Arab al-Zubayd
عرب الزبيد
'Arab Zubeih[1]
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Village
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| Etymology: The Zubeid Arabs[2] | |
A series of historical maps of the area around Arab al-Zubayd (click the buttons)
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  Arab al-Zubayd Location within Mandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 33°4′44″N 35°34′03″E / 33.07889°N 35.56750°E / 33.07889; 35.56750 | |
| Palestine grid | 203/276 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Safad |
| Date of depopulation | April 20, 1948[1] |
| Population
(1945)
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| • Total | 890[3][4] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Fear of being caught up in the fighting |
Arab al-Zubayd was a Palestinian village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 20, 1948, when the villagers fled on hearing the intentions of The Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach.[5] It was located 15 km northeast of Safad, near the al-Mutilla-Safad—Tiberias highway.[5]
In 1838, in the Ottoman era, ez-Zubeid was noted as an Arab tribe, within the Government of Safad.[6]
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Arab Zubaid had a population of 257; 255 Muslims[7] and 2 Melkite Christians,[8] increasing in the 1931 census, when it was counted together with Al-'Ulmaniyya, to 432; 5 Christians and 427 Muslims, in a total of 100 houses.[9]
The population, combined with that of Mallaha, came to 890 Muslims in the 1945 statistics,[3] with a total of 2,168 dunams of land.[4]
The village had many springs for its water source, and farming was the main occupation.[5] In 1944–45 a total of 1,761 dunums was allocated to cereal farming.[10] while 20 dunams were classified as built-up land.[11]
Israeli historian Benny Morris has found evidence that the population fled on 20 April (prior to the occupation of any of the neighboring villages), anticipating an Israeli attack.[12] In August 1948, Golani Brigade units were preparing to blow up the village in spite of a complaint from the nearby Kibbutz Sha’ar ha-’Amaqim, who objected.[12] Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion denied responsibility, saying: "No permission was given by me or to any commander to destroy houses." The village was nevertheless destroyed.[12]
In 1992 the village site was described: "All that remains of ‘Ara al-Zubayed is scattered rubble, buried under a thicket of woods, grass, and thorny plants. Irrigation works tap the village’s water resources. Animals graze in the mountainous portions of the land near the site. Some land in the plain that borders the site has been converted into an Israeli nature reserve, while the rest is cultivated by Israeli farmers."[12]
