Kafr ʿInān (), is a former Palestinian village, depopulated in the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. It was located around east of Acre.

In ancient times, it was known as Kfar Hananiah, and was a large Jewish village and a significant pottery production center. Archaeological surveys indicate Kefar Hanania was founded in the Early Roman period, and was inhabited through the Byzantine period. that served as a center for pottery production in the Galilee. Most of the cooking ware in the Galilee between the 1st century BCE and the beginning of the 5th century CE was produced here. A Byzantine-period synagogue was partially carved out of the rock, probably during the 5th century CE, and its remains have been excavated east of the village. Khalidi mentions shafts and bases of columns, caves, a pool, and a burial ground discovered in archaeological excavations.

Among the Kfar Hanania's most respected personages who is said to have been buried there was a Tanna (Jewish sage) of the 1st century, Eliezer ben Jacob I. The Talmud and Midrash mention it as the home of Rabbi Jacob of Kfar Ḥanīn, a third-generation amora. As a result of Aramaic influence, the village became known as Kafr Ḥanan, a shortened form of Hananiah.

Pottery production

Rabbinic literature mentions Kfar Hanania village in relation to the production of pottery; in the Tosefta <small>(Bava Metzia 6:3)</small>, there is a reference to, "those who make black clay, such as Kefar Hananya and its neighbors." Late Roman-era pottery types of the kind made in Kafr 'Inan have been found all throughout the Galilee and the Golan.

Crusader to Mamluk period

Ya'akov ben Netan'el, who visited the village in the 12th century during the period of Crusader rule, writes about the ruins of a synagogue quarried into the hill. In 1211, Samuel ben Samson travelled from Tiberias and Kfar Hanania before stopping in Safed. In the 14th century, another traveller transcribes the village's name as Kefar Hanin. An Ottoman census taken two years later (1525) listed 14 Jewish families. A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as "K. Hanein".

It is said some Jewish Kohanitic families migrated to Peki'in, possibly in the late 16th century.

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described the village as being built of stone and having 150-200 Muslim residents. The arable land in the village comprised gardens and olive trees.

A population list from about 1887 showed that Kafr 'Inan had 80 inhabitants; all Muslim.

British Mandate period

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kufr Enan had a population of 179; all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 264, still all Muslims, in a total of 47 houses.

In the 1945 statistics, Kafr 'Inan had 360 Muslim inhabitants, while 21 dunams were built-up (urban) area. The village, however, occupied an area of only 25 dunams (6.1 acres).

The village houses, made of stone with mud mortar, were bunched close together and separated by semi-circular, narrow alleys. Many new houses were constructed during the last years of Mandatory Palestine. Springs and domestic wells supplied drinking water. Olives and grain were the main crops. Grain was grown in the nearby flat zones and valleys. Historian Walid Khalidi wrote that the villagers refused to leave like most of the population in the area.

In January 1949, the IDF expelled 54, and moved another 128 inhabitants from Kafr 'Inan and Farradiyya to other villages in Israel. On 4 February 1949, units of the 79th Battalion surrounded the two villages and expelled 45 people to the West Bank. The 200 villagers who had permits to stay, mostly old men, women and children, were transferred to Majd al Kurum.

Israel

In 1950, Article 125 of the Defence regulation of 1945 was invoked in order to confiscate the land belonging to a number of Palestinian Arab villages in Galilee, among them Kafr 'Inan. This law was also used to prevent the villagers from returning to their homes even by legal means.

The modern Jewish village of Kfar Hananya was first planned to the south of the depopulated Kafr ʿInān village in 1982, and was eventually established there in 1989 on village land (though not on the actual site of Kafr ʿInān).

Archaeology

Roman to Byzantine-period village

In 1933, Joseph Braslavsky was the first to identify the quarried synagogue in Kafr 'Inan, based on the testimony of a local Arab peasant. In 1989, the site was surveyed by Zvi Ilan. Adan-Bayewitz, of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar Ilan University conducted archaeological research at the site from 1987 to 1988, and excavated a late Roman-era pottery kiln in 1992–1993, with a stone-paved approach.

See also

  • Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel
  • Palestinian refugee
  • Present absentee
  • Shikhin, village near Sepphoris, another major pottery production centre in Roman Galilee

<gallery>

File:Remains of Synagogue carved from rock, at Old Kefar Hananiah - Kafr 'Inan.jpg|Synagogue carved into the rock at ancient Kefar Hananiah (later Kafr 'Inan)

File:Synagogue wall carved from rock - at Kafr 'Inan.jpg|Synagogue walls carved into the rock at ancient Kfar Hananya

File:Remains of structure at Old Kefar Hananiah - Kafr 'Inan.jpg|Ruins of stone structure at ancient Kfar Hananya

File:Kefar Hananiah - Kafr 'Inan - ancient wall.jpg|Ancient Kfar Hananya (at Kafr 'Inan)

File:Field before the Mount of old Kefar Hananiah.jpg|Green fields below hill of Kafr 'Inan

File:Ruin of Kefar Hananiah - Kafr 'Inan.jpg|Kafr 'Inan, ruins

</gallery>

References

Bibliography

  • [reprinted from earlier Livorno edition]
  • Welcome To Kafr 'Inan
  • Kafr 'Inan, Zochrot
  • Kefar Ḥananyah entry at The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East by the head of excavations, David Adan-Bayewitz. Accessed 26 April 2021.
  • Parod - 2009 (Israel Antiquities Authority) Aqueduct that served both Parod (Farradiyya) and Kafr 'Inan (Kefar Hananiah)
  • Survey of Western Palestine, Map 4: IAA, Wikipedia mirror
  • , Saturday, 3.10.2009, by Umar Ighbariyyeh, from Zochrot