Rmeish () is a village located in the District of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon, south of Ain Ebel, near the Lebanese-Israeli border covering an area of . The ruins found in the village indicate that the area was occupied by the Romans and the Crusaders at some stage in history.
Origin of the name
The name Rmiesh means "scanty herbage" according to according E. H. Palmer.
Families
The first families to live in Rmeish came from the areas of Kesourwan especially from the Khazen and Chidiac families. At the same time some other Christian families moved to the village after the Shiite family Al Asaad offered them protection.
The main families in Rmeish are:
History
In 1299, Rmeish was directly under Mamluk rule.
Ottoman era
Rmeish was under Ottoman rule until 1920. Rmeish was involved in many wars and battles through the history. The most important ones are:
In 1797, the viceroy of Acre Ahmad Pasha EL Jazar demolished and destroyed the village including the only church that was there. His reasons for that were that Rmeish supported Prince Bashir El Chahabi against him, they helped Napoleon in his battle against Acre and that he was afraid, that Rmeish being the only Christian village in the area, might encourage other Christian villages to rebel against him. Ahmad Basha burned down the church including all the records that were kept inside. The people of Rmeish refused to go back to their village until Ahmad Basha died in 1804 when they went back and rebuilt their church and village. In 1824, the leader of Rmeish Youssef Daher El Choufani led the village to a victory over the viceroy of Acre, Abdallah El Darnadli. In 1829, Rmeish supported Prince Bashir El Chahabi in his battle against Sanour. Rmaich was hit by an earthquake in January 1837, which devastated the South all the way to Safad and Tiberias. Most of the homes were crushed, and around 30 people were killed, and more lives would have been lost if they had not been at evening prayers at the church, which was low and compact and did not collapse In 1839, Rmeish fought side by side with the Shiite of the neighbouring villages against the Egyptian army which ended by the withdrawal of the Egyptian army after suffering heavy losses. In 1840, Daher El Choufani led Rmeish in another battle against the Egyptian army.
When the Ottoman Empire entered the war, they forced everyone between 18 and 60 years to fight in the Turkish army. People from Rmeish were forced to fight in Bulgaria, Istanbul and the Suez Canal in Egypt. Between 20 and 30 never came back from the war and no one knew anything about them till today.
In 1875 Victor Guérin found Rmaich to be inhabited by 500 Maronites, all impoverished. He observed that although the village appears to be relatively new—and according to its elders, it hasn't reached its hundred-year and five mark yet—it is located on the site of an earlier settlement.
In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Rumeish: "A stone and mud village, containing about 500 Christians ; there is a Christian church; it is situated in the plain, with two large birkets and cisterns, surrounded by arable land and having some vineyards."
1916 Famine
A glittering cloud of locusts so large it blocked out the sun as it approached descended upon the farms destroying all wheat crops and stripping the prairie bare of all vegetation. The famine decreased the number of the people living in Rmeish to about 450.
Lebanon
A petition was sent by all villages in south Lebanon to the Reconciliation Conference in Paris in 1919 asking for Rmeish and other villages to be included within Lebanon. The following is the petition:
"We call on the agreement and unanimity we, the residents of Tyre district of Shiites and Christians of forty thousands to be included in the State of Greater Lebanon for the following reasons: First, the Shiites of us are people form Sidon, Tyre, Marjayoun, El Rihan, Eklim El Kharoub and Hermel who truly want to join their nation. Second, Christians of us are of Lebanese origin and their ancestors came from the north to south. To the day they are relatives and want to join them."
In 1920, Ain Ebel was attacked by hundreds of Muslim militias. The leaders of Ain Ebel and Rmeish agreed to fight side by side against the attackers. The attackers attacked in large numbers that the defenders could not resist the attack and were forced to leave the villages to Palestine.
In 1920, Rmeish was included in what was known as the State of Greater Lebanon.