Hanajira

Members of the Hanajira tribe in Beersheba. Seated third from left is Sheikh Freih Abu Middein, chief of the Hanajira tribe. Standing in the center is Aref al-Aref, Palestinian journalist and later mayor of East Jerusalem
Tribal chief Sheikh Freih Abu Middein, during his mayoral term in Beersheba, early 1920s
1908 map of Bedouin tribes inhabiting the Negev Desert. Al-Hanajira is spelled "Arab al-Hanagreh" in the map

Al-Hanajira (also Arab al-Hanajira, al-Hanajra or el-Hanajreh) was one of the five principal Bedouin tribes inhabiting the Negev Desert prior to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Its territory stretched north-south between Deir al-Balah and Gaza and east to the lands of the Tarabin bedouin,[1] straddling the Hejaz Railway line. Under the British Mandate, the territory was divided between its Gaza and Beersheba.[2] The largest clan was Abu Middein. In the 1931 British census of Palestine, Abu Middein numbered 1,419, Nuseirat numbered 1,104, Sumeiri 772, and al-Dawahra 461,[3] bringing the total to 3,735. By the summer of 1946 the population increased to 7,125. In 1981 the population living in the Gaza Strip was roughly 10,000.[4]

  1. ^ Israel Magazine. Spotlight Publications Ltd., 1969. vol. 2.
  2. ^ "Road Map or Roadblock? - Why International Law Matters, Palestinian Refugees and the 'Rules of the Road'", Al-Majdal. BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights. Issues 13-24, June 2003. p. 35.
  3. ^ 1931 British Mandate Census. p. 11.
  4. ^ Abu-Rabia, 2001, p. 131.