The depopulated village of Abu Shusha (Haifa) / District of Haifa

Subdistrict: Haifa

Estimated population of Abu Shusha in 1948: Approximately 835–840

Date of occupation and depopulation: Initially occupied on the night of 8–9 April 1948; reoccupied on 12 April after a brief evacuation

Military units: The Palmach First Battalion and units of the Carmeli and Alexandroni brigades. An earlier raid on 1 April was conducted by the Giv’ati Brigade’s Second Battalion.

Israeli settlements established on the village’s lands before 1948: None

Israeli settlements established on the village’s built-up area after 1948: None

Abu Shusha was located approximately 26 km southeast of Haifa.

The village extended along both sides of a small, broad wadi at the western edge of Marj Ibn Amir. It stood west of the archaeological site of Tall Abu Shusha and was connected to Haifa and Jenin by the main road linking the two cities.

Some researchers have proposed identifying Tall Abu Shusha with the Roman town of Gaba Hippeon. This identification remains a scholarly proposal rather than a conclusively established fact. Archaeological evidence indicates that the tell itself dates at least to the Early Bronze Age.

Boundaries of Abu Shusha

Abu Shusha was situated among the following villages and localities:

• North: Abu Zurayq.
• West: Daliyat al-Rawha.
• Southwest: al-Kafrayn.
• South: al-Naghnaghiyya.
• East: The Qabbaniyyat area and the lands adjoining Mishmar ha-Emeq.

Economic Life in Abu Shusha

The village economy depended on animal husbandry and agriculture, with cereals constituting the principal crop. The villagers also cultivated vegetables, tobacco, and various fruit trees. Both rainfed and irrigated agriculture were practised, and irrigation was particularly important for vegetable cultivation.

Published descriptions state that olive trees covered nearly 600 dunams, while a separate statistical compilation records 130 dunams specifically classified as olive groves. Estimates therefore vary between sources, possibly because they relate to different seasons or methods of classification.

A grain mill bearing the village’s name stood at the northeastern edge of the site. In 1944/45, 4,939 dunams were allocated to cereal cultivation, while 931 dunams consisted of irrigated land or orchards.

Land Ownership in Abu Shusha

* One dunam equals approximately 1,000 square metres.

Land Use in Abu Shusha in 1944/45

* One dunam equals approximately 1,000 square metres. The olive-growing figure is a subsidiary figure and should not be added to the cultivable-land total. A narrative source gives a substantially higher estimate of nearly 600 dunams planted with olive trees.

Population of Abu Shusha

* The 1948 and 1998 figures are later demographic estimates rather than contemporaneous census counts. The documented population in the 1945 British Mandate statistics was 720. Estimates vary slightly between sources for 1948.

Number of Houses in Abu Shusha

* The 1931 figure includes the households counted with ‘Arab al-Sa‘ayida and al-Shuqayrat. The figure attributed to 1948 is not a contemporaneous house census and should be treated cautiously.

Public Facilities in Abu Shusha

The village had a grain mill, a mosque, and an elementary school. Some children from Abu Shusha also attended the school in the neighbouring Palestinian village of Abu Zurayq. Domestic water was supplied by two nearby wadis and a spring.

Archaeological Remains in Abu Shusha

Abu Shusha and its surrounding lands constituted an archaeologically significant area. Recorded remains included a mound of ruins, a vaulted chamber, a mosaic-paved floor, architectural fragments, and rock-cut tombs.

Tall Abu Shusha, immediately east of the village, contains evidence extending back to the Early Bronze Age. The proposed identification of the tell with the Roman town of Gaba Hippeon has appeared in modern scholarship but has not been conclusively established.

Lands of Abu Shusha

In 1945, the lands of Abu Shusha covered 8,960 dunams. Of this area, 5,883 dunams were under Palestinian ownership and 3,077 dunams were classified as public land. No land was recorded under Jewish ownership.

Approximately half of the village’s land extended across Marj Ibn Amir, while the remainder lay on the slopes and hills associated with the Carmel region.

Occupation and Depopulation of Abu Shusha

Abu Shusha was subjected to more than one Zionist military action in April 1948. Shortly after midnight on 1 April, units of the Second Battalion of the Haganah’s Giv’ati Brigade raided the village. According to the History of the Haganah, the operation was ordered after a guard from a nearby Jewish settlement was killed on land belonging to Abu Shusha.

During the raid, the force destroyed one house and the village well. A firefight subsequently took place with members of the local Palestinian militia, during which one Haganah soldier was fatally wounded. The Haganah account cited by the historical sources does not provide information about Palestinian casualties.

The wider battle around Mishmar ha-Emeq began on 4 April 1948, when the Arab Liberation Army launched an offensive against the nearby settlement. After the offensive ended without achieving its objective, a British-mediated truce was proposed. The Haganah rejected the proposal and launched a counteroffensive against the surrounding Palestinian villages.

On the night of 8–9 April, Haganah forces broke out from Mishmar ha-Emeq and occupied Abu Shusha, Abu Zurayq, and al-Naghnaghiyya. The participating forces included the Palmach First Battalion and units of the Carmeli and Alexandroni brigades. Accordingly, 9–10 April is commonly used as the principal date of occupation and depopulation.

Israeli historian Benny Morris states that inhabitants who had not already fled from the villages occupied during this campaign were expelled and that the villages were systematically destroyed. Contemporary reporting in The New York Times, however, indicates that Abu Shusha was evacuated again on the night of 11–12 April and reoccupied on 12 April. Estimates and descriptions of the precise sequence therefore vary between sources.

After reoccupying Abu Shusha, the Haganah demolished a number of houses in what contemporary reporting described as a punitive action. Control of the village also gave Zionist forces control over the main Jenin–Haifa road.

Israeli Settlements Near Abu Shusha

Mishmar ha-Emeq, established in 1926, lies less than one kilometre south of the former village site. The principal academic account states that it was not established on the registered lands of Abu Shusha.

No Israeli settlement is documented as having been established directly on the village’s built-up site after its occupation and destruction.

Abu Shusha Today

The principal visible remains of Abu Shusha consist of rubble from its destroyed houses, much of it covered by cactus plants. The village’s grain mill has disappeared. Olive trees grow on the hills surrounding the site, within a fenced area used for grazing livestock.

The adjoining lands in Marj Ibn Amir are cultivated with several agricultural crops. When the site was documented by Walid Khalidi’s research team, cotton was particularly prominent among these crops.

Sources

• Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question: “Abu Shusha”, Institute for Palestine Studies.
• Palestine Remembered: “Abu Shusha, Haifa”.
• Walid Khalidi, ed., All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992.
• Bibliographic record for Walid Khalidi’s All That Remains, Google Books.
• Government of Palestine, Village Statistics, April 1945.
• Our Palestine: “The Depopulated Village of Abu Shusha”.