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The village of Kawkab
el-Hawa was located eleven km. north of Beisan in the Jordan Valley
overlooking River Jordan
from the east, and Lake Tabariya [Tibries] from northeast
direction. This
strategic position accorded it a historic significance.
Some scientists of
Archeology have figured that Kawkab el-Hawa is the site of
“Yermota”
as indicated by a
thirteen century (BC)-old Egyptian monument found close to Beisan
[Albright 1952: 28, n.
14]. The Bedouin Al Habero Tribes inhabited then that area (it
should
not be mixed between
Yarmouta and the famous Canaanites royal city known as Yermok).
Presumably, the Roman
Tower of Agrippina for sending signals was built at Kawkab
el-Hawa. In this area,
the Crusaders built Belvoir, one of their most famous castles, which
was overlooking Jordan
Valley and Lake Tabariya [Tibries].
Kawkab el-Hawa was the
ground for a series of battles between Saladin and the Crusaders.
Historian Yaqout Hamawi
(died 1229) says that Kawakab el-Hawa was a castle on a hill
close to Tabariya, and
became ruins after Saladin.
In 1596, Kawkab el-Hawa
was a village of 50 strong in Lajoun’s District. Its population paid
taxes [to the Ottomans]
on many crops such as wheat, peas, beans, watermelon and
grapes.
Since the village was
built within the frontiers of Belvoir, its enlargement was slow, and
it
had in 1859 a population
of 110. As time elapsed, houses were built encircling the castle,
and the Moslem
population cultivated their agricultural fields outside it. They
cultivated in
1944/45 about 5839
dunams (four dunams equal one acre) for wheat, and 170 irrigated
dunams for groves and
orchards.
Its Occupation and
Depopulation
According to the Israeli
historian Benny Morris, a military attack was launched against
Kawakab el-Hawa on May
16, 1948 in the aftermath of Beisan’s occupation. However, the
History of the Hagana
tells that the village was occupied on May 21, and the 3rd
battalion in
Golani Brigade carried
out the operation. Moreover, the position of the village was ideal
for
the concentration of
artillery’s battery for shelling the valley, which the village was
overlooking, by the time
of Iraqi forces appearance on May 15.
A platoon of Iraqi
troops while attempting climbing to Kawkab el-Hawa became easy
target
to Israeli fires coming
from the village. According to the Hagana’s story that its forces
attacked the Iraqis from
50 meters high range. And when the Iraqis withdrew, their
casualties numbered 30
men, and only three Israelis were wounded, according to that story.
But the Palestinian
historian Aref El-Aref, has different story about what happened in
the
village. He says that
the Iraqi force succeeded in dashing into the village, staying there
for
two days. Meanwhile the
Israelis encircled it at the time the Iraqi forces were entering the
country [Palestine] on
May 15. The Iraqi garrison resisted for two days before its
withdrawal. When the
Israeli forces were ready to enter the village, the Iraqis arrived
and
seized the village till
May 17. The AP reported from Baghdad on May 18, that the Iraqi
forces occupied the
village described as “ well-fortified and reinforced concrete site”.
But
Aref says that the
Israelis escalated their attacks on May 18, to relieve adjoining
Gesher
settlement. And by
sunset, the Iraqi decided to withdraw after sustaining 23
casualties.
Next day, the Israeli
military high command proclaimed that its forces didn’t loose the
village, but repulsed an
Arab attack on Kawkab el-Hawa. The New York Times reported
the Israeli statement,
claiming that the Arabs had sustained 30 casualties.
On September 1948 a
Kibbutz chief asked the Israeli authorities its permission and
backing to destroy the
village and three other villages in the region. Benny Morris said
nothing on whether the
permission was granted or not [M: 168].
The village has been
wiped out. But archeological excavations have been conducted at the
site of Belvoir. The
slopes of once-was Kawkab el-Hawa, overlooking Beisan and Al
Baireh’s Valley are used
by the Israelis for grazing cattle.
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