Military Operation: Coastal Cleanup
Military Unit: Alexandroni Brigade
Reason for Displacement: The expulsion of the village’s residents by Zionist forces
Extent of Destruction: Most of the houses were destroyed; at least one house or building remained standing
Acts of Terror: A massacre was perpetrated against the village’s inhabitants
Ethnic Cleansing: The village was completely ethnically cleansed

Land Ownership

Source: Village Statistics issued by the British Mandate.

Land Use in 1945

Source: Village Statistics issued by the British Mandate.

Population

Source: Village Statistics issued by the British Mandate.

Surrounding Towns and Villages

• Kafr Lam — north
• Ein Ghazal — northeast
• Al-Fureidis — south
• Caesarea — southeast
• Zamarin
• Jisr al-Zarqa
• Mediterranean Sea — west

Historical Name

The village stands on the site of the ancient Canaanite settlement of Dor, meaning “dwelling” or “residence.”

Surrounding Villages

Tantura was surrounded by Kafr Lam, al-Fureidis, Ein Ghazal, Jisr al-Zarqa, and Kabara.

Shrines

A shrine remains in the village, although its name is not known.

Archaeological Sites

The village is surrounded by a large number of archaeological sites and ruins. Inscriptions found in the area date back to the 13th century BCE.

Introduction Video

The Village Before the Nakba

(From “All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948” by Dr. Walid Khalidi)

The village stood on a small hill rising slightly above the sandy beach surrounding it. A secondary road connected it to the main coastal road and linked it with Haifa and other urban centers. It also had a railway station serving the coastal railway line.

The village was built on the site of the famous Canaanite town of Dor. The name of this place first appeared in an inscription dating to the thirteenth century BCE, mentioning the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II. It also appears in a text written by Wen-Amun, an Egyptian temple official, dating to around 1100 BCE, which mentions a group of Philistines who migrated to the site in the twelfth century BCE.

It is possible that Joshua conquered the town (Joshua 12:23). Like Strato’s Tower (see Caesarea, Haifa District), Dor was occupied by the Greeks around the late second century BCE. They sometimes called it Dora and fought against the Hasmoneans, the rulers of the region. Apparently, Dor was abandoned sometime after the fourth century CE. At a later period, the Crusaders built a fortress at Dor/al-Tantura, which they called Merle.

When Napoleon attempted to extend his control over Palestine at the end of the eighteenth century, his retreating troops passed through the village and burned it in August 1799. In 1821, J. Buckingham described it as a small village with a small harbor and an inn.

Buckingham stated that although al-Tantura was not completely deserted, the few remains left there gave little indication of its former greatness. In 1855, Mary Rogers, the sister of the British consul in Haifa, reported that the village contained approximately 30 to 40 houses built of stone, mud, or clay, and that cattle and goats constituted the main source of the village’s wealth.

By the late nineteenth century, al-Tantura was described as a coastal village extending from north to south. Its harbor, built at the edge of a broad peninsula, lay immediately north of the village. The village also contained a square stone building used as a guesthouse, probably the inn mentioned by Buckingham. It had a population of about 1,200 people, who cultivated 25 feddans (one feddan = approximately 100–250 dunams), and maintained limited trade with Jaffa.

The stone houses of al-Tantura were built along the sandy shore. The village had an elementary school for boys, established around 1889, and another school for girls, founded in 1937–1938. The economy of the village depended on agriculture and fishing. During the British Mandate period, fish production increased from 6 tons in 1928 to 1,622 tons in 1944. Cereals, vegetables, and fruit were the main agricultural crops. In 1944–1945, a total of 26 dunams were devoted to citrus and bananas, 6,593 dunams to cereals, and 278 dunams to irrigated land or orchards, including 270 dunams planted with olive trees.

Archaeological excavations conducted underwater near the shore of al-Tantura uncovered ship anchors dating to many different periods in the history of the site. A Byzantine church was also discovered on the northern slopes of Tell al-Burj (143314) during 1979–1980. The Hebrew University has conducted annual excavations at the tell since 1980. South of the Hebrew University site lies Khirbet al-Mazra‘a (14322), where remains of the Crusader fortress known as Château de Châtillon were found, including a square vaulted tower. Additional archaeological remains have also been reported at Khirbet al-Durayhima (143224), northeast of the village.

The Occupation and Ethnic Cleansing of the Village

At the beginning of May 1948, al-Tantura was one of the last remaining Arab villages along the coastal plain extending from the Zikhron Ya‘akov area, south of Haifa, to Tel Aviv.

On May 9, a meeting was held between local Haganah intelligence officers and experts on Arab affairs to determine the fate of al-Tantura and several other villages. A decision was taken, in the words cited by Israeli historian Benny Morris, to “expel the inhabitants or subdue them.” According to The History of the War of Independence, this decision was implemented in al-Tantura two weeks later, on the night of May 22–23, when the 33rd Battalion of the Haganah, the 3rd Battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade, attacked the village. The village fell after a brief battle, as, according to Morris, its inhabitants had previously rejected Haganah terms for surrender and chosen to fight.

Morris wrote that “it was clear that the commanders of the Alexandroni Brigade wanted the village emptied of its inhabitants and that at least some of them were expelled.”

An Israeli military communiqué issued on May 23, 1948, and reported by The New York Times, stated that “hundreds of Arabs fell into our hands, along with large quantities of booty.” The newspaper correspondent also reported the Haganah’s claim—described as doubtful—that the village had been a point for smuggling Egyptian volunteers arriving in Palestine by sea.

The suffering of the inhabitants did not end with their expulsion. Some fled toward the Triangle area, while approximately 1,200 people were expelled to the neighboring village of al-Fureidis, which had already fallen.

At the end of May, Israeli Minister of State Bechor Shalom Sheetrit asked Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion whether the inhabitants of al-Tantura should also be expelled from al-Fureidis.

Morris indicates that most of the inhabitants were expelled during the summer from areas under Israeli control, while approximately 200 people remained in al-Fureidis. Most of these were women and children whose male relatives were being held in Israeli detention. They were left exposed and lacking adequate clothing. According to Morris, some Israeli officials expressed concern about what might happen to them during the winter, but he provides no further information regarding their fate.

The Village Today

Only a shrine, a fortress, an old well, and a few houses remain of the village. One of the surviving houses, belonging to the al-Yahya family, was built in 1882, as indicated by an inscription on the building.

Numerous palm trees and patches of cactus are scattered throughout the site, which has been transformed into an Israeli recreational park containing several swimming pools.

Zionist Settlements on the Village’s Land

In June 1948, Jewish immigrants from the United States and Poland established Kibbutz Nahsholim (14224) on the village’s lands, northeast of the former village site.

In 1949, Jewish immigrants from Greece established the settlement of Dor (143223) east of the site.