Al-Kabri

Vorlage:Infobox former Arab villages in Palestine Al-Kabri (Vorlage:Lang-ar) was a Palestinian Arab town in the Galilee located Vorlage:Km to mi northeast of Acre. It was captured by Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. In 1945, it had a population of 1,520 and a total land area of 28,729 dunams.

History

Al-Kabri was known as "Cabra" under Crusader rule in the twelfth century. It is mentioned by Arab geographer al-Maqrizi as "al-Kabira" in the early fifteenth century, by now under Mamluk rule. During this period, Mamluk sultan al-Ashraf Khalil had allocated the town's income to a charitable organization in Cairo in 1291.

In the late nineteenth century, al-Kabri was a mid-sized village built of stone. They cultivated the surrounding fields, planting them with fig, olive, pomegranate, mulberry, and apple orchards. It was well-known for its springs, including Ayn Mafshuh, Ayn Fawwar, Ayn al-'Asal, and Ayn Kabri. The number of springs made al-Kabri the main supplier of water in the District of Acre. Ancient aquifers supplied water from the springs to Acre, and two additional canals were built by Jezzar Pasha in 1800, and Sulayman Pasha in 1814.

Under the British Mandate in Palestine, al-Kabri's houses were built of stone, mud, and reinforced concrete. The village contained a mosque and a boys' elementary school. Agriculture was the base of the economy with villagers cultivating olives, citrus, and bananas and engaged in animal husbandry, including raising cattle.

1948, and after

Vorlage:See also Vorlage:See also Kabri was first badly shaken by the Palmah raid on the village on the night 31 January/1 February 1948, in which the house of the main al-Husayni - affiliated notable, Fares Sirhan, was demolished. After this, Siran and his family fled to Lebanon.

On the 27 March 1948 a convoy with reliefs for Kibbutz Yehiam was attacked while passing by Al-Kabri and all 74 Haganah members were killed.

In April 1948, the Haganah prepared an initial blueprint for an operation called "Ehud", which provided for attacks on Kabri, al Nahar, al-Bassa and Zib for "the destruction of the gangs [and] the menfolk, [and] the destruction of property.

The village was probably occupied on the night of 20–21 May during the second stage of Operation Ben-Ami, by which time most of the inhabitants had fled.

During their dispersal in Galilee some of the villagers were killed when it was discovered that they came from Al-Kabri, in retaliation for the convoy ambush.

According to Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, the remaining structures on the village land in 1992 were "crumbled walls and stone rubble, overgrown with thorns, weeds, and bushes. The settlement of Kabri uses the land adjacent to the site for agriculture and as a pasture."

See also

• List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War

Bibliography

• Benvenisti, Meron (2000): Sacred Landscape: Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21154-5,
• Khalidi, Walid (ed.) (1992): All that Remains. Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
• Morris, Benny (2004): The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81120-1.
• Nazzal, Nafez (1974): The Zionist occupation of western Galilee, 1948, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 3, No. 3, 58-76.
• Howard Smithline (2004): El-Kabri, Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel, No. 116.
• Porat, Leea (2006): Akko, the aqueduct, Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel, No. 118.
• Hanaa Abu-‘Uqsa (2007): El-Kabri Final Report, Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel, No. 119.
• Howard Smithline (2007): Tel Kabri Final Report, Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel, No. 119.

External links

• Welcome to al-Kabri Palestine Remembered.
• Al-Kabri at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
• Al-Kabri photos, from Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh