Jubata ez-Zeit ( ar, جباتا الزيت, ''Jubātā az-Zayt'') was a

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

n village situated in the far north of the

Golan Heights The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...

. According to an

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

resident of a nearby town, it had a population of around 1,500 to 2,000 people prior to the forced expulsion of the town's residents in 1968.

Etymology

Jubata ez-Zeit is an

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

name that translates into English as "

olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...

pit," and refers to the

olive tree The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' 'M ...

s that grew in the village which remain present today.

History

19th century

In 1810,

Johann Ludwig Burckhardt Johann Ludwig (also known as John Lewis, Jean Louis) Burckhardt (24 November 1784 – 15 October 1817) was a Swiss traveller, geographer and Orientalist. Burckhardt assumed the alias ''Sheikh Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah'' during his travels in Arabia ...

visited the village and wrote: "... One hour more brought us to the village of Djoubeta, where we remained during the night at the house of some friends of the Sheikh of Banias. This village belongs to

Hasbeya Hasbeya or Hasbeiya ( ar, حاصبيا) is a town in Lebanon, situated at the foot of Mount Hermon, overlooking a deep amphitheatre from which a brook flows to the Hasbani. In 1911, the population was about 5000. Hasbaya is the capital of the Wad ...

; it is inhabited by about fifty Turkish and ten Greek families; they subsist chiefly by the cultivation of olives, and by the rearing of cattle. I was well treated at the house where we alighted, and also at that of the Sheikh of the village, where I went to drink a cup of coffee. It being Ramadan, we passed the greater part of the night in conversation and smoking; the company grew merry, and knowing that I was curious about ruined places, began to enumerate all the villages and ruins in the neighbourhood, of which I subjoin the names.* The neighbouring mountains of the Heish abound in tigers (نمورة nimoura); their skins are much esteemed by the Arab Sheikhs as saddle cloths. There are also bears, wolves, and stags; the wild boar is met with in all the mountains which I visited in my tour."

1967 and aftermath

About half of the residents of Jubat ez-Zeit fled during the fighting in the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

of June 1967. The remaining half were expelled from the Golan Heights by the

Israeli Army The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branc ...

after the war, and the village was razed. One year after the war, in 1968, the area was declared a closed military zone. In the early 1970s, the

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

Neve Ativ Neve Ativ (), is an Israeli settlement in the Golan Heights, organized as a small Alpine-styled moshav. Located on the slopes of Mount Hermon, west of Majdal Shams. it falls under the jurisdiction of Golan Regional Council. In it had a popu ...

was built on the site of the former village.

Geography

Jubata ez-Zeit was located in the lower, eastern ridges of Jabal esh-Sheikh. ''Wadi Jubbata'' passes below it, and runs to the north of

Nimrod castle The Nimrod Fortress or Nimrod Castle ( ar, قلعة الصبيبة ''Qal'at al-Subeiba'', "Castle of the Large Cliff", later ''Qal'at Namrud'', "Nimrod's Castle"; he, מבצר נמרוד, ''Mivtzar Nimrod'', "Nimrod's Fortress") is a castle bu ...

toward

Banias Banias or Banyas ( ar, بانياس الحولة; he, בניאס, label=Modern Hebrew; Judeo-Aramaic, Medieval Hebrew: פמייס, etc.; grc, Πανεάς) is a site in the Golan Heights near a natural spring, once associated with the Greek ...

Notable residents

Marwan Habash Marwan Habash ( ar, مروان حبش; born in 1938) is a Syrian former politician and writer. He was a member of the Regional Command of the Baath Party in Syria and Minister of Industry in the government of Salah Jadid. Following a successful co ...

(born 1938), Syrian Baath Party politician and writer

References

Bibliography

* * * (p. 641) * * *

External links

Settlements and cult sites on Mount Hermon, Israel: Ituraean culture in the Hellenistic and Roman periods