Dafna: Difference between revisions

▲| caption= Dafna. View to the north. 1947

▲Early [[Roman Empire|Roman]] pottery fragments have been found in an excavation in Dafna.<ref>Mokary, 2009, [http://www.hadashot-esi.org.il/report_detail_eng.aspx?id=1241&mag_id=115 Dafna, Final Report]</ref> A place called Daphne was mentioned in this vicinity by [[Josephus]].<ref name=Robinson/>

▲[[Edward Robinson (scholar)|Edward Robinson]], who visited in 1852, identified Daphne with a "low mound of rubbish with cut stones, evidently the remains of a former town" called Difneh that he encountered while riding south from [[Dan (ancient city)|Tel el-Qadi]] to [[Al-Mansura, Safad|Mansura]].<ref name=Robinson>{{cite book | authors = E. Robinson, E. Smith | display-authors=etal | title = Later Biblical Researches in Palestine and in the Adjacent Regions — A Journal of Travel in the Year 1852 | place = Boston | publisher = Crocker and Brewster | year = 1856 | pages = 393–394}}</ref> He noted that the land for some distance south was called Ard Difneh.<ref name=Robinson/>

▲The [[Survey of Western Palestine]] identified Daphne with Khirbet Dufnah, meaning "the ruin of Daphne ([[oleander]])", which they marked on [[Palestine Exploration Fund|their map]] in the place where [[Al-Shawka al-Tahta]] was to stand later, about 1km NNW of present-day Dafna.<ref>{{cite book|last=Palmer|first=E.H.|authorlink=Edward Henry Palmer |year=1881|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft|title=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|publisher=[[Palestine Exploration Fund|Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund]]|page=[https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/26/mode/1up 26]}}</ref><ref name="SWPI">{{cite book | author = C. R. Conder and H. H. Kitchener | title = The Survey of Western Palestine | volume = I | year = 1881 | location = London | publisher = The Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund | page = [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/118/mode/1up 118]}} Later Israeli maps marked ''Khirbet Dafna'' at a different place 1km SE of Dafna (Sheet "Dan", 1:20,000, at 2109/2921, Survey of Israel 1956).</ref><ref>Guérin, 1880, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr00gugoog#page/n382/mode/1up 382]−384</ref>

▲An Arab settlement was founded sometime between 1858 and 1878.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Y. Karmon | title = The Settlement of the Northern Huleh Valley since 1838 | journal = Israel Exploration Journal | volume = 3 | number = 1 | year = 1953 | pages = 4–25}}</ref> Difnah was listed as a village by the [[Mandatory Palestine|Mandate]] government in 1924.<ref>{{cite journal | page = 687 | author = Government of Palestine | title = Official Gazette of the Government of Palestine | volume = 116 | date = June 1, 1924}}</ref> At the time of the [[1931 census of Palestine|1931 census]], Dafna had 66 occupied houses and a population of 318 Muslims and one Christian.<ref name="Census1931">{{cite book | editor = E. Mills | title = Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas | publisher = Government of Palestine | location = Jerusalem | year = 1932 | page = 105}}</ref> At the beginning of 1939, the village was pillaged by bedouin, causing most of the population to leave.<ref name="Avnieri">{{cite book | author = Arieh L. Avnieri | title = The Claim of Dispossession; Jewish Land-Settlement and the Arabs, 1878-1948 | publisher = Transaction Books | place = New Brunswick and London | year = 1984 | pages = 195–196}}</ref> The land was soon purchased by the [[Jewish National Fund]].<ref name="Avnieri"/> The JNF was represented in the negotiations by the same man, Kamel Hussein, who had earlier led the raid on [[Tel-Hai]] in which [[Josef Trumpeldor]] was killed.<ref name="Avnieri"/>

▲The original Jewish settlers were immigrants mostly from [[Poland]] and [[Lithuania]].<ref name="JNF 1948">{{cite book | title=Jewish Villages in Israel | author=[[Jewish National Fund]] | year=1949 | publisher=Hamadpis Liphshitz Press | location=Jerusalem | pages=29}}</ref>

▲By the [[Village Statistics, 1945|1944/45 statistics]], Dafna had a population of 380 Jews<ref name=1945p9>Department of Statistics, 1945, p. [http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p09.jpg 9]</ref> with a total land area of 2,663 dunams, of which Jews owned 2,189 dunams.<ref name=Hadawi69>Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945,'' quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Safad/Page-069.jpg 69].</ref> Of this, a total of 2,385 [[dunam]]s of land were irrigated or used for plantations, 5 dunums were used for cereals;<ref>Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20II/Safad/Page-118.jpg 118]</ref> while 50 dunams were classified as built-up (or Urban) area.<ref>Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/Safad/Page-168.jpg 168]</ref>

▲In 1947, it had a population of 600.<ref name="JNF 1948" /> During early 1947 Palmach Officer [[Moshe Kelman]] was ordered by the [[Haganah]] High Command to supervise the execution and burial of a Jew accused of collaborating with the British. The execution took place at Kibbutz [[Dafna]].<ref>Kurzman, Don (1970) ''Genesis 1948. The First Arab-Israeli War.'' New American Library (NAL), New York. Library of Congress number 77-96925. pp.479,480</ref><ref> Nachman Ben-Yehuda. "Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice." SUNY Press, 1992, pp 215-216. SUNY Series in Israeli Studies</ref>