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Khulda (), also Khuldeh, was a Palestinian Arab village located south of Ramla in the Mandatory Palestine. Known as Huldre to the Crusades, it is also mentioned in documents dating to the periods of Mamluk, Ottoman, and Mandatory rule over Palestine. During the 1948 war, the village was depopulated as part of Operation Nachshon and was subsequently destroyed. The kibbutz of Mishmar David was established that same year on land belonging to the village.
During the period of Mamluk rule over Palestine, Mujir al-Din al-'Ulaymi narrates how the under-Governor of Ramleh in 1495 had to take refuge against marauding Bedouin in a small fort which then existed at Khulda.Mujir al-Din, 1866, p.702 (Arabic text, published by Bulak, Cairo), cited in Clermont-Ganneau, 1896, II, p.251 - 252Moudjir ed-dyn, 1876, (French text) p.294
When Edward Robinson passed by in 1838, he described Khulda as "a large village" on a hill.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, p. 21 It was also noted as a Muslim village in the southern area in the District of Er-Ramleh.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 120
In 1863 Victor Guérin noted a village with two hundred and fifty inhabitants, situated on a plateau.Guérin, 1869, p. 32
An official village list of about 1870 showed that the village had 28 houses and a population of 76, though the population count included only men.Socin, 1879, p. 151Hartmann, 1883, p. 140 also noted 28 houses Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau visited Khulda in 1871, and was told by the inhabitants that the village used to be surrounded by a fortified wall, two gates of which were still supposed to be in situ. Clermont-Ganneau noted that this agreed well with what Mujir al-Din had written about the place.Clermont-Ganneau, 1896, II, p.467
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Khulda as a large village, built of stone and mud, situated on a hill. The village had a masonry Water well to the east.Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p.408. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 389
In the 1922 census of Palestine, Khulda had a population of 53 inhabitants, all ,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramleh, p. 21 increasing in the 1931 census to 178, still all Muslims, in 29 inhabited houses.Mills, 1932, p. 21
The villagers maintained a mosque and there were two for domestic use. Villagers in Khulda were engaged in the rearing of animal livestock. The Lydda District had one of the largest animal markets in Palestine, alongside that of the Nazareth District; however, starvation was a common affliction among the herds in the former in the 20th century, and the herd at Khulda was described as 'a typical specimen of extreme debility'.El-Eini, 2006, p. 398.
In the 1945 statistics, the population had grown to 280 Muslims, with a total of 9,461 of land. Of this, a total of 8,994 dunums were used for , 9 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 116 while 8 dunams were classified as built-up public areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 166
Kibbutz Mishmar David was established in 1948, about west of the village site, on village land. Tal Shachar is nearby, about south of the village site, but it is not on village land.Khalidi, 1992, p. 389
Andrew Petersen, an archaeologist specializing in Islamic architecture visited Khulda in 1993, and notes that the remains of at least four stone buildings can be seen, although only two of them are standing. The first of these is a rectangular structure ( x ) with two separate rooms, each with its own entrance. Each door is flanked with two large windows. Both doors and windows are covered with lintels, above which is a relieving arch. An inscription above one of the doors have been removed. The roof is made with iron , with reinforced concrete, while the walls are dressed limestone. According to Petersen, the building must have served some public purpose, and it probably dates from the final years of the Ottoman rule, or the early British Mandate of Palestine period.Petersen, 2001, p. 200
The second building stands north of first one, and is about half in size (6 m x 6 m). The roof is made in the same manner as the first house. The walls are made of boulders and rubble stone, joined together with mud mortar. A shallow niche in the south wall might be a mihrab. The walls are decorated with stencilled friezes of palm tree and in blue-green. A barely legible inscription above the door gives a 14th-century Islamic calendar (late 19th-century CE) date.
1948 and aftermath
Prior to the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Khulda was conquered by Jewish forces on April 6, 1948 during Operation Nachshon.Morris, 2004, p. 235 On April 20, 1948 it was leveled by bulldozers.
Bibliography
(1977). 9783920405414, Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. . ISBN 9783920405414
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