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Fajja

فجّة
Fajja فجّة
	Etymology: from personal name
	1870s map 1940s map modern map 1940s with modern overlay map A series of historical maps of the area around Fajja (click the buttons)
	Fajja Location within Mandatory Palestine
	Coordinates: 32°05′12″N 34°54′8″E / 32.08667°N 34.90222°E
Palestine grid	141/165
Geopolitical entity	Mandatory Palestine
Subdistrict	Jaffa
Date of depopulation	May 15, 1948
Area
• Total	4,419 dunams (4.4 km2 or 1.7 sq mi)
Population (1945)
• Total	1,200
Cause(s) of depopulation	Whispering campaign
Current Localities	Petah Tikva

Fajja (Arabic: فجّة) was a Palestinian town located 15 kilometers northeast of Jaffa. Ethnically cleansed during the Nakba, its land area is today part of the Israeli city of Petah Tikva.

History

Pottery remains from the Chalcolithic, Middle Bronze II, Iron, Persian and Roman eras have been found here.^[5]^[6]

Winepresses, dated to the Roman/Byzantine era (5th and 6th century) have been excavated here,^[5]^[7] and pottery remains from the Byzantine era have also been found.^[6]

Pottery from the early Islamic period (eighth–tenth centuries CE) have been excavated here, as has glass artefacts from the early Umayyad era, and ceramic jugs from the Abbasid era.^[6]

Ceramic vessels dating to the twelfth–thirteenth centuries CE (ie Crusader or Ayyubid era) "including a glazed yellow bowl with an incised decoration that may represent a Latin letter" have also been found.^[6]

Ottoman era

In 1856 the village was named el−Fejjeh on Kiepert's map of Palestine published that year.^[8]

In 1870, Victor Guérin found the village to be divided into two quarters, each with its own Sheikh. He estimated it to have 300 inhabitants,^[9] while an Ottoman village list from about the same year found that Fajja had a population of 110, in 35 houses, though the population count only included men.^[10]^[11]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Fajja as a small village built of adobe bricks.^[12]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Fajjeh had a population of 164, all Muslims,^[13] increasing sharply in the 1931 census, to 707, still all Muslims, in a total of 165 houses.^[14]

The town had one elementary school, founded in 1922. By 1945 it had 181 students, including 10 females.^[4]

In the 1945 statistics, Fajja had 1,200 Muslim inhabitants, in addition to 370 Jews, and a total land area of 4,419 dunams.^[2]^[15] Of this, a total of 768 dunams was used for citrus and bananas, 61 dunams were irrigated or used for orchards, 3,863 used for cereals,^[16] while 7 dunams were classified as built-up areas.^[17]

1948, aftermath

In early April, the villagers of Fajja sued for a truce with their Jewish neighbours.^[18] Also, the villagers of Fajja later contacted their Jewish neighbours and promised "quiet".^[19] It was occupied by the Haganah and Irgun on May 15, 1948, without any resistance. Most of the Arab inhabitants fled the town before its capture by Israeli forces due to alleged attacks by the Irgun on February 17. In June 1948, the town was demolished based on the recommendation of Yosef Weitz of the Jewish National Fund.^[20] Most of the town's land is currently a part of the jurisdiction of the city of Petah Tikva.

In 1992 the village site was described by Walid Khalidi: "The village has been completely razed except for one house and a pond. Eucalyptus trees and cactuses further mark the site. The surrounding land is partly occupied by buildings; the rest is cultivated."^[4]

Footnotes

^ Palmer, 1881, p. 214
^ ^a ^b Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 27
^ Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #203. Also gives cause of depopulation.
^ ^a ^b ^c Khalidi, 1992, p. 240
^ ^a ^b Kaplan and Kaplan, cited in Bar-Nathan, 2002, p. 108
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Haddad, 2009, Petah Tiqwa
^ Kaplan and Cohen, 1963, cited in Gorzalczany, 2005, Petah Tiqwa, Mahane Yehuda
^ Kiepert, 1856, Map of Southern Palestine
^ Guérin, 1875, pp. 371-372
^ Socin, 1879, p. 154
^ Hartmann, 1883, p. 137 also noted 35 houses
^ Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP II, p.251. Cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 240.
^ Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jaffa, p. 20
^ Mills, 1932, p. 13
^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 52
^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 95
^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 145
^ Morris, 2004, p. 246, note #644 on p. 298
^ Morris, 2004, p. 240, note #581 on p. 295
^ District of Jaffa: Fajja Town Statistics and Facts.Information extracted from Bibliography and References Benny Morris and Walid Khalidi.