The Makhamra family (Arabic: المخامرة), also Muhamara or Mahamara, is an extended family from the Palestinian city of Yatta, in the Hebron Governorate, West Bank.[1] It is one of the largest clans in the southern Hebron Hills. The Makhamra family has a tradition of descending from a Jewish Arab tribe from Khaybar which was expelled from the Arabian Peninsula.[1][2][3]

Etymology

According to a common interpretation, in Palestinian Arabic the meaning of Makhamra is "winemakers", an act forbidden in Islam.[4]

Reports

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (1920s)

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, an ethnographer and historian who later became the second President of Israel, visited Yatta during the 1920s and interviewed the village's mukhtar, 'Ibn Aram. Ben-Zvi later wrote that the ancestor of three of the six clans that make up the village was Muheimar, a Jew who came up from the desert with his tribe and conquered the village, probably in the second half of the 18th century.[2][5][6][7]

Wanderers' Association (1929)

The "Wanderers' Association", a group of secular Jewish travellers who toured the southern Hebron Hills in 1929 and published their findings and experiences in a series of articles in Haaretz, also wrote about the Makhamara family. When they arrived in Yatta, the locals told them that the name of their ancient village was "al-Jayur", and that "our forefathers were originally from the children of Israel; one family arrived here, possibly before 700 years ago, and they were known as 'Kheibar' [...] Our forefathers first engaged in a temporary war with the local populace, and later paid the entire price for the land. [....] back in Muhammad and Ali's time, when they conquered the towns with the sword, they forced us to convert, and since then, we are Muslim." When asked whether there were more Jews in the area, they replied that "There were many Jews in Hebron and the villages". They also added that several of them would not eat camel meat, which is forbidden in Judaism.[8] The same visit was also reported in Davar.[9]

In another article, David Benbenishti from the Wanderers' Association reported meeting two shepherds from the Makhamara family at Khirbet Khureisa, who also told them that their ancestors were Jews from Khaybar.[10] When they later visited the nearby town of As-Samu, locals there informed them that several of the villagers were linked to the Makhamara family as a result of intermarriage and said that they regularly mocked them by stating, "You are Jews, so you are cheaters".[11] Later, in Dura, they were also told about the Jewish origins of the Makhamara family; one local claimed they were from Khirbit Kheibar, which he claimed was a nearby ruin (but was not found on the map), while another claimed they came from Hebron.[12]

Hannukah (1938)

In 1938, Arab families from Yatta were reported to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, lighting candles retrieved from the Jewish community of Hebron.[2]

Tzvi Misinai (2009)

Several members of the Makhamra clan were interviewed for a Channel 1 article about Tzvi Misinai and admitted that they are aware of their Jewish origins, although today they consider themselves Muslims for many generations since their ancestors converted to Islam.[13]

According to other reports, the Makhamra family in Yatta practice endogamy and do not intermarry with other local families. There are also mezuzah slots visible in building doorways.[14][15]

Analysis

The Makhamra family's tradition of Jewish origin has been the subject of several explanations. Ben-Zvi, for instance, accepted the oral tradition according which the Mahkamras sprang from the Jews who were expelled from Khaybar in the Hejaz and eventually settled in Yatta.[5]

Yatta has been identified with the site of the ancient town of Juttah, also mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.[16] In the 4th century CE, Eusebius wrote that Yatta was "a very large village of Jews".[17] In contrast to other areas of Judea, the southern Hebron Hills retained a Jewish population after the Bar Kokhba revolt,[18][19] as evidenced by historical texts and archaeological sites (including multiple synagogues). The Jewish presence is recorded up until the Muslim conquest, when the synagogues of Susya and Eshtemoa were repurposed as mosques.[20] It remains unclear whether local Jews had fled the area or had converted to Islam.

Another theory, backed by scholars such as Mordechai Nissan, contends that the current inhabitants of Yatta may be the descendants of a Jewish population that lived there during the Second Temple period and later converted to Islam.[15] Ben-Zvi also mentioned Shalem's view, which suggests that the traditional descent from Khaybar actually refers to a nearby ruin of the same name, either located in close proximity to Khirbet Karmil (ancient Carmel), or identical to it.[5]

Today

In the 2010s, Makhamra clan members has been linked to Palestinian terrorism. On June 8, 2016, two members of the clan, Khaled Mahmara and Muhammad Mahamara, carried out a shooting attack in Sarona Market, Tel Aviv, during which four people were killed.[21] Some writers have attributed that activity to their desire to show their neighbors that despite their "Jewish past", they are sided with the Palestinians in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[3]

Members of the clan are today reluctant to acknowledge their Jewish heritage, probably due to the fear that Israel will use that to support its claim for ownership over the land.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Lowin, Shari (2010-10-01), "Khaybar", Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, Brill, pp. 148–150, doi:10.1163/1878-9781_ejiw_com_0012910, retrieved 2023-06-22, Khaybar's Jews appear in Arab folklore as well. [...] The Muḥamara family of the Arab village of Yutta, near Hebron, trace their descent to the Jews of Khaybar. Families in other nearby villages tell of similar lineages.
  2. 1 2 3 "Yatta, Ancient and Modern". ⁨⁨The Palestine Post⁩⁩. 21 December 1938. p. 8.
  3. 1 2 3 "The killers of Yatta". The Jerusalem Post. 8 July 2016. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
  4. ↑ "'This is a conflict between brothers; it's all a big misunderstanding'". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. 20 August 2009. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
  5. 1 2 3 Ben-Zvi, Itzhak (1967). שאר ישוב: מאמרים ופרקים בדברי ימי הישוב העברי בא"י ובחקר המולדת [She'ar Yeshuv] (in Hebrew). תל אביב תרפ"ז. pp. 407–413.
  6. ↑ Ḥevrah la-haganat ha-ṭevaʻ (1990), Israel - land and nature, Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, p. 83, retrieved 6 June 2011
  7. ↑ Wolf, Amaliah (1984). "⁨היהודים של הר־חברון הם באו מסעודיה ⁩ — ⁨⁨כותרת ראשית⁩⁩ 19 דצמבר 1984 — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים" [The Jews of Mount Hebron: They came from Saudi Arabia]. www.nli.org.il (in Hebrew). Retrieved 2022-02-16.
  8. ↑ ד' בנבנשתי, 'מעון כרמל זיף ויוטה' (חלק א'), הארץ, גליון 2893, 10.2.1929 (Hebrew), עמ' 3
  9. ↑ Bar-Adon, P (12 April 1929). "פלחים ממוצא יהודי" [Fellahin of Jewish ancestry]. Davar - Supplement for Sabbath and holidays.
  10. ↑ ד' בנבנשתי, "מעון כרמל זיף ויוטה" (חלק ב'), הארץ, גליון 2895, 12.2.1929, עמ' 3. (Hebrew)
  11. ↑ ד' בנבנשתי, 'אשתמוע', הארץ, גליון 2923, 13.3.1929 (Hebrew), עמ' 3
  12. ↑ ד' בנבנשתי, "כפר עזיז ואדוריים", הארץ, גליון 2927, 17.3.1929, עמ' 3 (Hebrew)
  13. ↑ "The Jewish Origins of Palestinians", Channel 1 (Israel) (News Report), 10:20, 2009, retrieved 2022-02-23
  14. ↑ Zissu, Boaz (2006). "קברים וקבורה באשתמוע שבדרום הר-חברון" [Tombs and burial in Esthemoa, southern Hebron Hills]. In אשל, יעקב (ed.). ספר המדבר בארץ-ישראל: דברי הכנס הראשון תשס"ו ,2006. סוסיא, מרכז סיור ולימוד ומו"פ אזורי השומרון ובקעת הירדן. pp. 17–29.
  15. 1 2 Nisan, Mordechai (2010). ישראל במזרח: מסע תרבותי ומדיני באסיה [Israel in the East: A Cultural and Political Journey in Asia] (in Hebrew). ירושלים: הוצאת ספרים ראובן מס. p. 94. ISBN 978-965-09-0286-5.
  16. ↑ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, p. 190
  17. ↑ Eusebius, Onomasticon - The Place Names of Divine Scripture, (ed.) R. Steven Notley & Ze'ev Safrai, Brill: Leiden 2005, p. 104 (§545)
  18. ↑ Mor, Menahem (2016-04-18). The Second Jewish Revolt. BRILL. pp. 483–484. doi:10.1163/9789004314634. ISBN 978-90-04-31463-4. Land confiscation in Judaea was part of the suppression of the revolt policy of the Romans and punishment for the rebels. But the very claim that the sikarikon laws were annulled for settlement purposes seems to indicate that Jews continued to reside in Judaea even after the Second Revolt. There is no doubt that this area suffered the severest damage from the suppression of the revolt. Settlements in Judaea, such as Herodion and Bethar, had already been destroyed during the course of the revolt, and Jews were expelled from the districts of Gophna, Herodion, and Aqraba. However, it should not be claimed that the region of Judaea was completely destroyed. Jews continued to live in areas such as Lod (Lydda), south of the Hebron Mountain, and the coastal regions. In other areas of the Land of Israel that did not have any direct connection with the Second Revolt, no settlement changes can be identified as resulting from it.
  19. ↑ Eshel, E., Eshel H., & Yardeny A. (2009). A document from "year four of the destruction of the house of Israel" in which a widow declared that she received all her rights. Cathedra 132. 5-24. [Hebrew] "The phrase "for the destruction of the House of Israel" may be interpreted as a count method that began with the destruction of the Temple, in 70 CE, or with the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt, in 136 CE. [...] The places mentioned in the document: Beit 'Amar, Upper Anab and Aristobulia, are ancient settlements in the southern Hebron Hills. If indeed the new document is to be dated to 140 CE, it can be suggested that Jews continued to use the hideout caves even during the religious edicts imposed by Hadrian after the suppression of the Bar Kokhba rebellion, and also that Jews remained in the southern Hebron Hills even after the suppression of the revolt."
  20. ↑ Avni, Gideon (2014). The Byzantine-Islamic transition in Palestine: an archaeological approach. Oxford University Press. pp. 197, 254–255. ISBN 978-0-19-150734-2. OCLC 871044531.
  21. ↑ "4 killed in Tel Aviv terror attack; 2 arrested". FOX8 WGHP. 2016-06-08. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
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