Al-'Abbasiyya

Al-'Abbasiyya ( ar, العبْاسِيّة), also known as al-Yahudiya ( ar, 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.

In 1838 it was noted as a Muslim village called ''el-Yehudiyeh'' in the Lydda administrative region.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
121
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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.Guérin, 1868, pp
321
322

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.Socin, 1879, p
155
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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." They also noted a ruined tank, or birkeh, to the south of the village.Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p
278
/ref>

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,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jaffa, p
20
/ref> 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.Mills, 1932, p
16
/ref>

The previous name, ''Al-Yahudiya'', is thought to be taken from the name of the biblical town of Yahud, mentioned in (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,Khalidi, 1992, p. 232 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.''Village Statistics April 1945,'' The Palestine Government
, p. 15 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,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945''. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
97
/ref> while 101 dunams were classified as built-up areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
147
/ref>

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.Irgun Attacks in Palestine: 21 Arabs, 3 Jews Are Slain
NY Times, December 14, 1947
NY Times, December 20, 1947

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.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
/ref>

Between 1948 and 1954 the Israeli sites of Yehud, Magshimim, Ganne Yehuda, Ganne Tiqwa, and Savyon were established on the land of Al-'Abbasiyya.Khalidi, 1992, p. 235

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."

References

Bibliography

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External links

Welcome To al-'Abbasiyya al-'Abbasiyya (Yahudiyya)
Zochrot
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 13
IAA

Wikimedia commons
at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center

{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War

Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
District of Jaffa