Al-'Abbasiyya

Al-'Abbasiyya (Arabic: العبْاسِيّة), also known as al-Yahudiya (Arabic: اليهودية),[2] 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.

Not to be confused with Al-'Abisiyya.
Al-'Abbasiyya
العبْاسِيّة/اليهودية
al-Abbasiya, al-Yahudiya, Yehudiya[1][2]
Tomb of Judah (Ar: Huda ibn-Yaaqub) in Yehud, originally a Muslim shrine, but today a Jewish one
Tomb of Judah (Ar: Huda ibn-Yaaqub) in Yehud, originally a Muslim shrine, but today a Jewish one[3]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-'Abbasiyya (click the buttons)
Al-'Abbasiyya is located in Mandatory Palestine
Al-'Abbasiyya
Al-'Abbasiyya
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°01′53″N 34°53′25″E
Palestine grid139/159
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictJaffa
Date of depopulationMay 4, 1948[4]
Area
[5]
 • Total20,540 dunams (20.54 km2 or 7.93 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total5,800[6][5]
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces
Current LocalitiesYehud,[7] Magshimim,[7] Ganne Yehuda,[7] Ganne Tiqwa,[7] and Savyon[7]

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.[8]

In 1838 it was noted as a Muslim village called el-Yehudiyeh in the Lydda administrative region.[9][10]

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.[11][12]

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.[13] [14]

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."[15] 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,[16] 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.[17]

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,[2][18] 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.[3]

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.[6][5][19] 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,[20] while 101 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[21]

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.[22][23]

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.[24]

Between 1948 and 1954 the Israeli sites of Yehud, Magshimim, Ganne Yehuda, Ganne Tiqwa, and Savyon were established on the land of Al-'Abbasiyya.[7]

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."[7]

References
  1. El-Yehudiyeh =The Jewish place, family, tribe, or female, according to Palmer, 1881, p. 220
  2. Khalidi, 1992, p. 232
  3. Benvenisti, 2001, p. 276
  4. Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #213. Also gives cause of depopulation.
  5. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 53
  6. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 28
  7. Khalidi, 1992, p. 235
  8. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 155
  9. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 3, p. 45
  10. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 121
  11. Guérin, 1868, pp. 321-322
  12. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 278
  13. Socin, 1879, p. 155
  14. Hartmann, 1883, p. 138, also noted 246 houses
  15. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 258
  16. Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jaffa, p. 20
  17. Mills, 1932, p. 16
  18. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 219
  19. Village Statistics April 1945, The Palestine Government Archived 2012-06-09 at the Wayback Machine, p. 15
  20. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 97
  21. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 147
  22. Irgun Attacks in Palestine: 21 Arabs, 3 Jews Are Slain NY Times, December 14, 1947
  23. Haganah kills 10 in raid on Arabs NY Times, December 20, 1947
  24. 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

Bibliography
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