Ghuwayr Abu Shusha was a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

village in the Tiberias Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 21, 1948. It was located 8 km north of

Tiberias Tiberias ( ; , ; ) is a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. A major Jewish center during Late Antiquity, it has been considered since the 16th century one of Judaism's Four Holy Cities, along with Jerusalem, Heb ...

, nearby Wadi Rubadiyya.

History

In 1838 Edward Robinson found on the remains of a few dwellings, built of rough volcanic stones, some of which were still used as magazines by the Arabs of the plain. A wely with a white dome marked the spot. He found no traces of antiquity. In 1850-1851 de Saulcy saw the village, which he described as ruined. Of the village, all which remained was a few portions of wall of modern appearance, "but in the midst of these is still standing a square vaulted tower, constructed in fine blocks of Herodian workmanship, or Roman of the early empire. This tower rests against a wall of more recent character." In 1875

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

visited and noted the little ''wely'' dedicated to ''Abou-Choutheh''. In 1881, the PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

'' (SWP) described it as containing 20 Moslems, with housed built of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

, located round a mill. There were modern ruins in the village, and a number of ruined mills in the valley below.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p
396
/ref>

British mandate era

In the 1945 statistics it had a population of 1,240 Muslims, with 8,609 dunams of land. Of this, 21 dunams were used for citrus and bananas, 1,377 for plantations and irrigable land, 1,848 dunams for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
122
/ref> while 6 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) area.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
172
/ref> Ruins of

watermill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as mill (grinding), milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in ...

s could be seen at the nearby Khirbat Abu Shusha.Khalidi, 1992, p. 516

1948, and aftermath

The village was depopulated after a military assault on 21 and 28 April 1948. Kibbutz Ginosar presently occupies part of what was village land; so does Livnim, established in 1982 ca. 1 km northwest of the Ghuwayr Abu Shusha site. In 1992 the village site was described: "The village site is covered with thorns and wild vegetation, including Christ's-thorn trees and cactuses. The shrine of Shaykh Muhammad and the remains of a mill can be seen among piles of stones and a few olive trees. The lower-lying lands are planted in bananas and citrus, while the highlands are used as grazing areas by the Israelis."

Gallery

File:Abu Shusha sheikh 08.jpg, Maqam sheikh Abu Shusha, 2015 File:Abu Shusha sheikh 09.jpg, Maqam sheikh Abu Shusha, 2015 File:Abu Shusha sheikh 14.jpg, Maqam sheikh Abu Shusha, 2015

References

Bibliography

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External links

Welcome To Ghuwayr Abu Shusha Ghuwayr Abu Shusha

Zochrot Zochrot (; "Remembering"; ; "Memories") is an Israeli nonprofit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Nakba, including the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight. The group was co-founded by Eitan ...

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 6
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Authority control Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Tiberias