Al-Bassa

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Al-Bassa

Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches

Arabic

البصة

Also Spelled

Bezeth

District

Acre

Population

3,100 (1945)

Jurisdiction

25,258 dunams (25.2 km²)

Date of depopulation

14 May 1948^[1]

Cause(s) of depopulation

Explusion by Jewish forces

Cause 2

Military assault by Jewish forces

Current localities

Betzet, Rosh HaNiqra, Shlomi

al-Bassa', (Arabic: البصة‎), also known as Bezeth (Hebrew: בצת‎), and LeBassah (Crusader), is a former Palestinian village close to Lebanon's border with the British Mandate of Palestine's District of Acre. The former village was 19km north of the district capital, Akko (Acre). It is 65m above sea level.

1 History
2 References
3 See also
4 External links and references

[edit] History

The village's location was settled at least as far back as the Second Temple period. It is mentioned in the Talmud as a place where Jews were obligated in the tithe (maaser) of the Land of Israel, even though it was technically within the district of Tyre. It is also mentioned in Josephus' Bellum Judaicum as Baka, a town on the border of the Galilee. During the Crusades it was called LeBassah. It is mentioned in a 16th century list as having a population of 550.

By 1927 the village had a mixed population of Protestants, Catholics, and Greek Orthodox, as well as a Mutawallite Shi'ite minority. Its main economic activity was olive picking.

The 1938 camp of Jewish labourers and Notrim (police) for construction of Tegart's wall was located adjacent to the village, and it ultimately became the site of a Tegart fort. By 1945 the village had grown to 3,100 and was home to a regional college.

al-Bassa was captured by Israel through its Haganah forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, in Operation Ben-Ami, on May 14, 1948. The village's defenders were local militia men. Residents that had not already fled the fighting were expelled on May 27, 1949, leaving behind a few houses, a church, and a Muslim shrine.

Most of the village's refugees moved north to Lebanon and were settled in the Dbayeh refugee camp before its destruction by Phalangist militias in Lebanese Civil War, though a small number are internally displaced persons in the city of Nazareth. Important public structures at the time of its existence included two mosques, two churches, three schools and 18 other shrines both holy to Muslims and Christians, some of which are today preserved within the city of Shlomi and modern Israeli village of Betzet.