Qabba'a

Qabba'a was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Safad. It was depopulated during the 1948 War on May 26, 1948 by the Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach. It was located 6 km northeast of Safad.

Qabba'a

قبّاعة
Village
Etymology: "large-headed"[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Qabba'a (click the buttons)
Qabba'a
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°59′55″N 35°32′17″E
Palestine grid200/267
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictSafad
Date of depopulationMay 26, 1948[2]
Area
 • Total13,817 dunams (13.817 km2 or 5.335 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total460[4][3]
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces

History

In 1596 the village appeared under the name of Qabba'a in the Ottoman tax registers as part of the nahiya (subdistrict) of Jira, part of Safad Sanjak. It had an all Muslim population, consisting of 11 households and 2 bachelors, an estimated 99 persons. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 20 % on agricultural products, including as wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; totalling 2,280 akçe.[5][6][7]

The village appeared under the name of Koubaa on the map that Pierre Jacotin compiled during Napoleon's invasion of 1799.[8]

In 1838 el-Kuba'ah was noted as a Muslim village, located in the el-Khait district.[9]

In 1875 Victor Guérin found the village to have 120 Muslim inhabitants.[10]

In 1881 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described as Kabbaah: "A masonry village, with a few caves to the south contains about 150 Moslems; situated on a ridge, with olives and arable land. Water from birket and good springs."[11]

A population list from about 1887 showed Kaba'ah to have about 385 Muslim inhabitants.[12]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Qaba'a had a population of 179 Muslims,[13] increasing in the 1931 census when Kabba' had 256 Muslim inhabitants, in a total of 44 houses.[14]

In the 1945 statistics it had a population of 460 Muslims[4] with a total land area of 13,817 dunums.[3] Of this, 379 dunums was plantations and irrigable land, 7,966 were for cereals,[15] while 66 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[16]

1948, aftermath

On 2 May 1948, Yigal Allon with Haganah launched an operation, conquering ‘Ein al Zeitun and Biriyya, and intimidating with mortar barrages the villages of Fir’im, Qabba‘a and Mughr al Kheit, leading to a mass evacuation.[17] Qabba'a finally became depopulated on May 26, 1948, after a military assault by Israeli forces.[2][18]

In 1953, Hatzor HaGlilit was founded 3 km south of the village site, but not on village land.[5]

In 1992 the village site was described: "The stone debris of destroyed houses covers the site, where shrubs, grass, cactuses, and fig and pine trees grow. Most of the surrounding land are cultivated by Israeli farmers, but some are wooded and others are used as pasture."[5]

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 76
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village # 48. Also gives the cause of depopulation.
  3. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 70
  4. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 10
  5. Khalidi, 1992, p. 483
  6. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 176
  7. Note that Rhode, 1979, p. 6 writes that the register that Hütteroth and Abdulfattah studied was not from 1595/6, but from 1548/9
  8. Karmon, 1960, p. 165
  9. Robinson and Smith, vol 3, 2nd appendix, p. 136
  10. Guérin, 1880, p. 453
  11. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 198
  12. Schumacher, 1888, p. 189
  13. Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Safad, p. 41
  14. Mills, 1932, p. 107
  15. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 120
  16. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 170
  17. Morris, 2004, p. 249 note # 693 on p. 302
  18. Morris, 2004, p. 251 note # 711 on p. 303

Bibliography
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