Template:Infobox Former Arab villages in Palestine
Dimra (Arabic: دمره) was a small Palestinian Arab village located Template:Km to mi north of Gaza City.[1][2] Ancient remains at the site attest to longtime settlement there. During the era of Mamluk rule in Palestine, the town was the home of the Bani Jabir tribe. Depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the Israeli kibbutz of Erez was constructed on Dimra's former lands.
History
Ancient remains found throughout the village, including marble and granite columns as well as pottery, attest to ancient settlement at the site.[2] During the period of Mamluk rule (1270-1516 AD) over Palestine, Dimra was located on an eastward route which left the main Gaza-Jaffa highway at Beit Hanoun.[2] According to Moshe Sharon, Dimra is not mentioned in Arabic sources from the time, though he specultes that its natural, independent water supply made it a likely resting place for those travelling in the region.[2] According to Walid Khalidi, Al-Qalqasandi, an Arab scholar (d. 1418 AD), wrote of Dimra, noting it was the home of the Bani Jabir, an Arab tribe.[3]
During the rule of the Ottoman empire, Edward Robinson reported passing by in 1838, and said the village ("Dimreh") was situated near the bend of a valley.[4]
The village expanded during the British mandate period, and houses were built eastward and southward. In 1946, an elementary school opened in Dimra, with an initial enrollment of 47 students.[5] In 1944-45 a total of 96 dunums were allocated to citrus and banana cultivation, 7,412 dunums were allocated to cereals, and 388 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.[6]
1948 and after
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the women and children of Dimra were reportedly evacuated by the village men on 31 October, likely in response to the advance of the Israeli army.[7]
The Israeli settlement of Erez was founded in 1949 on part of the village site.[8]
Walid Khalidi described the remaining structures of the village in 1992:
"Most of the village is fenced in and used as pasture. A crumbling stone water basin, concrete rubble from houses, and a destroyed well are nearly all that remain. A watering trough for cows has been placed on what appears to be a concrete fragment from a former house. The well is topped with an old, nonoperating water pump. More debris lies in a wooded portion of the site, near a Jewish cemetery. Some cactuses that formerly served as fences, as well as shrubs and thorny plants, grow on adjacent lands.[9]
