Al-Khayma
الخيمة
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Village
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| Etymology: The Tent[1] | |
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Khayma (click the buttons)
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  Al-Khayma Location within Mandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 31°45′44″N 34°49′47″E / 31.76222°N 34.82972°E / 31.76222; 34.82972 | |
| Palestine grid | 133/130 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Ramle |
| Date of depopulation | Not known[4] |
| Area | |
| • Total | 5,150 dunams (5.15 km2 or 1.99 sq mi) |
| Population
(1945)
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| • Total | 190[2][3] |
Al-Khayma (Arabic: الخيمة) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle SubdistrictofMandatory Palestine. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on July 9, 1948, by the Givati BrigadeofOperation An-Far. It was located 18.5 km south of Ramla.
In 1863, Victor Guérin found that it had two hundred and fifty inhabitants.[5]
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine noted it as principally an adobe village of "on low ground", and with a well to the east.[6]
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Khaimeh had a population of 132 Muslims,[7] increasing in the 1931 census to 141 Muslims, in 30 houses.[8]
In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 190, all Muslim,[2] and the total land area was 5,150 dunums.[3] Of this, 4 dunams were irrigated or used for plantations, 5,007 were used for cereals,[9] while 9 dunams were classified as built-up urban areas.[10]
Morris list both date and reason for depopulation as "not known".[4] However, he also notes it in connection with Operation An-Far, in mid July 1948.[11][12]
Following the 1948 war, the area was incorporated into the State of Israel and in August 1948 al-Khaymas was one of 21 Palestinian villages whose land was proposed for resettlement with an Israeli village named Revadim.[13] In November, 1948, the proposal to establish Revadim on al-Khayma's land was passed.[14]
Revadim was eventually established close to village land, according to Morris,[15] however, according to Khalidi, Revadim is located north of al-Khayma, on the land of the depopulated Palestinian village of al-Mukhayzin.[16]
In 1992 the village site was described: "All that remains of the village are three mounds to the east, west, and south of the site that contain the remnants of houses. A girder protrudes from the eastern mound and there is a large, deserted well at the mounds centre. A large artificial pond lies about 100 m northeast of the site, and there is a monument next to a well about 0.5 km to the north. An inscription on the monument reads: To the eMemory of the Members of Kibbutz Revadim, who Settled on the Land in 1948."[17]
