Al-'Abbasiyya ( ar, العبْاسِيّة), also known as al-Yahudiya ( ar, اليهودية),
was a
Palestinian Arab
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
village in the
Jaffa Subdistrict. It was attacked under
Operation Hametz
Operation Hametz ( he, מבצע חמץ, ''Mivtza Hametz'') was a Jewish operation towards the end of the British Mandate of Palestine, as part of the 1948 Palestine war. It was launched at the end of April 1948 with the objective of capturing vi ...
during the
1948 Palestine War
The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. It is known in Israel as the War of Independence ( he, מלחמת העצמאות, ''Milkhemet Ha'Atzma'ut'') and ...
, and finally depopulated under
Operation Dani
Operation Danny ( he, מבצע דני, ''Mivtza Dani'') was an Israeli military offensive launched at the end of the first truce of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The objectives were to capture territory east of Tel Aviv and then to push inland and ...
. It was located 13 km east of
Jaffa
Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...
. Some of the remains of the village can be found today in the centre of the modern Israeli city of
Yehud
Yehud ( he, יְהוּד) is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel that is part of the joint municipality of Yehud-Monosson. In 2007, the city's population stood at approximately 30,000 people (including Neve Monosson ...
.
History
In 1596, ''Yahudiya'' appeared in
Ottoman tax registers as being in the ''
Nahiya
A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...
'' of Ramla of the ''
Liwa'' of Gaza. It had a population of 126 Muslim households and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops or fruit trees, sesame, and goats or beehives.
In 1838 it was noted as a
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
village called ''el-Yehudiyeh'' in the
Lydda
Lod ( he, לוד, or fully vocalized ; ar, اللد, al-Lidd or ), also known as Lydda ( grc, Λύδδα), is a city southeast of Tel Aviv and northwest of Jerusalem in the Central District of Israel. It is situated between the lower Shephe ...
administrative region.
[Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.]
121
/ref>
The French explorer Victor Guérin
Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Mino ...
visited the village, which he called ''Yehoudieh'', in 1863, and found it to have a population of more than 1,000 people. The houses were made of adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...
bricks, several topped by palm leaves. Near a noria
A noria ( ar, ناعورة, ''nā‘ūra'', plural ''nawāʿīr'', from syr, ܢܥܘܪܐ, ''nā‘orā'', lit. "growler") is a hydropowered ''scoop wheel'' used to lift water into a small aqueduct (water supply), aqueduct, either for the purpos ...
he noticed an ancient sarcophagus
A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...
, placed there as a trough
Trough may refer to:
In science
* Trough (geology), a long depression less steep than a trench
* Trough (meteorology), an elongated region of low atmospheric pressure
* Trough (physics), the lowest point on a wave
* Trough level (medicine), the l ...
.[Guérin, 1868, pp]
321
322[
An Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that ''el-jehudie'' had a population of 835, in 246 houses, though the population count included men, only.][Socin, 1879, p]
155
/ref>
In 1882, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine
The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the Survey of Western Palestine and in 1880 for the Survey of Eastern Palestine. The survey was carried out after the ...
'' (SWP) described the place as "a large mud
A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...
village, supplied by a pond, and surrounded by palm-trees." They also noted a ruined tank, or birkeh, to the south of the village.[Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p]
278
/ref>
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine
The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922.
The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divisi ...
, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Yahudiyeh'' had a population of 2,437 residents, all Muslims,[Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jaffa, p]
20
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census, when ''Yahudiya'' had a population of 3,258 residents; 3,253 Muslims and 5 Christians, in a total of 772 houses.[Mills, 1932, p]
16
/ref>
The previous name, ''Al-Yahudiya'', is thought to be taken from the name of the biblical town of Yahud, mentioned in (as part of a list of towns comprising the territory of the Israelite tribe of Dan
The Tribe of Dan (, "Judge") was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, according to the Torah. They were allocated a coastal portion of land when the people of Israel entered the Promised Land, later moving northwards.
Biblical narrative
In th ...
), and later called ''Iudaea'' by the Romans. In 1932, the town was officially renamed Al-'Abbasiyya,[Khalidi, 1992, p. 232] because the inhabitants did not want the town to be associated with Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
. The name chosen as a replacement, Al-'Abbasiyya, was mostly in honour of the memory of a sheikh
Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...
called al-'Abbas who was buried in the town, but also alluded to the Arab Muslim Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
.[
In the 1945 statistics, the population had increased to 5,800; 5,630 Muslims, 150 Jews, and 20 Christians, with a total of 20,540 ]dunums
A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...
of land.[''Village Statistics April 1945,'' The Palestine Government]
, p. 15 Of this, a total of 4,099 dunums was used for citrus
''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering plant, flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as Orange (fruit), oranges, Lemon, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and lim ...
and bananas
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...
, 1,019 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, 14,465 were for cereals,[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945''. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p]
97
/ref> while 101 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p]
147
/ref>
On December 13, 1947, twenty-four armed men from the hard-right paramilitary organization Irgun
Irgun • Etzel
, image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px
, caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...
attacked the village, approaching from the Jewish town of Petaḥ Tiqvah. The attackers wore khaki uniforms and drove through the village in four cars. One group fired on villagers at a cafe and another set bombs and grenades in houses. Seven Arabs were killed (two women and two children under the age of five) and seven others seriously wounded (two women and a four-year-old girl among them). An armored British police vehicle was fired upon by the attackers.[Irgun Attacks in Palestine: 21 Arabs, 3 Jews Are Slain](_blank)
NY Times, December 14, 1947
NY Times, December 20, 1947
1948 and after
On September 13, 1948, David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion ( ; he, דָּוִד בֶּן-גּוּרִיּוֹן ; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Adopting the name ...
requested the destruction of Al-'Abbasiyya, among other Palestinian villages whose inhabitants fled or were expelled.[Sa'di and Abu-Lughod, 2007, p]
37
Ben-Gurion wrote: "because of a lack of manpower to occupy the area in depth ... there was a need to partially destroy the following villages: 1. As Safiriya 2. Al-Haditha 3. Innaba
Innaba ( ar, عنابة) was a Palestinian village in the Ramle Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on July 10, 1948 by the Yiftach and Eighth Brigades of Operation Dani. It was located 7  ...
4. Daniyal
Daniyal ( ar, دانيال) was a Palestinian village in the Ramle Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on July 10, 1948, by the Yiftach Brigade under the first phase of Operation Dani. It was located 5 km eas ...
5. Jimzu
Jimzu ( ar, جمزو), also known as Gimzo (meaning "sycamore plantation"), was a Palestinian village, located three miles southeast of Lydda. Under the 1947 UN Partition Plan of Mandatory Palestine, Jimzu was to form part of the proposed Arab st ...
6. Kafr 'Ana
Kafr 'Ana' ( ar, كفرئنا, also: Kafr Ana) was a Palestinian town located east of Jaffa, built on the ancient site of Ono. In 1945, the town had an estimated population of 2,800 Arabs and 220 Jews. Captured by the pre-state Jewish forces of ...
7. Al Yahudiya 8. Barfiliya 9. Al Barriya 10. Al-Qubab
Al-Qubab ( ar, القباب) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict. It was depopulated in July 1948 during the Operation Dani led by the Yiftach Brigade.
History
Remains, possibly dating from the Roman era have been found here. ...
11. Beit Nabala
Bayt Nabala or Beit Nabala was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict in Palestine that was destroyed during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The village was in the territory allotted to the Arab state under the 1947 UN Partition Plan ...
12. Dayr Tarif
Dayr Tarif was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on July 10, 1948.
History
The Romans referred to Dayr Tarif as Bethariph.
According to SWP; "South-we ...
13. At Tira 13. Qula
Qula ( ar, قولة) was a Palestinian village in the Ramle Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine. It was located 15 km northeast of Ramla and was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
Hasan Salama and his son Ali Hassan Salameh (1940- ...
." Also quoted in Morris, 2004, p
354
/ref>
Between 1948 and 1954 the Israeli sites of Yehud
Yehud ( he, יְהוּד) is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel that is part of the joint municipality of Yehud-Monosson. In 2007, the city's population stood at approximately 30,000 people (including Neve Monosson ...
, Magshimim
Magshimim ( he, מַגְשִׁימִים, ''lit.'' Dream fulfillers) is a moshav in central Israel. Located near Yehud, it falls under the jurisdiction of Drom HaSharon Regional Council. In it had a population of .
History
During the 18th and 1 ...
, Ganne Yehuda
Savyon ( he, סַבְיוֹן) is an affluent local council in the Central District of Israel, bordering the cities of Kiryat Ono and Yehud. Ranked 10/10 on the Israeli socio-economic scale, it is one of the wealthiest municipalities in Israel ...
, Ganne Tiqwa
Ganei Tikva ( he, גַּנֵּי תִּקְוָה, lit="gardens of hope") is a town in Israel bordering Kiryat Ono to the west, Petah Tikva to the north, Gat Rimon to the east and Savyon to the south.
History
Ganei Tikva was formed in 1949, ...
, and Savyon
Savyon ( he, סַבְיוֹן) is an affluent local council in the Central District of Israel, bordering the cities of Kiryat Ono and Yehud. Ranked 10/10 on the Israeli socio-economic scale, it is one of the wealthiest municipalities in Israel. ...
were established on the land of Al-'Abbasiyya.[Khalidi, 1992, p. 235]
In 1992 the village site was described: "The main mosque and the shrine of al-Nabi Huda till stand. The mosque is deserted and beginning to crack in several places; the shrine is made of stone and surmounted with a dome. There is also an Israeli coffee shop, called the Tehr coffee shop, at the entrance of a main street that was called Ziqaq al-Raml ("Sand Lane"). A number of houses remain; they have been occupied by Yehud's Jewish residents or put to other uses. One residentil house, made of concrete, has a slanted roof and rectangular doors and windows; its porch is covered by corrugated metal sheets. Another house, a two-storey, concrete structure with rectangular doors and windows and I tiled, tent-shaped roof, has been converted into a commercial building. The land around the site (only partially covered by construction) has been left untended and is overgrown with pine and Christ's-thorn trees."
References
Bibliography
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External links
Welcome To al-'Abbasiyya
al-'Abbasiyya (Yahudiyya)
Zochrot
Zochrot ( he, זוכרות; "Remembering"; ar, ذاكرات; "Memories") is an Israeli nonprofit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Palestinian ''Nakba'' ("Catastrophe"), including the 1948 Pa ...
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 13
IAA
Wikimedia commons
at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center () is a leading Palestinian arts and culture organization that aims to create a pluralistic, critical liberating culture through research, query, and participation, and that provides an open space for the community ...
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War
Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
District of Jaffa