Al-'Abbasiyya Explained

Al-'Abbasiyya
Native Name:العبْاسِيّة/اليهودية
Native Name Lang:ar
Other Name:al-Abbasiya, al-Yahudiya, Yehudiya[1]
Pushpin Map:Mandatory Palestine
Pushpin Mapsize:200
Coordinates:32.0314°N 34.8903°W
Grid Name:Palestine grid
Grid Position:139/159
Subdivision Type:Geopolitical entity
Subdivision Name:Mandatory Palestine
Subdivision Type1:Subdistrict
Subdivision Name1:Jaffa
Established Title1:Date of depopulation
Established Date1:May 4, 1948[2]
Established Title2:Repopulated dates
Unit Pref:dunam
Area Total Dunam:20,540
Population As Of:1945
Population Total:5,800[3] [4]
Blank Name Sec1:Cause(s) of depopulation
Blank Info Sec1:Military assault by Yishuv forces
Blank3 Name Sec1:Current Localities
Blank3 Info Sec1:Yehud, Magshimim, Ganne Yehuda, Ganne Tiqwa, and Savyon

Al-'Abbasiyya (Arabic: العبْاسِيّة), also known as al-Yahudiya (Arabic: اليهودية), was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jaffa Subdistrict. It was attacked under Operation Hametz during the 1948 Palestine War, and finally depopulated under Operation Dani. It was located 13 km east of Jaffa. Some of the remains of the village can be found today in the centre of the modern Israeli city of Yehud.

History

In 1596, Yahudiya appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya 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.[5]

In 1838 it was noted as a Muslim village called el-Yehudiyeh in the Lydda administrative region.[6] [7]

The French explorer Victor Guérin 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 bricks, several topped by palm leaves. Near a noria he noticed an ancient sarcophagus, placed there as a trough.[8]

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.[9] [10]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described the place as "a large mud village, supplied by a pond, and surrounded by palm-trees."[11] They also noted a ruined tank, or birkeh, to the south of the village.[12]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Yahudiyeh had a population of 2,437 residents, all Muslims,[13] 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.[14]

The previous name, Al-Yahudiya, is thought to be taken from the name of the biblical town of Yahud, mentioned in Joshua 19:45 (as part of a list of towns comprising the territory of the Israelite tribe of Dan), and later called Iudaea by the Romans. In 1932, the town was officially renamed Al-'Abbasiyya,[15] [16] because the inhabitants did not want the town to be associated with Jews. The name chosen as a replacement, Al-'Abbasiyya, was mostly in honour of the memory of a sheikh called al-'Abbas who was buried in the town, but also alluded to the Arab Muslim Abbasid Caliphate.

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 of land.[3] [4] [17] Of this, a total of 4,099 dunums was used for citrus and bananas, 1,019 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, 14,465 were for cereals,[18] while 101 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[19]

On December 13, 1947, twenty-four armed men from the hard-right paramilitary organization Irgun 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.[20] [21]

1948 and after

On September 13, 1948, David Ben-Gurion requested the destruction of Al-'Abbasiyya, among other Palestinian villages whose inhabitants fled or were expelled.[22]

Between 1948 and 1954 the Israeli sites of Yehud, Magshimim, Ganne Yehuda, Ganne Tiqwa, and Savyon were established on the land of Al-'Abbasiyya.[23]

In 1992 the village site was described:

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. El-Yehudiyeh =The Jewish place, family, tribe, or female, according to Palmer, 1881, p. 220
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #213. Also gives cause of depopulation.
  3. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 28
  4. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 53
  5. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 155
  6. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 3, p. 45
  7. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 121
  8. Guérin, 1868, pp. 321-322
  9. Socin, 1879, p. 155
  10. Hartmann, 1883, p. 138, also noted 246 houses
  11. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 258
  12. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 278
  13. Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jaffa, p. 20
  14. Mills, 1932, p. 16
  15. Khalidi, 1992, p. 232
  16. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 219
  17. http://domino.un.org/pdfs/AAC25ComTech7Add1.pdf Village Statistics April 1945, The Palestine Government
  18. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 97
  19. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 147
  20. http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/12/14/87565211.html?pageNumber=1 Irgun Attacks in Palestine: 21 Arabs, 3 Jews Are Slain
  21. http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/12/20/104394284.html?pageNumber=8 Haganah kills 10 in raid on Arabs
  22. 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 4. Daniyal 5. Jimzu 6. Kafr 'Ana 7. Al Yahudiya 8. Barfiliya 9. Al Barriya 10. Al-Qubab 11. Beit Nabala 12. Dayr Tarif 13. At Tira 13. Qula." Also quoted in Morris, 2004, p. 354
  23. Khalidi, 1992, p. 235

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