Kharas

History

Kharas does not appear in records from the 16th century. Oral tradition suggests that Kharas was founded after the 16th century. Fellahin from Halhul established the settlement in the late 18th or early 19th century. A family from Sa'ir also relocated there due to conflicts in their hometown.

In the late Ottoman era, in 1838, Edward Robinson noted Kharas S 14° E from Bayt Nattif. It was further noted as a Muslim village, between the mountains and Gaza, but subject to the government of Hebron.

Socin found from an official Ottoman village list from about 1870 that Charas had 38 houses and a population of 120, though the population count included men, only. Hartmann found that Charas had 40 houses.

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Kharas as "a small village standing high on the side of one of the lower hills, with olives round it. On the east is a well." C.R. Conder of the PEF thought that the neighboring "thickets" or woodlands of Kharas may have been the "forest of Hereth" described in , and where the fugitive king of Israel, David, hid himself from King Saul.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kharas had a population of 577, all Muslim, increasing in the 1931 census to 739, still all Muslim, in 153 houses.

In the 1945 statistics the population of Kharas was 970 Muslims, and the land area 6,781 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey. 615 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,532 for cereals, while 38 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

File:Nuba 1945.jpg|Kharas, British Mandate map, 1:20,000 File:Surif 1945.jpg|Kharas 1945 1:250,000

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Kharas came under Jordanian rule from 1948 until 1967. It was annexed by Jordan in 1950.

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,264 inhabitants in Kharas.

Post 1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Kharas has been under Israeli occupation. According to the 1967 Census, the village had a population of 1,364, of whom 101 originally came from Israeli Territory.

Israel has confiscated approximately 2,000 dunums of the village land, half of which was used for the construction of the separation wall. After completion of the wall, 600 dunums of village land will be on the Israeli side of the wall (in the Seam Zone), isolated from the village.

There are five schools in the town: a boy's secondary school, a girls' secondary school, Khaled ibn al-Walid basic mixed primary school, a girls' primary school and a mixed gender high school. There are four mosques, a sports club, a government-run health clinic and an olive press (olive oil manufacturing is a major industry in the town).

References

Bibliography

References

1. (February 2018). "Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017". [[State of Palestine]].
2. Palmer, 1881, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/395/mode/1up 395]
3. [[James Finn. Finn]], 1868, p. [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22097/22097-h/22097-h.htm#page151 151]
4. Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in '''Shomron studies'''. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 368
5. Grossman, D. "The expansion of the settlement frontier of Hebron's western and southern fringes". ''[[Geography Research Forum]]'', 5, 1982, p. 62.
6. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, p. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearc00smitgoog#page/n364/mode/1up 342]
7. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearch03robiuoft#page/117/mode/1up 117]
8. Socin, 1879, p. [https://archive.org/stream/zeitschriftdesde01deut#page/149/mode/1up 149] It was also noted to be in the Hebron District
9. Hartmann, 1883, p.[https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_BZobAQAAIAAJ#page/n951/mode/1up 143]
10. Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp03conduoft#page/305/mode/1up 305]
11. [[C. R. Conder. Conder]] (1879), p. [https://archive.org/stream/tentworkinpalest02conduoft#page/88/mode/1up 88]
12. Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Hebron, p.[https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n12/mode/1up 10]
13. Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 33].
14. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. [http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p23.jpg 23]
15. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Hebron/Page-050.jpg 50] {{Webarchive. link. (2018-06-23)
16. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20II/Hebron/Page-093.jpg 93] {{Webarchive. link. (2012-09-07)
17. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/Hebron/Page-143.jpg 143] {{Webarchive. link. (2013-01-31)
18. Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. [http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/JordanCensusPages/JordanCensus1961-p22.pdf 22]
19. Perlmann, Joey. (November 2011 – February 2012). "The 1967 Census of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: A Digitized Version".
20. [http://vprofile.arij.org/hebron/pdfs/Kharas.pdf Kharas Town Profile], ARIJ, 2009, p. 15
21. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/GeoPoints/Kharas_4938/Article_2743.html About Kharas Town and Municipality] {{in lang. ar