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Welcome To 'Akbara - عكبرة (עכברה)

District of Safad
Ethnically cleansed days ago
العربية

Google Earth
Picture for 'Akbara Village - Palestine: : منظر عام لاثار بيوت القرية الباقية , 28/2/2005 - تصوير مقبولة نصار
 Gallery (149)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date May 9, 1948
Distance From District 2.5 (km) South of Safad
Elevation 300 (meters)
Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Detailswhat's new
Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction
Pre-Nakba Aerial Viewwhat's new
Pre-Nakba Aerial View
Map Location See location #70 on the map

View from satellite
Military Operation Operation Yiftach (commanded by the ethnic cleansing champion Yigal Allon)
Attacking Units The Palmach's First Battalion
Refugees' Migration Routes Almost all the villagers stayed at al-Farradiyya and al-Sammu'i, until these village were ethnically cleansed later.
Exodus Cause Military assault by Zionist troops
Village Temains The village has not been completely destroyed. Some internal Palestinian refugees (from Qaddita and Dallata) are currently living in the village.
Ethnically Cleansing Many of 'Akbara's senior citizens, women and children fled to al-Fradaiyya and al-Sammui' when 'Ayn al-Zaytun was occupied on 1st-3rd om May 1948, on 9th-11th of May 1948 was completely ethnically cleansed.
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 3,167
Jewish 0
Public 57
**Total 3,224
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation 199
Olive Groves 200
Planted W/ Cereal 2,232
Built up 6
Arable 2,431
Non-Arable 787
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
19th century 90
1922 147
1931 275
1945 390
1948 402
1961 360
Est. Refugees 1998 1,852
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses
Year Number of Houses
1931 49
1948 53
Near By Townswhat's new
Safad
↑
(N)
al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta  ←
'Akbara
→   al-Ja'una
↓
al-Shuna
Town's Name Through History The Romans referred to the village by Achabare
Schools One school (still standing)
Places of Warship One village mosque which was destroyed during the attack on the village.
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands		 No settlements on village lands
Featured Video

Village Before Nakba

The village was situated along the two sides of a deep wadi that ran north to south and cut through the middle of a southward-facing slope. Beyond the wadi was a hill that faced the village. 'Akbara was linked by a path to the nearby city of Safad. Southeast of the village lay Khirbat al-'Uqayba, identified with the Roman village of Achabare (or Acchabaron). In 1904, this khirba was a populated village. In the late nineteenth century, 'Akbara was a village built of stone and mud. It had about ninety residents who cultivated olive and fig trees. In modern times 'Akbara's houses were made of masonry. The people of 'Akbara were predominantly Muslims.

In 1944 they planted a total of 2,222 dunums in cereals; 199 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. The nearby khirba was excavated and contained such remains as building foundations, hewn stones, and wine presses.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

In the spring of 1948, Zionist forces prepared for assaults on the cities of Safad and Tiberias by launching demoralizing attacks on adjacent villages. As it lay just 2.5 km away from the city, 'Akbara was chosen to serve as an example to the people of Safad. On 9 May, units of the Palmach's First Battalion attacked 'Akbara in order to 'create among the Arabs of Safad a feeling that they were about to be surrounded and would be unable to flee .... ' The units' operational orders also claimed that 'the village served as a way station for Syrian spies who infiltrated to help Safad,' and that it was a base from which Jewish traffic was attacked. The assault took place within the framework of Operation Yiftach (see Abil al-Qamh, Safad sub-disctrict).

Citing Israeli military sources, Israeli historian Benny Morris claims that most of the villagers had left by the time of the attack (influenced by the expulsion and massacre of the people of 'Ayn al-Zaytun, 3 km north of Safad, a few days earlier), and that the remainder fled during the attack after putting up 'moderate' resistance. It is not clear whether there were any casualties, although Morris mentions that the occupying units blew up some of the village houses. Some of the villagers sought refuge in al-Farradiyya and al-Sammu'i, villages west of 'Akbara. The events at 'Akbara generally undermined morale in Safad, which was attacked the very next day. (Press services reported that the occupation occurred on 11 May.) Villagers interviewed twenty-five years later by Palestinian historian Nafez Nazzal said that both the capture of 'Ayn al-Zaytun and news of the massacre at Deir Yasin (Jerusalem sub-disctrict) led to the evacuation of some of the residents. At the time of the attack, the village militia (a body of between fifteen and twenty men) put up a fight but was overwhelmed and retreated to the village outskirts. The occupying Israeli units did not stay long in the village, but destroyed a few houses and part of the mosque and departed with the livestock. Almost all the villagers stayed at al-Farradiyya and al-Sammu'i until these Galilean villages also fell. Some returned to get food and personal belongings in the intervening period, and most expected to return.

For some time after the war, 'Akbara was the place where the Israeli authorities detained people whom they pushed out of their villages elsewhere in Galilee. In early June 1949, the people remaining in three villages in Safad sub-district (al-Ja'una, al-Khisas, and Qaytiyya) were 'forced into trucks . .. and dumped on a bare, sun-scorched hillside near the village of 'Aqbara,' according to Morris. It is not clear what ultimately happened to these people or to the village itself, but Morris writes simply that, 'Conditions at 'Aqbara, where 'remainders' from various villages (Qaddita, Khisas, al-Ja'una, etc.) were clustered together, remained bad for years.'

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

There are no Israeli settlements on village lands.

Village Today

The original inhabitants of the village were replaced by "internal" refugees from Qaddita and Dallata, villages several kilometers north of Safad. Since 1980, however, these refugees have been gradually relocated to the nearby, planned village of 'Akbara, 0.5 km west of the old village site. As a precondition of the relocation, each family was required to demolish its home in the former village. Today, fifteen of the old houses still stand on the site, in addition to the school (see photos).The new village of 'Akbara was placed under the administration of the city of Safad in 1977.

Source

Dr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains.
Related Maps Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
خرائط للقضاء توضح حدود القرى والاودية
Town's map on MapQuest
View from satellite
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Bibliography and References

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

Display Name Clan/Hamolah Country of Residence
AL-AYHAM - مخيم حندرات, مخيم حندرات
Hisham Aqbarawi aqbarawi Amman, jordan
abo mire - aleppo, syria
ABOU-BASSAM EL-MIAARI CANADA
بن غالب - عاصمة الجنوب
motassem miari akbarawe arhus
khalil miari - arhus
ahmad miari - london
محمد ميعاري - سوريا, سوريا
أبو معاذ عكبراوي دمشق, سوريا
hanan - RIYADH, RIYADH
husain fayyad - Riyadh, k.s.a
akbarawi Miari Miari -
deeb - 03347189, akbara
Nader Hussein Hussein Tripoli, Greece
YOUSSEF AL MIARI AL-MIARI WINDSOR-CANADA
Mohamad Zibawi - -
Morad Miari - saida, Lebanon
dr cocu - egypt
kholoud almeary - tripoli
kholoud meary tripoli, lebanon
MOHAMAD GHALEB ELMIARI - SAIDA, LEBANON
ABO GHALEB - MI, USA
nawal hassan/albaik lebanon, n.b.c
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