Welcome To Abu Shusha - ابو شوشة (אבו שושה)

District of Haifa Ethnically cleansed days ago	العربية Google Earth
	Gallery (29)

Statistic & Fact

Value

Occupation Date

April 9, 1948

Distance From District

26 (km) South East of Haifa

Elevation

125 (meters)

Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Details

Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction

Map Location

See location #28 on the map

View from satellite

Military Operation

The Battle for Mishmar ha-'Emeq.

Attacking Units

Combination of First Battalion of the Palmach, Carmeli and Alexandroni Brigades.

Defenders

Arab Liberation Army

Exodus Cause

Military assault by Zionist troops

Village Temains

The village has been completely destroyed, and only house rubble left behind.

Ethnically Cleansing

Many of Abu Shusha's inhabitant fled during the battle, and it was completely ethnically cleansed soon after occupation.

Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership

Ethnic Group	Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab	5,883
Jewish	0
Public	3,077
**Total	8,960

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps

Land Usage
As of 1945

Land Usage	Arab (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation	931
Olive Groves	130
Planted W/ Cereal	4,939
Arable	5,870
Non-Arable	3,090

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Population

Year	Population*
1931	831
1945	720
1948	835
Est. Refugees 1998	5,129

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Number of Houses

Year	Number of Houses
1931	155
1948	155

Near By Towns

	Abu Zurayq ↑ (N)
Daliyat al-Rawha' ←	Abu Shusha	→ Zionist Colonies
↙ al-Kafrayn	↓ al-Naghnaghiyya

Town's Name Through History

The Romans referred to Abu Shusha by Gaba Hippeon.

Schools

Abu Shusha had an elementary school for boys.

Places of Warship

One mosque

Water Supply

Water was available from many sources, including two nearby wadis and a spring.

Archeological Sites

Tel Abu Shusha, and on Abu Shusha itself contained numerous indications of a long and rich cultural past.

Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands

Mishmar ha-'Emeq occupies part of village lands.

Village Before Nakba

The village was located on both sides of a small, wide wadi on the western edge of the plain of Marj ibn Amir. It was west of the archaeological site of Tall Abu Shusha. The village was linked to Haifa and Jenin by the highway that ran between these two cities. It has recently been suggested that Tall Abu Shusha might be identified with the Roman town of Gaba Hippeon. The tell is a large and old site that appears to date to the Early Bronze Age. In the late nineteenth century, Abu Shusha was described as a small hamlet, on the edge of a plain, that drew its water from a spring to the west. Some of its houses were built of masonry and had roofs of mud and straw, whereas others were made of concrete. Its population was Muslim. Abu Shusha had a mosque and an elementary school. Water was available from many sources, including two wadis and a spring which supplied water for domestic use.

The village economy was centered on animal husbandry and agriculture, grain being the main crop. The villagers also grew vegetables, tobacco, and various types of fruit trees, including nearly 600 dunums of olive trees. Agriculture was both rainfed and irrigated, with irrigation being especially important for vegetables. A grain mill, named after the village, was situated on the northeastern edge of the site. In 1944/45 a total of 4,939 dunums was allotted to cereals; 931 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The archaeological evidence in the village, on Tall Abu Shusha, and on Abu Shusha's lands as well, contained numerous indications of a long and rich cultural past.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

In early April 1948 Abu Shusha was raided by units of the Giv'ati Brigade's Second Battalion. The History of the Haganah states that a guard from a nearby Jewish settlement was killed on land belonging to the village, and orders were issued to carry out a 'retaliatory operation.' After midnight on 1 April, the unit destroyed one house and the village well. After the mission was completed, a firefight ensued with units of the local Palestinian militia, in which one Jewish soldier was fatally wounded. The History makes no mention of Arab casualties.

Later, Abu Shusha became one of the first villages of Marj ibn Amir to fall in the wake of the battle of Mishmar ha-Emeq. The battle began on 4 April 1948 when the Arab Liberation Army (ALA) launched an offensive aimed at occupying the Jewish kibbutz of Mishmar ha-Emeq. This was probably in retaliation for the role of the settlement in the attack on al-Ghubayya al-Tahta. The New York Times called the ALA attack 'the greatest pitched battle yet fought in four and a half months of fighting in Palestine.' It failed in its objective. After the ALA's attack on the settlement ended in a standoff, a truce was proposed with British mediation, but the Haganah rejected the offer. The Haganah commanders decided instead to counterattack extensively, occupying and destroying the surrounding villages. The New York Times reported that on the night of 8-9 April, units of the Haganah that had been besieged in Mishmar ha-Emeq broke out, occupying three villages: Abu Shusha, Abu Zurayq, and al-Naghnaghiyya. The units involved belonged to the First Battalion of the Palmach and to the Carmeli and Alexandroni Brigades.

Writing about the villages captured in the battle of Mishmar ha-Emeq, a high-ranking official of the Jewish National Fund stated: 'Our army is steadily conquering Arab villages and the inhabitants are afraid and flee like mice.' By 12 April five villages around Mishmar ha-Emeq had been occupied by Palmach forces, and by 14 April ten villages were in Palmach hands.

Israeli historian Benny Morris indicates that those villagers who had not fled were expelled and that each village was systematically destroyed on the night it was occupied. But the New York Times reports that Abu Shusha was evacuated again on the night of 11-12 April, only to be reoccupied on 12 April. In Abu Shusha, the Haganah blew up 'many' houses as a 'punitive measure,' in the words of the Times correspondent. Having seized the village, Zionist forces gained control of the Jenin-Haifa road.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

The settlement of Mishmar ha-Emeq, founded in 1926, is less than 1 km south of the site but is not on village land.

Village Today

The only remaining sign of the village is the debris of houses, overgrown with cactuses. The grain mill is gone. On the hilly lands around the site, olive trees grow in a fenced-in area that serves as a pasture. The adjacent lands in Marj ibn Amir are planted in various crops, especially cotton.

Source

Dr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains.

Want to browse more? 80,000 pictures were grouped in these gallaries:

Nakba Oral History Interview with Ahamd al-'Ararawi

Display Name	Clan/Hamolah	Country of Residence
اسامة الشقيري	الشقيرات	اربد, الاردن
شيرين	الشقيرات	عمان, الاردن
sh_palestine	-	-
ابراهيم معين كامل بشر	بشر	الاردن, ام الزينات
abu_jehad	شقيرات	-

All Registered Members

على التل الأقرع (بين المنسي والغبيات ) بلاد الروحة -قضاء حيفا . نصب فوزي القاوقجي مقر قيادته تحضيرا للهجوم الفاشل على مشمار هعيمق في السادس والسابع من نيسان 1948 والذي أعقي فشله سقوط قرى التركمان والكفرين والريحانية وقيرة وقرى أخرى . Duration: 2 min 45 sec

No links have been shared yet, be free to the first to share the first link.

PalestineRemembered		About Us	Oral History	العربية
Menu	Pictures	Zionist FAQs	Haavara	Maps

PalestineRemembered.com		Satellite View	Search	Donate	Contact Us	Looting 101	The Home of Palestinians		العربية
About Us	Zionist FAQs	Conflict 101	Pictures	Maps	Oral History	Haavara	Facts Not Lies	Zionism 101	Zionist Quotes