Ceramics from the
Byzantine era have been found here, together with coins from reigns of
Phocas and
Constantine IV. One mention of al-Batani indicates that it was founded as a ranch by the
Umayyad caliph
Mu'awiya I in the 8th century CE. The whole population was
Muslim. The village appeared as an unnamed village on the map of
Pierre Jacotin compiled in 1799. In 1838,
Robinson noted
el-Butaniyeh, the east, as Muslim village located in the Gaza district. In 1863 the French explorer
Victor Guérin visited the village which he called
Bathanieh Ech-Charkieh. He found about 100
adobe brick houses, and ancient stones lying on the ground near a well. Tobacco plantations grew in gardens surrounded by cactus hedges.
Socin, citing an official Ottoman village list compiled around 1870, noted that Al-Batani al-Sharqi had 89 houses and a population of 265, though the population count included men, only.
Hartmann found that
el-batanije esch-scharkije had 85 houses. In 1882, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described al-Batani al-Sharqi as being situated on low ground and extended from east to west in a rectangular shape. Patches of garden and a number of wells surrounded the village.
British Mandate era In the
1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the
British Mandate authorities,
Batani Sharqi had a population of 304 inhabitants, all Muslims, increasing in the
1931 census to 404, still all Muslim, in 85 houses. Construction expanded westward—the Wadi al-Mari's winter flooding impeded eastward expansion—along the road that linked to
al-Batani al-Gharbi until the distance between the two villages was less than . Village houses, made of adobe, with wood-and-cane roofs, were built close together along narrow alleys. The two al-Batanis shared an elementary school that was opened in 1947; its initial enrollment was 119 students. The village had a mosque and a number of small shops. The entire population was
Muslim. while 32 dunams were built-up land.
1948 war and aftermath In early May, 1948, the
Al-Majdal Arab National Committee (NC), ordered the villagers of Al-Batani al-Sharqi, together with those of
Al-Batani al-Gharbi,
Yasur,
Bayt Daras and the three Sawafir villages to stay put. It became depopulated shortly afterwards as part of
Palmach's 'Operation Lightning' (
Mivtza Barak). After they had hit
Bayt Daras, the operational orders to Haganah on the 10 May was to "subdue" Al-Batani al-Gharbi and Al-Batani al-Sharqi, "with the same means used vis-à-vis
Aqir,
Bashshit and
Bayt Daras". Together with nearby
Bashshit and
Barqa, al-Batani al-Sharqi was captured by the
Haganah's
Givati Brigade, just before the end of the
British Mandate period in Palestine. Following the war the area was incorporated into the
State of Israel, with the villages lands remaining undeveloped. In 1992 the village site was described: "Only a dilapidated police station from the Mandate period survives. It is a complex of three single-storey, concrete flat-roofed buildings. One of the buildings is higher than the other two; all three have rectangular doors and windows. A village street is clearly visible. Cactuses and fig, eucalyptus, and sycamore trees are scattered over the site. Israeli farmers cultivate citrus on the adjacent lands." ==See also==