Info
District: Haifa
Occupation date: 26/07/1948
Jewish settlements on village/town land before 1948: None
Jewish settlements on village/town land after 1948: None
Background:
Khirbat al-Manara Before 1948
At 19 km distance from Haifa, the village was located on a hill that sloped towards east, next to the coastal highway. A wadi passed to the south of the village, descending westwards. Khirbat al-Manara overlooked the Mediterranean, about 2 km to the west, and its name - which means 'lighthouse' in Arabic - may have referred to the village's high elevation in proximity to the sea.
Occupation, Depopulation, and Israeli Settlements
The Alexandroni's pace cleansing the coastal rectangle was horrific - within the second half of May 1948 alone they cleansed the following villages: Manshiyya (in the Tul-Karem area), Butaymat, Khirbat al-Manara, Qannir, Khirbat Qumbaza and Khirbat al-Shuna. A small number of villages courageously put up strong resistance, and the Alexandroni Brigade was unable to take them; nevertheless, they were finally cleansed in July. That is, the ethnic cleansing operations in the central coastal plain developed in two phases: the first in may and the second in July.
Some of the village lands are used by the settlement of 'Ofer, which was established in 1950. On another portion of its lands, a regional school was built which serves the nearby settlement of Kerem Maharal, established in 1949.
The Village Today
A fenced-in area on part of the site is used by the regional school; the remains of a house are visible inside a stand of cypress trees. Outside the fenced-in area are more cypress trees, among which are the remains of four stone houses. Cactuses and almond trees also grow there. The remains of two additional houses are near the southern part of the site. A house stands next to a well 0.5 km northwest of the site.
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Sources:
al-Khalidi, Walid (ed.). All that remains: the Palestinian villages occupied and depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington DC: 1992.
Pappe, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oxford: 2006.
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