Arabic قدس Also spelled Kades, Kadas, Cadasa Palestine grid 199/279 Local time Monday 9:26 AM | Name meaning Kadesh Subdistrict Safad Area 14,139 dunams Date of depopulation 28 May 1948 | |
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Weather 12°C, Wind S at 13 km/h, 73% Humidity Current localities Yiftah, Malkia, Ramot Naftali | ||
qadas
Qadas (also Cadasa; Arabic: قدس) was a Palestinian village located 17 kilometers northeast of Safad that was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. One of seven Shia Muslim villages, called Metawalis, that fell within the boundaries of British Mandate Palestine, Qadas lay adjacent to al-Nabi Yusha', near the tel of the Biblical city of Kedesh Naftali. The village of Qadas contained many natural springs which served as the village water supply and a Roman temple dating back to the 2nd century AD.
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History
Cadasa is mentioned in the Bible as being a Tyrian city that was sacked by the Jews in their revolt against the Roman empire. Under Israelite rule, it was known as Kadesh Naphthali.
Under the rule of the Islamic Abbasid Caliphate in the 10th century CE, Qadas was a town in Jund al-Urrdun ("District of Jordan"). According to al-Muqaddasi in 985,
Qadas was a small town on the slope of the mountain. It is "full of good things". Jabal Amilah is the district which is in its neighborhood. The town possesses three springs from which the people drink, and they have a bath below the city. The mosque is in the market, and in its court is a palm tree. The climate of this place is very hot. Near Qadas is the (Hulah) Lake.
Ottoman era
In 1517, Qadas was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire after it was captured from the Mamluks, and by 1596, it was under the administration of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Tibnin, under Sanjak Safad. It paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives, cotton, orchards, beehives, and goats, as well as a press that processed either grapes or olives.
Victor Guérin visited in 1875, and described the most important ruins there. In the late 19th century, Qadas was described as a stone-built village, situated on a spur of a ridge. The population, which was estimated to be between 100 and 300, cultivated fig and olive trees.
British Mandate era
Qadas was a part of the French-controlled Lebanon until 1923, when the British Mandate of Palestine's borders were delineated to include it.
Rainfall and the abundance of springs allowed the village to develop a prosperous agricultural economy based on grain, fruit, and olives.
In the 1931 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Qadas had a population of 273; 1 Christian and 272 Muslims, in a total of 56 houses.
In 1944/ 45 the village had a total of 5,709 dunums of land allotted to cereals, while 156 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.
1948 war, and aftermath
Qadas was occupied by Israeli forces during Operation Yiftach on 28 May 1948. Defended by the Arab Liberation Army and the Lebanese army, its inhabitants fled under the influence of the fall of, or exodus from, neighbouring towns.
The settlement of Yiftach was built in 1948 to the northeast of the village site on lands belonging to Qadas. The village land is also used by the settlements of Malkiyya, founded in 1949, and Ramot Naftali, established in 1945.
Walid Khalidi described the remaining structures of the former village in 1992 as follows:
"Stones from the destroyed houses are strewn over the fenced-in site, and a few partially destroyed walls near the spring are visible. The flat portions of the surrounding lands are planted with apple trees; the spring provides drinking water for cattle.
Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has publicly recalled on occasion the fate of Qadas and the other Metawali villages in his references to the 1948 annexation of several Lebanese villages, the expulsion of their residents, the expropriation of their property and the destruction of their homes.
The Lebanese government demands the return of the village.