Herzliya Settlement

Herzliya is an "Israeli" settlement established in 1924 on the lands of the depopulated Palestinian village of al-Haram. It is located on the Mediterranean coast and covers an area of about 21.6 square kilometers. According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, its population in 2021 was about 106,741 people. It was named after Theodor Herzl, founder of the modern Zionist movement. Its western part contains one of the wealthiest and most affluent neighborhoods in "Israel," housing embassies, foreign diplomatic residences, and economic elites.

The village of al-Haram, on which Herzliya was built, was a Palestinian Arab village located on the Mediterranean coast, about 18 kilometers northeast of the city of Jaffa, to which it was administratively affiliated. The total area of its lands was 8,065 dunams, while the built-up area covered 18 dunams. It contained more than 90 houses built of stone and mudbrick, clustered around the shrine of Sayyid Ali ibn Ali, a descendant of the seventh-generation ancestor of Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab.

By 1948, the village's population was about 600 people, the majority of them Muslim. It had a boys' elementary school established in 1921, with about 68 students in 1945, two teachers, and a library holding 132 books. The number of literate men in the village at that time was 110. The local economy relied mainly on citrus cultivation in its sandy soil, in addition to sea fishing.

Zionist militias took control of it on 15 May 1948, as part of a broader military operation aimed at seizing control of the Palestinian coast.