The villagers of Harrawi were descendants of Bedouin from the ‘Arab al-Hamdun tribe. There is evidence to suggest the village was inhabited as far back as the early Byzantine period, with ruins of Greek inscriptions, old walls, tessellated floors, and a wine-press. In 1875 Victor Guérin passed by, and thought the ruins he found there could be ancient Hazor. The same was reported in 1881, by the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine.
In the 1931 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Arab el Hamdun had a population of 148 Muslims, in a total of 36 houses. Harrawi was located on a mountain in eastern Upper Galilee. The area is forested but much land was converted by the settlers for agricultural purposes, given that in 1945, 551 dunums of land was devoted to the farming of cereals. However, they were also employed in animal husbandry, and brought their livestock down seasonal pastures in the winter. A large number of inhabitants were employed in cereal farming, which dominated all of the area under cultivation. Types of land use in dunums by Arabs in the 1945 statistics:
Land Usage
Arab
Jewish
Cereal
551
330
Urban
0
2
Cultivable
551
330
Non-cultivable
1,704
1,139
The village comprised a total area of 3,726 dunums of which 60% was owned by Arabs and 40% by Jews. The land ownership of the village before occupation in dunums:
Owner
Durums
Arab
2,255
Jewish
1,471
Public
0
Total
3,726
1948 conflict and depopulation
Although it was in May 1948 that the village was depopulated, the Palestinian newspaper Filastin reported an incident that occurred in February 1948 when a bus carrying Arab passengers en route from al-Hula to Safad was ambushed at Harrawi on 12 February by a Zionistmilitary unit. A mine exploded under the bus which was also subject to gunfire and firebombing, killing four people. In mid May 1948, the village was defended by the Arab Liberation Army's Second Yarmuk Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. Adib Shishakli, who later served as president of Syria. The initial resistance was reported by the American newspaperThe New York Timesin Damascus to have been a success, with the ALA claiming victories at Harrawi and al-Malikiyya, located 5 km to the northwest. However, any early successes were short-lived; Harrawi, along with the nearby villages of Mallaha and Baysamun fell to the Israeli Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach May 25. Ramot Naftali is located close to the village site, but it is not on Harrawi land; it is located Al-Nabi Yusha' land. In 1992 the village site was described: "No traces of the village are visible. Woods cover the slopes and peak of the mountain on which the village was located. Some of the lands in the area are wooded while others have been planted by Israelis with fruit trees."
