The District of Tiberias

 Al-Shajara

 In mid-February 1948, as a battle flared between Arab and Haganah forces in the Baysan Vally,  Haganah forces carried out a diversionary attack on al-Shajara, during which poet Abdelrahim Mahmoud. There are no Israeli settlements on village lands, but a number of settlements are quite close to the village site. Zionists established the settlement of Sejera in 1902. Its name was taken directly from that of al-Shajara. The settlers later changed its name to Ilaniyya, from the Hebrew ilan (“tree”), a translation of the name of the Arab village. Kibbutz Sde Ilan was established east of the agricultural lands of the village in 1949. The ruins of houses and broken steel bars protrude from beds of wild vegetation. The western part of the site and the nearby hill are covered with cacti.