Dimra | |
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Farmers of Dimra winnowing their corn crop, 1941
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Arabic | دمره |
Name meaning | Tumrah; personal name. Also called Beit Dimreh, "by the peasantry" |
Also spelled | Dimrah, Beit Dimreh Demreh |
Subdistrict | Gaza |
Coordinates | 31°33′32″N 34°33′54″E / 31.55889°N 34.56500°ECoordinates: 31°33′32″N 34°33′54″E / 31.55889°N 34.56500°E |
Palestine grid | 108/107 |
Population | 520 (1945) |
Area | 8,492 dunams 8.5 km² |
Date of depopulation | early November 1948 |
Cause(s) of depopulation | Fear of being caught up in the fighting |
Current localities | Erez |
Dimra (Arabic: دمره) was a small Palestinian Arab village located 11 kilometers (6.8 mi) northeast of Gaza City. Ancient remains at the site attest to longtime settlement there. During the era of Mamluk rule in Palestine, the town was the home of the Bani Jabir tribe. Depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the Israeli kibbutz of Erez was founded in 1949 on part of the former village's lands.
Ancient remains found throughout the village, including marble and granite columns as well as pottery, attest to longtime settlement at the site. An excavation have found remains, including coins, dating the sixth century CE, that is the Byzantine empire. Many potsherds, dating to the same period, indicates that a pottery workshop was located there at the time.
Following the conquest of the Crusader states during the period of Mamluk rule (1270-1516 CE) over Greater Syria (Levant), Dimra was located on an eastward route which left the main Gaza-Jaffa highway at Beit Hanoun. According to Moshe Sharon, Dimra was a likely resting place for those travelling in the region due to its natural, independent water supply.
Three pieces of a marble slab, deposited since 1930 in the Rockefeller Museum, and dated to 676 AH (1277 CE) commemorates the building of a mosque at Dimra at that year.