Al-Shajara
| Al-Shajara | |
|---|---|
 Al-Shajara
|
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| Arabic | الشجرة |
| Name meaning | "the Tree" |
| Also spelled | al-Shajera |
| Subdistrict | Tiberias |
| Coordinates | 32°45′15.50″N 35°23′56.33″E / 32.7543056°N 35.3989806°ECoordinates: 32°45′15.50″N 35°23′56.33″E / 32.7543056°N 35.3989806°E |
| Palestine grid | 187/239 |
| Population | 770 (1945) |
| Area | 3,754 dunams 3.8 km² |
| Date of depopulation | May 6, 1948 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
| Current localities | Ilaniya |
Al-Shajara (Arabic: الشجرة) was a Palestinian Arab village depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It was located 14 kilometers west of Tiberias on the main highway to Nazareth near the villages of Lubya and Hittin.
The village was the fourth largest by area in Tiberias district. Its economy was based on agriculture. In 1944/45 it had 2,102 dunams (505 acres) planted with cereals and 544 dunams (136 acres) either irrigated or fig and olive orchards.
Al-Shajara was the home village of the cartoonist Naji al-Ali.
The Crusaders referred to al-Shajara by "Seiera". The Arabic name of the village ash-Shajara translates as "the Tree".
In 1596, al-Shajara was part of the Ottoman Empire, nahiya (subdistrict) of Tiberias under the liwa' (district) of Safad with a population of 60 Muslim families and 12 Muslim bachelors. It paid taxes to the Ottoman government on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, olives, fruits and cotton. Taxes was also paid goats, beehives, orchards, and a press that was used either for processing olives or grapes.
A party of French cavalry was apparently stationed in the village during Napoleon's invasion of 1799. A map from the same campaign by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as Chagara.
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, a Swiss traveler to Palestine who passed through the area around 1812, noted that the plain around the village was covered with wild artichoke, while William McClure Thomson said that al-Shajara (Sejera) was one of several villages in the area which was surrounded by gigantic hedges of cactus. He also noted the great oak woods in the vicinity.
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Wikipedia