Qadas
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| Qadas | |
| Arabic | قدس |
| Also Spelled | Cadasa |
| District | Safad |
| Population | 390 (1945) |
| Jurisdiction | 14,139 dunams |
| Date of depopulation | 28 May 1948 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Influence of nearby town's fall |
| Current localities | Malkiyya |
Qadas (Arabic: قدس, also Cadasa[1]) was a village located 17 kilometers northeast of Safad that was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.[2][3] One of seven Shiite Muslim villages called Metawalis that fell within the boundaries of British Mandate Palestine.[3] Qadas lay adjacent to Nebi Yusha, near the tel of the Biblical city of Kedesh Naftali.[3] The village of Qadas contained many natural springs which served as the village water supply and a Roman temple dating back to the second century AD.[2]
Cadasa is mentioned in the Bible as being a Tyrian city that was sacked by the Jews in their revolt against the Roman empire.[1]
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[edit] 1948 war
Qadas was occupied by Israeli forces during Operation Hiram on 28 May 1948.[2] Defended by the Arab Liberation Army and the Lebanese army, its inhabitants fled under the influence of the fall of, or exodus from, neighbouring towns.[2]
[edit] Qadas today
The Jewish settlements of Yiftach, Malkiyya, and Ramot Naftali are built on the lands of the former village.[2]
Walid Khalidi describes the remaining structures of the former village thusly:
"Stones from the destroyed houses are strewn over the fenced-in site, and a few partially destroyed walls near the spring are visible. The flat portions of the surrounding lands are planted with apple trees; the spring provides drinking water for cattle.[2]
Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has publicly recalled on occasion the fate of Qadas and the other Metawali villages in his references to the 1948 annexation of several Lebanese villages, the expulsion of their residents, the expropriation of their property and the destruction of their homes.[3]
