiya Qannir Qira Qisarya Qumbaza al-Rihaniyya Sabbarin al-Sarafand al-Sarkas Sa'sa' al-Sawamir al-Shuna al-Sindiyana al-Tantura al-Tira Umm ash Shauf Umm az-Zinat Wa'arat al-Sarris Wadi Ara Yajur
Hebron	'Ajjur Barqusya Bayt Jibrin Bayt Nattif al-Dawayima Deir al-Dubban Dayr Nakhkhas Kudna Mughallis al-Qubayba Ra'na Tell es-Safi Umm Burj az-Zakariyya Zayta Zikrin
Jaffa	al-'Abbasiyya Abu Kabir Abu Kishk Bayt Dajan Biyar 'Adas Fajja al-Haram Ijlil al-Qibliyya Ijlil al-Shamaliyya al-Jammasin al-Gharbi al-Jammasin al-Sharqi Jarisha Kafr 'Ana al-Khayriyya al-Mas'udiyya al-Mirr al-Muwaylih Rantiya al-Safiriyya Salama Saqiya al-Sawalima al-Shaykh Muwannis Yazur
Jenin	al-Jawfa al-Mazar Ayn al-Mansi Lajjun Nuris Zir'in
Jerusalem	Allar Aqqur Artuf Bayt 'Itab Bayt Mahsir Bayt Naqquba Bayt Thul Bayt Umm al-Mays al-Burayj Dayr Aban Dayr 'Amr Dayr al-Hawa Dayr Rafat Dayr al-Shaykh Deir Yassin Ayn Karim Ishwa Islin Ism Allah Jarash al-Jura Kasla al-Lawz Lifta al-Maliha Nitaf al-Qabu Qalunya al-Qastal Ras Abu 'Ammar Sar'a Saris Sataf Sheikh Badr Suba Sufla al-Tannur al-'Umur al-Walaja
Nazareth	al-Mujaydil Indur Ma'alul Saffuriyya
Ramle	Abu al-Fadl Abu Shusha Ajanjul Aqir Barfiliya al-Barriyya Bashshit Bayt Far Bayt Jiz Bayt Nabala Bayt Shanna Bayt Susin Bir Ma'in Bir Salim al-Burj al-Buwayra Daniyal Dayr Abu Salama Dayr Ayyub Dayr Muhaysin Dayr Tarif al-Duhayriyya al-Haditha Idnibba Innaba Jilya Jimzu Kharruba al-Khayma Khulda al-Kunayyisa al-Latrun Lydda al-Maghar Majdal Yaba al-Mansura al-Mukhayzin al-Muzayri'a al-Na'ani al-Nabi Rubin Qatra Qazaza al-Qubab al-Qubayba Qula Ramla Sajad Salbit Sarafand al-Amar Sarafand al-Kharab Saydun Shahma Shilta al-Tina al-Tira Umm Kalkha Wadi Hunayn Yibna Zakariyya Zarnuqa
Safad	Abil al-Qamh al-'Abisiyya 'Akbara Alma Ammuqa Arab al-Shamalina Arab al-Zubayd Ayn al-Zaytun Baysamun Biriyya al-Butayha al-Buwayziyya Dallata al-Dawwara Dayshum al-Dirbashiyya al-Dirdara Fara al-Farradiyya Fir'im Ghabbatiyya Ghuraba al-Hamra' Harrawi Hunin al-Husayniyya Jahula al-Ja'una Jubb Yusuf Kafr Bir'im al-Khalisa Khan al-Duwayr Karraza al-Khisas Khiyam al-Walid Kirad al-Baqqara Kirad al-Ghannama Lazzaza Madahil Al-Malkiyya Mallaha al-Manshiyya al-Mansura Mansurat al-Khayt Marus Meiron al-Muftakhira Mughr al-Khayt al-Muntar al-Nabi Yusha' al-Na'ima Qabba'a Qadas Qaddita Qaytiyya al-Qudayriyya al-Ras al-Ahmar Sabalan Safsaf Saliha al-Salihiyya al-Sammu'i al-Sanbariyya Sa'sa' al-Shawka al-Tahta al-Shuna Taytaba Tulayl al-'Ulmaniyya al-'Urayfiyya al-Wayziyya Yarda, Safad al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta al-Zanghariyya Zawiya al-Zuq al-Fawqani al-Zuq al-Tahtani
Tiberias	Awlam al-Dalhamiyya Ghuwayr Abu Shusha Hadatha al-Hamma Hittin Kafr Sabt Lubya Ma'dhar al-Majdal al-Manara al-Manshiyya al-Mansura Nasir al-Din Nimrin al-Nuqayb Samakh al-Samakiyya al-Samra al-Shajara al-Tabigha al-'Ubaydiyya Wadi Hamam al-Wa'ra al-Sawda' Yaquq
Tulkarm	Bayt Lid Bayyarat Hannun Fardisya Ghabat Kafr Sur al-Jalama Kafr Saba al-Majdal al-Manshiyya Miska Qaqun Raml Zayta Tabsur Umm Khalid Wadi al-Hawarith Wadi Qabbani al-Zabadida Zalafa

• District of Jaffa
• Arab villages depopulated prior to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War