PLace

Raml Zayta

Place
Raml Zayta — رَمْل زَيْتا
Known also as: Khirbat Qazaza
District
Samaria
Subdistrict
Tulkarm
Average Elevation
25 m
Distance from Tulkarm
15 km
Population
Year Arab Total
1931 * 1165
1944/45 140
Land Ownership (1944/45) in dunums
Year Arab Jewish Public Total
1944/45 12720 1453 664 14837
Land Use (1944/45) in dunums
Use Arab Jewish Public Total
Non-Cultivable & Built-up (Total)
Use Arab Jewish Public Total
Non-Cultivable 13 4 553 570
13 4 553 570 (4%)
Cultivable (Total)
Use Arab Jewish Public Total
Citrus and Bananas 126 4 130
Plantation and Irrigable 27 4 31
Cereal 12554 1441 111 14106
12707 1449 111 14267 (96%)

The village stood on a flat, sandy spot on the central coastal plain. It was linked by a secondary road to the coastal highway, and by dirt paths to neighboring villages. Its houses, built of mud, cement, and stone, were dispersed in no particular pattern; most were built in the middle of farms. The village had some small shops scattered among the houses. The villagers obtained their domestic water from wells, and most of them worked in agriculture and livestock breeding. Agriculture, which was both rainfed and irrigated by water drawn from wells, was based on grain, vegetables, and watermelons. In 1944/45 a total of 126 dunums was devoted to citrus and bananas and 12,554 dunums were allotted to cereals; 27 additional dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. In the eastern part of the village lands lay Khirbat Tall Durur, which had been a prosperous village in the sub-disctrict of Haifa during Ottoman times but which was deserted during the British Mandate as a result of the dispute over the lands of neighboring Wadi al-Hawarith.

The nearest villages for which there is any hard information fell victim to early Haganah operations designed to 'clear' the coastal area in the center of the country (see Khirbat al-Shuna, Haifa sub-disctrict). Nearby Wadi al-Hawarith was attacked and its residents were pressured into leaving on 15 March, while the inhabitants of 'Arab al-Fuqara' were expelled on 10 April following a Haganah General Staff decision to depopulate the village. Raml Zayta probably was depopulated under similar circumstances.

The settlement of Sde Yitzchaq (149201), founded in 1952, is on village land. The city of Hadera (142204), originally a settlement founded in 1890, has expanded so that some of its suburbs are now on village land.

Stone rubble is visible on the site. Only two of the original village houses remain. One of them is still inhabited by the only Palestinian family that stayed in the village. The second house has been renovated and expanded by the addition of new rooms, and is now occupied by a Jewish family. Eucalyptus, fig, mulberry, and pomegranate trees, in addition to cactuses, grow on the site. Vegetables and orchards are grown by Israelis on the village lands.