Al-Zeeb

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Al-Zeeb
Arabic الزيب
Name Meaning "Trickster"
Also Spelled Achzib, Al-Zib, Az-Zeeb
District Acre
Population 1,910 (1945)
Jurisdiction 12,440 dunams
Date of depopulation 14 May 1948
Cause(s) of depopulation Military assault by Jewish forces
Current localities Gesher HaZiv, Sa'ar, Leman

Al-Zeeb (Arabic: الزيب‎ az-Zeeb; It derived its name from the Persian word Ziba, which means beautiful due of its population's descents from Iran and Tajikistan. It is a former Palestinian town located 13.5 kilometres north of the city of Acre in the Galilee. It is identified as the ancient Canaanite settlement of Achzib and was known as Casal Imbertia by the Crusaders.[1] According to a 1945 census by the British Mandate of Palestine, al-Zeeb had a population of 1,910.[2] The village consisted of 12,440 dunams, most of it used as cultivable land, while 62 dunams was built-up area.[3] The village contained an elementary school founded by the Ottoman government in 1882.

[edit] Capture by Israel

On May 14, 1948, the village was captured by Israel in its offensive military Operation Ben-Ami, one day before the outbreak of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Most of the inhabitants of al-Zeeb fled northward to Lebanon. It is estimated that the population of Palestinian refugees from al-Zeeb was 13,600 in 1998. After its capture, the village was mostly demolished with the exception of a mosque and the house of the local heaD. The Jewish towns of Gesher HaZiv, Sa'ar and Leman have been built in the former village's land area.[4] It is also used as a beach. According to Walid Khalidi,

All that remains of the village is the mosque, which has been restored for tourism, and the house of the mukhtar (the village head) Husayn, Ataya, which is now a museum. The house is relatively large and made of masonry. The stone mosque has a dome and a large decorative arch on the front facade.[4]

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

  1. ^ Mazar, Eilat. Achziv. Institute of Archeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  2. ^ Al-Zeeb Town Statistics and Facts Hadawi, Sami. Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine (1970), Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center. Government of Palestine for the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry, 1946
  3. ^ Murad al-Dabagh, Mustafa. Biliduna Filisteen
  4. ^ a b Khalidi Walid All That Remains, The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Institute for Palestine Studies 1992, ISBN 0-88728-224-5
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