Arabic قزازة Also spelled Kezazeh, Kerazeh Palestine grid 138/131 Local time Monday 5:15 PM | Name meaning from personal name Subdistrict Ramle Population 940 (1945) | |
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Weather 17°C, Wind SW at 14 km/h, 62% Humidity | ||
Qazaza (Arabic: قزازة) was a Palestinian village in the Ramle Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine, located 19 kilometers (12 mi) south of Ramla. It was depopulated in 1948.
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History
A European traveler reported that he passed Qazaza in the 1860s on his way to examine a nearby tell.
An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed Kezaze with a population of 133, in 89 houses, though the population count included men only. It was also noted that it was located two hours southeast of Shahma.
In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Kerazeh as "a small village of adobe and stone at the edge of the hills, with gardens and a well."
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Qezazeh had a population of 472 inhabitants, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 649, still all Muslims, in a total of 150 residential houses.
The villagers maintained a village mosque and some owned shops. An elementary school was first established in Qazaza in 1922. In 1945 Qazaza joined with the villagers of Sajad and Jilya and established a common school for all the three villages. This school had 127 students at the time of its founding in 1945.
The villagers cultivated grain, vegetables and fruits.
In 1945 the population was 940, all Muslims, while the total land area was 18,829 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, a total of 11,757 dunums were allocated to cereals, while 131 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, while 38 dunams were classified as built-up urban areas.
1948 war and aftermath
During the countdown to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the Haganah was ordered to demolish Arab houses in socalled "retaliatory measures". In this connection, Haganah units partially destroyed the home of the mukhtar of Qazaza, Abdullah Abu Sabah, on the 19 December 1947, in response to the killing of a Jew. During the war Qazaza was defended by the Egyptian Army and local militiamen. Its population of an estimated 1,090 Arabs fled after the fall of a neighbouring town of Sajad. On 9 July 1948, as part of Operation An-Far, Israel's Givati Brigade captured the village.
On 16 July 1948, Givati HQ informed General StaffOperations that "our forces have entered the villages of Qazaza, Kheima, Jilya, Idnibba, Mughallis, expelled the inhabitants, [and] blown up and torched a number of houses. The area is at the moment clear of Arabs".
Many of Qazaza's former inhabitants fled to Hebron, forming part of the 1948 Palestinian exodus.
Today, the village lands are used by the Israel Defense Forces. As a closed military zone, it is not known what became of Qazaza's mosque, its elementary school (which had served the villages of Sajad and Jilya as well) or its more than 150 homes.