Al-Ghubayya al-Fawqa was a Palestinian Arab village in the

Haifa Subdistrict The Haifa subdistrict is one of Israel's sub-districts in Haifa District Haifa District ( he, מחוז חיפה, ''Mehoz Ḥeifa''; ar, منطقة حيفا) is an administrative district surrounding the city of Haifa, Israel. The district i ...

. It was depopulated during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 8, 1948, during the Battle of Mishmar HaEmek. It was located 28 km southeast of Haifa.

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'' (subdistrict) of ''Sahil Atlit'' in the '' Sanjak'' (district) of Lajjun. 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 Al-Ghubayya al-Tahta was a Palestinian people, Palestinian Arab village in the Haifa Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine, Haifa Subdistrict, located 28 km southeast of Haifa. It was depopulated during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palesti ...

and

al-Naghnaghiyya Naghnaghiya ( ar, النغْنغية, ''Al-Naghnaghiyya'') was a Palestinian people, Palestinian Arab village, southeast of Haifa. It was depopulated before the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.Morris, 2004, p.242/ref> Location The village ...

. 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

and

, 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,

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 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''
"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 *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 8:
IAAWikimedia commons

from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
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 {{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Ghubayya Al-Fawqa Arab villages depopulated prior to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Haifa