Ramla district · depopulated 1948 · 2 min read
Al-Na'ani
النَعاني
Al-Na'ani stood six kilometers from Ramla with a station on the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway beside it, 1,450 Muslims and twenty Christians, two mosques and an old well in the southwest quarter that gave the village its drinking water. The Giv'ati Brigade surrounded it on 14 May 1948 and took hostages against the surrender of its weapons; Benny Morris writes that many villagers stayed until 10 June, when they were probably ordered out or intimidated into leaving. The railway station is deserted.
See Al-Na'ani on the Atlas31.8722°N · 34.8733°EAl-Na’ani stood on flat ground on the central coastal plain six kilometers from Ramla, tied by secondary roads to the city and to the villages around, with a station on the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway line next to it. In the late nineteenth century it was a small village of adobe brick on low ground, its houses built very close together, its lands bounded by those of Aqir, al-Qubayba and Zarnuqa. Its population was 1,450 Muslims and twenty Christians. The village had two mosques, one much older than the other, a modest marketplace, and an elementary school established in 1923 with about 208 pupils in 1947–48. An old well in the southwest quarter supplied the drinking water.
Agriculture was the villagers’ chief occupation — grain, watermelons and citrus. In 1944/45, 9,277 dunums were allotted to cereals and 335 dunums were irrigated or in orchards. The village was built on an archaeological site known as al-Khirba, where fragments of ancient pottery and mosaic were found, and Tall Malat, identified with the Canaanite settlement of Gibbethon of I Kings 15:27, lay about a kilometer and a half to the southeast. The census of 1931 counted 1,142 people in 300 houses; the 1944/45 survey counted 1,470 Arabs, alongside 590 Jews.
On 14 May 1948, just before the end of the British Mandate, the Haganah’s Giv’ati Brigade reached the village in the first stage of Operation Barak; Zochrot gives the same date and the same brigade. Benny Morris records that al-Na’ani was surrounded and given an ultimatum to hand over its arms, and that hostages were taken from the village to ensure compliance; some arms were handed over in the end and the village was occupied. Morris does not describe in detail how the village and its people were treated, but writes that many villagers stayed on, apparently until 10 June, when they were probably ordered to leave or intimidated into leaving.
The settlement of Na’an was established in 1930 and its buildings now stand on village land; Ramot Me’ir was built on village land west of the site in 1949. The site is overgrown with Christ’s-thorn and eucalyptus and a variety of wild plants. Its main landmark, the railway station, is deserted, though the line itself is in use and now runs south to Bir al-Sabi’. Two deserted houses remain, one of them belonging to Ahmad Jubayl, along with parts of houses used mainly for storing agricultural equipment. The land around the site is cultivated.
Sources
Cited works
2- palquest.org — al naani(opens in a new tab)https://www.palquest.org/en/place/16861/al-naani
- zochrot.org — en(opens in a new tab)https://www.zochrot.org/villages/village_details/49310/en
Connected in the archive
24 connected records24 records elsewhere in the archive are linked to this one, each by a piece of evidence you can read below.
named in this record — 2 records
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Aqirعاقِر
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: In the late nineteenth century it was a small village of adobe brick on low ground, its houses built very close together, its lands bounded by those of Aqir, al-Qubayba and Zarnuqa.
- Ramleالرملة
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Al-Na'ani stood on flat ground on the central coastal plain six kilometers from Ramla, tied by secondary roads to the city and to the villages around, with a station on the Jaffa–Jerusalem railway line next to it.
in the same district — 22 records
Filed near each other — the same Mandate district, or the same uncommon subject tags.
- Abu Shushaأبو شوشة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Ramla district.
- Al-Magharالمَغار
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Ramla district.
- Al-Muzayri'aالمُزَيْرِعَة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Ramla district.
- Al-Nabi Rubinالنبي رُوبِين
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Ramla district.
- Al-Qubabالقُباب
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Ramla district.
- Al-Qubaybaالقُبَيْبَة
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: Both recorded in the Ramla district.
- and 16 more
Cite this page
Every claim above carries its sources — citation is the point.
- Chicago
“Al-Na'ani.” Village Memory, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/memory/al-naani.- MLA
“Al-Na'ani.” Village Memory, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/memory/al-naani. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-al-naani, title = {Al-Na'ani}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/memory/al-naani}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }