Al-Ghubayya al-Fawqa 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
Haifa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the
1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 8, 1948, during the
Battle of Mishmar HaEmek
The Battle of Mishmar HaEmek was a ten-day battle fought from 4 to 15 April 1948 between the Arab Liberation Army ( Yarmouk Battalion) commanded by Fawzi al-Qawuqji and the Haganah (Palmach and HISH) commanded by Yitzhak Sadeh and Dan Laner. Th ...
. It was located 28 km southeast of
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
.
History
During the early
Ottoman era, in 1596 the village appeared under the name of ''Gubayya'' in the
tax registers, being part of 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 ...
'' (subdistrict) of ''Sahil
Atlit
Atlit ( he, עַתְלִית, ar, عتليت) is a coastal town located south of Haifa, Israel. The community is in the Hof HaCarmel Regional Council in the Haifa District of Israel.
Off the coast of Atlit is a submerged Neolithic village. Atli ...
'' in the ''
Sanjak
Sanjaks (liwāʾ) (plural form: alwiyāʾ)
* Armenian language, Armenian: նահանգ (''nahang''; meaning "province")
* Bulgarian language, Bulgarian: окръг (''okrǔg''; meaning "county", "province", or "region")
* el, Διοίκησι ...
'' (district) of
Lajjun
Lajjun ( ar, اللجّون, ''al-Lajjūn'') was a large Palestinian Arab village in Mandatory Palestine, located northwest of Jenin and south of the remains of the biblical city of Megiddo. The Israeli kibbutz of Megiddo, Israel was built o ...
. It had a population of 39 households; an estimated 215 people, all
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 ...
. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives, and water buffaloes; the taxes totalled 21,690
akçe
The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...
.
[Khalidi, 1992, p. 160]
Al-Ghubayya al-Fawqa shared an elementary school built by the Ottomans in 1888 with the nearby villages of
al-Ghubayya-al-Tahta and
al-Naghnaghiyya. The school was later closed during the British Mandate period. The village had its own mosque.
[
]
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, ''Ghabba al-Fuqa'' had a population of 41 Muslims.
In the 1931 census, the two al-Ghubayya village were counted together, and the total population was 200 Muslims, in 38 houses.[Mills, 1932, p]
90
/ref>
In the 1945 statistics the population was counted with the neighbouring al-Ghubayya-al-Tahta and al-Naghnaghiyya, and together they had a population of 1,130 Muslims,[ with a total of 12,139 ]dunam
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 ...
s of land according to an official land and population survey.[ Of this, 209 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 10,883 for cereals, while a total of 1,047 dunams were non-cultivable land.
]
1948 and aftermath
On 8 and 9 April 1948, the Haganah
Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the ...
raided al-Ghubayya al-Fawqa, al-Ghubayya-al-Tahta and ''Khirbet Beit Ras'', and proceeded to blow them up in the following days. The report on 9 April from the Golani Brigade
The 1st "Golani" Brigade ( he, חֲטִיבַת גּוֹלָנִי) is an Israeli military infantry brigade that is subordinated to the 36th Division and traditionally associated with the Northern Command. It is one of the five infantry brigade ...
stated that they were "preparing to destroy the villages when we evacuate them." They destroyed al-Ghubayya al-Fawqa the following night.[Morris, 2004, p.]
346
note #29; Morris, 2004, p.
397
/ref>
Following the war the area was incorporated into the State of Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
. By 1992 the kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
of Mishmar HaEmek
Mishmar HaEmek ( he, מִשְׁמַר הָעֵמֶק, . "Guard of the Valley") is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the western Jezreel Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Megiddo Regional Council. Mishmar HaEmek is one of the ...
was using some of al-Ghubayya al-Fawqa's former land as pastures.[
]
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* al-Qawuqji, F. (1972)
Memoirs of al-Qawuqji, Fauzi
in ''Journal of Palestine Studies
The ''Journal of Palestine Studies (JPS)'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1971. It is published by Taylor and Francis on behalf of the Institute for Palestine Studies, having previously been published by the University ...
''
"Memoirs, 1948, Part I" in 1, no. 4 (Sum. 72): 27-58.
dpf-file, downloadable
"Memoirs, 1948, Part II" in 2, no. 1 (Aut. 72): 3-33.
dpf-file, downloadable
External links
al-Ghubayya al-Fawqa
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 8:
IAAWikimedia commons
from the 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 ...
Al-Ghubayya Al-Fouqa
from Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh
Remembering al-Ghubayyat
booklet about the al-Ghubayyat villages, 03/2010
Tour to the al-Ghubayyat villages
by Umar Ighbariyye, 20.3.2010, 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 ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Ghubayya Al-Fawqa
Arab villages depopulated prior to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
District of Haifa