{"id":5795,"date":"2024-03-03T11:33:05","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T11:33:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.com\/?p=5795"},"modified":"2026-02-14T17:30:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T17:30:39","slug":"atlit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/2024\/03\/03\/atlit\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Atlit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The village of \u2018Atlit stood on a sandstone hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. To the east lay coastal agricultural lands, and to the southwest, large evaporation ponds used for extracting salt from seawater. Archaeological excavations conducted in the 1930s in\u00a0Wadi al-Maghara<\/strong>, approximately three kilometers southeast of the village, uncovered evidence of early human habitation in the caves of al-Wad, al-Tabun, and al-Skhul. About three kilometers to the northeast, at the entrance of\u00a0Wadi al-Falah<\/strong>, evidence of Neolithic human presence was also discovered through cave excavations. Nearby excavations to the east of the village uncovered a site that had been inhabited from the 2nd millennium BCE until the 7th century CE. A Hellenistic source identified the site as\u00a0Adarus<\/strong>, reportedly one of Sidon’s colonies.<\/p>\r\n

The Arab geographer\u00a0Yaqut al-Hamawi<\/strong>\u00a0(d. 1229) referenced the village in his book\u00a0Mu’jam al-Buldan<\/em>, describing it as a fortress called\u00a0al-Ahmar<\/em>. In 1218, the Crusaders built a town and large fortress at the site of Adarus, which they called\u00a0Castrum Peregrinorum<\/em>\u00a0(“Fortress of the Pilgrims”). \u2018Atlit remained under Crusader control until 1291, when it was abandoned following the general Crusader withdrawal from the Palestinian coast.<\/p>\r\n

In 1296, members of the\u00a0\u2018Awairat tribe<\/strong>\u00a0(al-Nathariya) settled in \u2018Atlit and its surrounding areas. By 1596, it was registered as a tax-paying farm under Ottoman rule. In the early 19th century, British traveler\u00a0Buckingham<\/strong>\u00a0observed the ruins of the village from afar. Later in the century, another traveler,\u00a0Thomson<\/strong>, reported that the Palestinian village of \u2018Atlit had been built among the remnants of the Crusader site. The authors of the\u00a0Survey of Western Palestine<\/em>\u00a0described \u2018Atlit as a farm built of mudbrick, with an estimated population of about 200 people cultivating twenty feddans (1 feddan = 100\u2013250 dunums).<\/p>\r\n

In\u00a01903<\/strong>, Zionist settlers established a colony near \u2018Atlit, naming it the same. During World War I, this Jewish colony became a base for the\u00a0Nili<\/em>\u00a0underground movement (Netzah Yisrael Lo Yeshaker<\/em>, or \u201cThe Eternity of Israel Will Not Lie\u201d), which was a Zionist espionage group aiding the British. In the 1920s, the Palestinian village of \u2018Atlit joined a regional cooperative body that worked to improve the conditions of farmers and included around 25 villages in the Haifa district.<\/p>\r\n

By 1938, the combined population of the Palestinian village and the Jewish colony of \u2018Atlit had reached\u00a0712<\/strong>, including\u00a0508 Arabs<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0224 Jews<\/strong>. However, by 1944\u20131945, the Arab population had decreased to just\u00a0150<\/strong>:\u00a090 Muslims<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a060 Christians<\/strong>. Of their land, only\u00a015 dunums<\/strong>\u00a0remained under Arab ownership\u20143 dunums were planted with grains, and 11 were irrigated or used for orchards. The village had a train station, which remains operational today. In the 1930s,\u00a0C. N. Johns<\/strong>\u00a0conducted archaeological excavations at the Crusader city and fortress on behalf of the Palestine Department of Antiquities. Modern excavations have suggested that the northern harbor of the city may have Hellenistic origins. An Islamic cemetery lies east of the Crusader fortress, including a gravestone dated to the year 1800.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Occupation and Ethnic Cleansing<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

According to the\u00a0History of the Haganah<\/em>, \u2018Atlit served as a center for Haganah activity and a recruitment site for the Jewish colony\u2019s residents. However, Israeli historian\u00a0Benny Morris<\/strong>\u00a0does\u00a0not<\/strong>\u00a0list \u2018Atlit among the villages explicitly conquered or depopulated in 1948. The exact time and manner in which \u2018Atlit came under Israeli control remains unclear.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

The Village Today<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

No trace remains of the Arab homes. The railway station that once served the village is still in use. Nearby stands a prison facility used by the Israeli authorities in 1989 to detain Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Israeli Settlements on Village Lands<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Zionist settlers established\u00a0the colony of \u2018Atlit<\/strong>\u00a0(grid ref. 145232) in\u00a01903<\/strong>, and\u00a0Neve Yam<\/strong>\u00a0(grid ref. 143231) in\u00a01999<\/strong>. Both settlements are located on the original lands of the village.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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The village of \u2018Atlit stood on a sandstone hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. To the east lay coastal agricultural lands, and to the southwest, large evaporation [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-haifa"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/\u0639\u062a\u0644\u064a\u062a-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5795"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10686,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5795\/revisions\/10686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}