Or Yehuda Colony

Or Yehuda is an “Israeli” colony occupying an area of 5.1 square kilometers. As of 2007, its settler population was approximately 32,000. The colony was established in 1949 as a Zionist settlement on the ruins of the two depopulated Palestinian villages of Saqiya and Kafr ‘Ana, which were emptied of their inhabitants during the 1948 war. The colony is named after Yehuda ben Shlomo Hai Alkalai. The Village of Saqiya: Located 8.5 kilometers from Jaffa, Saqiya was built on uneven land in the central coastal plain. Stone-paved roads ran through or near the village, connecting it to Jaffa, Lydda, Tel Aviv, and neighboring villages. In 1596, Saqiya was a village in the  (subdistrict) of al-Ramla (in the Gaza district) with a population of 270. By the late 19th century, the village featured a well to its south and houses built from mudbrick, situated closely together. In the final years of the British Mandate, cement structures began to appear as the village experienced modest growth. The residents were Muslim and had a mosque built near the end of the Mandate period, along with a boys’ elementary school founded in 1936. Sources: Due to the limited availability of Arabic-language sources, the following “Hebrew” sources were used:

• The colony’s official Hebrew website

• The “Israeli” Central Bureau of Statistics

Information on the villages of Saqiya and Kafr ‘Ana from the