Ramallah, May 23, 2023 — WAFA — Yamen Nobani
Seventy-five years have passed since the Tantura massacre, yet the sunset still falls over its enchanting shore, its sand and rocks, the islands offshore, the wooden fishing boats, the remnants of trees and building stones, and the swirling air—Palestine.
Beneath the ground, where more than 230 martyrs were buried in mass graves on May 23, 1948, their remains continue to cling to the roots, even if only in the form of graves.
For 75 years, Tantura has never disappeared from the scene or from the individual and collective imagination. It lives on among the descendants scattered across Syria, Lebanon, and the wider diaspora to which its people were driven—a story passed down through generations and preserved by witnesses. It has also remained present in Palestinian and Arab literature, narratives, and political discourse.
On the night of May 22 and throughout the day of May 23, 1948, the Zionist Haganah forces occupied Tantura and forced dozens of its inhabitants to dig trenches before opening fire on them and burying them in those trenches and in mass graves.
Before that date, Tantura was known for its coastal railway station, while its inhabitants were renowned for fishing. Today, what remains of the village includes the al-Mujayrimi shrine, the al-Yahya family home, and a school built in the early 1940s. The 33rd Battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade erected a memorial on the school’s mound, which is now used as a fishing research station belonging to the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture.
Tantura’s location was strategically important as a passageway to Haifa and other centers, as part of its lands connected to the main coastal highway and because it had a railway station serving the coastal line. The Nahsholim kibbutz was established on its land in 1948, followed by the Dor moshav in 1949. The mass grave was later leveled, and a parking lot was built over it.
Tantura was bordered to the west by the Mediterranean Sea, to the east by al-Fureidis, to the south by the displaced village of Kabara and the Arab al-Ghawarina community of Jisr al-Zarqa, and to the north by the displaced village of ‘Ayn Ghazal and the coastal village of Kafr Lam.
The lands of Tantura covered approximately 14,520 dunams. Its population was estimated at around 750 in 1929 and approximately 1,490 in 1945, before the armed Zionist organizations destroyed the village and displaced its inhabitants, whose population had reached approximately 1,728 in 1948.
Tantura… Details of a Displaced Life
The book Tantura recounts detailed aspects of the village, its people, and their lives before displacement, documenting their occupations, names, and trades. It records that the owners of fishing boats in Tantura included Dawoud al-Samra, Muhammad Ali al-Sheikh Hassan, Kamel al-Masri, and the al-Dasuqi family, among others.
Many Tantura residents who ended up in Syria became involved in political activity and the Palestinian national struggle from its early stages. Some later became officers and members of the Palestinian National Council. Among the prominent figures mentioned are Muhammad Abd al-Al, Dawoud Abu Shukr, Hilmi al-Hindi, Hussein al-Ashmawi, Abd al-Razzaq al-Yahya, Talal al-Dasuqi, Salim al-Ashmawi, Mazen al-Ashmawi, Fahmi al-Badawi, Ibrahim al-Zara’, Fahmi al-Hindi, and Jawdat al-Hindi.
The port of Tantura was active in exporting grains and agricultural produce, particularly watermelons. Its watermelons were famous and known as “al-Suhaila,” and were exported to Lebanon, Egypt, and various other countries.
During the summer, residents would erect shelters along the beach and use them as cafés and resting places. These shelters were made from broad-leaved halfa grass that grew along the village’s water channels, such as the al-Dalfa spring and its branches. The al-Yatim family specialized in harvesting halfa and sammar, a plant whose thin, soft green stalks were dried in the sun and woven into mats.
Industrial activity was not widespread in the village, apart from the production of mats and straw and wooden containers used to transport agricultural products, as well as shoemaking. The al-‘Aiq family specialized in making shoes and also produced tools used by farmers for plowing.
Itinerant Vendors in Tantura
Tantura had a number of itinerant vendors who sold fish, vegetables, eggs, and pigeons on pack animals as they traveled through the neighboring villages. Among them were Mustafa al-Bayruni, Muhammad Abu al-Hassan, Saeed Salam, al-Abd Abu Salah, and Dhib al-Khatib.
Tantura was known for having relatively few trees because residents focused primarily on growing various types of grain. Nevertheless, figs, prickly pears, pomegranates, dates, mulberries, and lemons were grown on a limited scale.
In the early 1940s, a motor pump was installed and pipes were laid to pump water from the al-Shifa well—where women had previously carried water on their heads—to the homes of Tantura.
The villagers initially milled their wheat at the al-Yahya family’s steam mill, and later used two mills belonging to ‘Aqab al-Yahya and Ahmad al-Yahya, which remained in operation until the Nakba.
The book concludes by noting that raising chickens was a basic feature of most households in Tantura, providing eggs and meat for the family. Livestock slaughter was not a regular occupation in the village until Musa al-Amouri took it up. The village’s famous dishes included al-muhammar (musakhan) and fried fish, an essential dish for every guest.
The al-Yahya family home, the only surviving house since Tantura was displaced and destroyed, transports visitors back to the era of fishermen and their nets—to people calling out to sell their goods, fish, watermelons, and agricultural produce; to the sound of the train passing alongside the village; and to the sea whose waves rose and crashed against the walls of nearby houses. In winter, the water would sometimes overflow and flow between the homes.
The house also evokes the story of a Jew who was given the nickname “Moses al-Tanturi.” He built a house on the outskirts of the village and cultivated land there, attempting to attract more Jews to the area before the Nakba and establish “friendly” relations with its inhabitants. No one paid attention to him, however, and he found himself alone in an entirely Palestinian Arab village, eventually leaving and abandoning what he had built and cultivated.
The Film Tantura Documented the Massacre Against the Villagers
The 2022 documentary film Tantura presents testimonies from Israeli soldiers who were part of the Alexandroni Brigade of the Israeli army, which carried out the Tantura massacre in 1948, at a time when Israel continues to deny the massacres committed against Palestinians.
The film draws on academic research and presents documents and recorded testimonies from soldiers and commanders of the Alexandroni Brigade who carried out the massacre. It opens a discussion about the implications for the record of massacres committed against the Palestinian people and about possible changes in how Israel may deal with these massacres in the future.
The film was produced by Alon Schwarz, Shaul Schwarz, and Maiken Baird. The screenplay was written by Alon Schwarz, Shaul Schwarz, and Khalil Efrat, and it was directed by Israeli filmmaker Alon Schwarz.
Israeli historian Adam Raz published a report in the supplement of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in January of this year, titled: “When They Reached 90, Alexandroni Brigade Soldiers Decided to Confess: In 1948, the Israeli Army Carried Out a Massacre in Tantura.”
The film Tantura reconstructs the massacre and its brutality through the testimonies of those who took part in it. A trench measuring approximately 35 meters long and 4 meters wide was transformed into a mass grave for the victims of the Tantura massacre, and a parking lot was later built over it in an apparent effort to conceal it.
The film thus serves as a documentary record of the massacre and an attempt to bring recognition to its victims, drawing in part on testimonies attributed to those who participated in the events.
