“It is difficult for me now to convey the feelings of the people of the village, perhaps because at the time I was living through a state of mind that my age did not allow me to fully comprehend. Perhaps I wondered, like everyone else: When will our turn come? Perhaps, like them, I clung to a drowning person’s straw and repeated what the young men were saying—that Ein Ghazal, Ijzim, and Jaba’, smaller than Safad, Jaffa, and Acre, and defended only by their own inhabitants, had stood firm and repelled the attacks time and again, and that we too would repel any attempt to invade our village. Would we be able to? I cut the question short. I went to the sea. I sat cross-legged on the shore. I kept looking at the place.”

— Radwa Ashour, The Tantouriya, Dar Al Shorouk, Cairo, 2010, p. 39.

Name, Origin, and Meaning

A number of historians, researchers, and scholars documenting popular and cultural traditions believe that some of the village’s families came to the area from a region in India called “Tantour.” In Palestinian place names, however, the word “Tantour” refers to a slightly elevated place resembling a somewhat conical hat.

The village itself was built on the site of an ancient Canaanite settlement called Dor, meaning “houses.” Numerous archaeological remains at the site and in its surroundings indicate human settlement there since the earliest periods of recorded history. Inscriptions found at the site have also been linked to the time of Pharaoh Ramesses II, while other evidence dates back to the tenth century BCE.

The Village’s Location and Development

Tantura lies on the Mediterranean coast, approximately 24 km southwest of Haifa. The highest house in the village stood about 25 meters above sea level. The village extended parallel to the sea.

It was surrounded by the villages of al-Fureidis, Kafr Lam, Ein Ghazal, Ijzim, and Jisr al-Zarqa.

Settlement expanded considerably during the Ottoman period, particularly during the rule of Sheikh Zahir al-Umar al-Zaydani in the mid-eighteenth century. Al-Zaydani expanded the small harbor so that it could be used to export cotton to Europe, as cotton cultivation flourished in parts of Galilee, the Jezreel Valley, and the Palestinian coast.

During Napoleon Bonaparte’s French campaign in Palestine and the rest of the Levant in 1799, Tantura was reportedly used as a base for his forces advancing toward Acre in an attempt to besiege and capture it from Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar.

After his defeat before the walls of Acre, Napoleon rested in the lands of Tantura on his return journey and established a field hospital there to treat hundreds of wounded soldiers and those suffering from the plague that had spread among his troops. He is also said to have buried some of his cannons in the sands and waters of Tantura. They were discovered in the 1980s, and some were recovered and displayed in one of Haifa’s museums.

Archaeological Remains in and Around the Village

Very ancient archaeological remains dating to the Canaanite period have been discovered around the village, along with remains from the time of the Pharaohs, including Pharaoh Ramesses II.

There are also remains of a Byzantine church on the northern slopes of the nearby Tell al-Burj, as well as the remains of a Crusader fortress known as Château de Châtillon, including a square tower.

Other archaeological features have also been reported at Khirbet al-Dreyhima, northeast of the village.

Underwater archaeological excavations were conducted near Tantura beach, where ship anchors dating to several historical periods were discovered, as well as cannons dating to the period of the French campaign in the Levant.

Archaeological Sites Around the Village

Tantura and its surrounding area contain numerous archaeological sites and khirbas revealing traces of earlier settlements. Among the most notable are:

• Khirbet al-Mazra’a, containing remains dating to the period of the Crusades.
• Khirbet Umm al-Tus, with tombs and water cisterns.
• Khirbet al-Sulaymaniyyat, containing remnants of old house walls.
• Khirbet Hanana, with caves inhabited by humans since ancient times.
• Khirbet al-Dreyhima, containing remains of columns and tombs.
• Tell Abdun and Khirbet Haydara.

The Islands of Tantura

Approximately 35 meters from the shoreline are four small islands, each covering around 150 square meters, along with a flat rock resembling a beautiful carpet.

Each island has its own name: al-Faltiyya Island, al-Shaddada Island, Dar al-A’mar Island, and al-Hammam Island.

The latter contains areas where pigeons nest because of the abundance of tall vegetation compared with the other islands.

North of al-Faltiyya Island lies the al-Maqr Peninsula, separated from it by a narrow marine passage through which fresh water flows. At the northern end of the peninsula is a large natural pool used for swimming.

The islands were also used as mooring points for boats.

Population in Numbers

Historical sources, particularly the accounts of foreign travelers, indicate that at the beginning of the nineteenth century the village had no more than 50 houses.

The first population census conducted by the British Mandate government in 1922 recorded 750 inhabitants. The second census, in 1931, recorded 953 inhabitants. By 1945, the population had reached approximately 1,500, rising to 1,728 on the eve of the Palestinian Nakba in 1948, according to the source.

The American traveler William Francis Lynch, who visited Palestine in the mid-nineteenth century, described Tantura as a populous, developed, and prosperous village. It had an active harbor used for fishing and transporting the village’s products and those of neighboring villages.

Among the families of Tantura were al-Amouri, Abu Amr, al-Masri, al-Yahya, al-Yatim, al-Hindi, al-Dasuqi, Abu Madi, al-Ashmawi, al-Samra, al-Bajirmi, and al-Bayroumi, among others.

The People’s Sources of Livelihood

The inhabitants relied on several principal sources of livelihood, including fishing, owing to the village’s proximity to—and direct connection with—the sea, maritime commerce, agriculture, and livestock raising.

Major crops included various grains such as wheat, barley, beans, chickpeas, lentils, and sesame. Fruit trees included figs, pomegranates, apples, and lemons.

Tantura became particularly famous for its watermelon season. Most of the watermelons were sold in nearby cities such as Haifa and Jaffa, while quantities were also transported to Gaza and its surrounding areas, and even to Lebanon and Egypt.

As Haifa developed and industrial facilities, a modern port, and railway lines were established there, dozens of young men from Tantura and neighboring villages sought employment in these enterprises. Many Tantura families subsequently moved to Haifa, forming the nucleus of a renewed Palestinian community in a modernizing city that provided them with diverse opportunities for work and livelihood.

Education in the Village and Beyond

The Ottoman authorities established an elementary school for boys in the village. It continued to provide education during the British Mandate and eventually expanded to the seventh grade.

An elementary school for girls was established during the 1937–1938 academic year and reached the fourth grade before the Nakba.

Students who completed elementary school generally continued their secondary education at one of the nearby schools in Haifa, either government or private. Some chose to continue their education in Acre at the Ahmadiyya School adjacent to al-Jazzar Mosque.

Notable Figures from Tantura

Several people from Tantura became prominent in public life in Palestine and throughout the Arab world, particularly in Jordan and Syria.

Among them was Mahmoud al-Samra, a specialist in Arabic literature who held academic positions at the University of Jordan and other Arab universities and also served as Minister of Culture.

Muhammad Tawfiq al-Yahya and Yahya Mahmoud al-Yahya were prominent in the field of law.

Khalil al-Hindi specialized in electronic engineering and taught at several Arab, European, and American universities, while also serving as a consultant to a number of companies.

Failed Zionist Attempts to Establish a Colony on Its Land

As part of the Rothschild family’s project to gain control over economic facilities in Palestine, one of its representatives built a glass factory on a parcel of Tantura’s land. The project proved unprofitable and was eventually closed.

Zionist initiatives did not end there. One leader of the settlement movement proposed establishing a fishing harbor on part of Tantura’s coastline after reaching an agreement with one of the local landowners.

The fishermen involved were of Caucasian origin. According to the source, the central purpose of such a project was to emphasize the relationship between the Zionist settler and Palestine, which Zionist ideology presented as the “land of the ancestors,” while also establishing the concept of “Hebrew labor” in opposition to the labor of the indigenous Arab population.

The project, however, did not withstand opposition from the village’s own fishermen.

The Occupation of the Village and the Massacre

The leadership of the Haganah military organization formulated a plan to occupy the village and expel its inhabitants.

According to claims made by the Zionist military leadership, the village was receiving weapons smuggled from Lebanon by ships and boats, which were subsequently transferred to Palestinian resistance fighters in the villages of the Little Triangle: Ein Ghazal, Ijzim, and Jaba’.

Tantura was also situated along the road linking Haifa and Tel Aviv.

The village was surrounded, and its inhabitants were expelled on May 23, 1948, after the Alexandroni Brigade of the Israeli army carried out what the source describes as a horrific massacre. A number of villagers were killed and reportedly buried in a mass grave near the swimming pool of the settlement that was later established on the village’s land.

Despite the media, political, and legal controversy generated in Israel over attempts to deny the massacre, and despite the legal proceedings brought against researcher Theodore Katz, who brought the allegations to public attention through Israeli archival documents, numerous indications have continued to point to the occurrence of a massacre and the killing of a number of the village’s men.

Landmarks of the Village

The Israeli occupation demolished most of the village’s houses, while some were retained for the use of the settlers who replaced the village’s original inhabitants.

Among the village’s most prominent religious landmarks were two mosques, a shrine, and three cemeteries.

The first mosque was built on land endowed by Yusuf Francis al-Jada’, a wealthy and prominent Christian from Haifa who owned some property in Tantura. Nothing of the mosque remains.

The second mosque survives only in the form of its walls.

The village shrine is dedicated to Sheikh Abd al-Rahman al-Mujayrimi. It was restored at the beginning of the third millennium and contains three graves with their tombstones.

The three cemeteries were largely erased by the Israeli authorities, leaving only scattered stones and a number of graves.

On the edge of Tantura beach stands the al-Yahya family house, which the family used as a residence and for storing provisions.

The elementary school building, located east of the village, is now used by an Israeli institution concerned with the study of marine life.

Thus, despite the dispersal of the village’s inhabitants between their homeland, exile, and refugee communities, the history and heritage of Tantura and its remaining landmarks continue to bear witness to the presence of its original inhabitants and their attachment to their rights, regardless of how much time has passed.

Source: Romman Magazine