Lubya a palestinian demolished Village in Galilee Memory-History-Culture-Identity Mahmoud Issa Preface

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Relations with Arab communities

The social history of Lubya was affected and influenced by the different movements of the tribes and people who were settled in or nearby Lubya. This included the Dalayki tribe, the Circassians, the Chechens, the Subeih tribe, and the Moroccans (al-Maghariba).

Abu Majid spoke in detail about the different communities around Lubya. “The Dalayki tribe settled near Lubya during the Ottoman era. Later on the Jews built two settlements on their land, Beit Jan and Yamma. The majority of the inhabitants of these settlements were Russian Jews from Kiev, while in the settlement of al-Shajara [al-Sejara, see Khalidi] all of them were from Kiev. The Ottoman authorities installed a special military observation post on top of a hill near al-Shajara to protect the settlers from the Arabs.”
Some of those who settled in or near Lubya during the Ottoman period came to Palestine seeking refuge from conflict in the Caucasus. Abu Majid continued, “During this same period, Russian elements were repeatedly attacking and wreaking havoc in villages and towns of the Caucasus. The mostly Muslim Circassians (Sharkas) and Chechens (Shishan) inhabitants of these areas left their villages and fled south to Islamic countries such as Palestine. The [Qa'im Makam, see original] settled the new immigrants in Tiberias and later on in al-Shajara.”
“al-Shajara sold half of its lands to a Lebanese family named al-Mudawwar. The villagers sold their land because a man from al-Shajara killed another from the Subeih tribe, so the population left the village for fear of a revenge attack. The Subeih Bedouins were well known for their fierceness. The people of al-Shajara resettled elsewhere, scattering themselves between Lubya and the surrounding villages where they stayed for almost two years.”
“The people from al-Shajara asked to reconcile with the Subeih tribe provided the latter paid a tribute as a price for the murder they had committed. The amount demanded by the Subeih was not readily available, which prompted al-Shajara people to sell half their land and settle only on the other half. al-Mudawwar was ready to buy the piece of land, even though he already owned half of the village’s spring (nabi’).”
“The new owner wanted the Sharkas (Circassians) out of the village. The District Commissioner offered them a piece of land nearby and proposed to al-Mudawwar to pay the cost of rebuilding the houses while the Sharkas would do the rebuilding themselves. This is how the village of Kufr Kama came to be built in the same style as Russian houses using tiles for the roofs.”
“al-Mudawwar also built in the village a two story-building on about two dunums of land. He used the first floor for the animals and the second for his own residence. After two or three years time, his business enterprise began to lose money, so the Jews bought his land and established on it what is known nowadays as the Jewish al-Shajara, two kilometres away from the original Arab al-Shajara.”
The inhabitants of Kufr-Sabt were originally from Morocco. They emigrated from their country in the period of Abdel-Qader al-Jaza’iri, from Algeria, who fought against the French and was expelled with his followers to Syria. Prince Abdel-Qader remained in Syria but the others came to live in the south of Lubya in a land called al-Shafa. They established different villages: Kufr Sabt, ‘Olam, Ma’thar. A few of them lived in Samakh and others lived near Shafa’Amr, al-Kasair, and Kokab.
According to Abu Majid, the land of Kufr Sabt “belonged to Palestinians from the Bareedi family. One day, an unknown person ignited the dry grass on the land, and because a western wind was blowing, the fire spread to a wide area. A man from Lubya passing by attempted to put out the fire using his ‘abaya (traditional Arab cloak), but was killed when it caught fire.”
“When news of his death arrived in the village, the villagers responded by attacking Kufr Sabt in the belief that they had killed Muhammad Mustafa on purpose. All the inhabitants of Kufr Sabt left their village except for one family, al-Hamid, who claimed that they were related by marriage to Lubyans. The Government, just as it did in al-Shajara before, settled the al-Maghariba (those from the Maghrib), who arrived with Abdel-Qader al-Jaza’iri, in the quasi-abandoned village.”
Despite a few negative incidents between the inhabitants of Lubya and Tur’an, 'Ajaj Sa'd 'Odeh (Abu ‘Ajaj)^¹⁰⁰ retained fond memories of the relationship between the two villages. I met with him at his home in Tur’an, a village near Lubya, in May 1999. The house was full of activity because of the upcoming elections for the Israeli Knesset (Parliament). Abu ‘Ajaj’s sons were busy distributing pamphlets and arranging meetings for Azmi Bishara (Balad party) who was running for a seat in the Knesset.
“Our relationship to Lubya was common knowledge in the village. Lubyans always sided with the people of Tur’an every time there was a crisis. The makhateer of Lubya always visited the makhateer of Tur’an whenever they were passing through the village. A few small incidents occurred, however, that muddied the waters between us. For example, there was a pool in Maskana, an area between our two villages, which belonged to our village. The Lubyans insisted that they had the right to it. Some of the disputes occurred over land, but these were few and far between.”
The conflict with the Arab al-Subeih Bedouin was mentioned by many of the elderly Lubyans that I interviewed. The story, in which the tribe took revenge for the killing of the head of their hamula, is part of the mythology that Lubyans bestowed upon themselves as brave people. While the account is real, there is an exaggerated dimension to the story because Subeih was a powerful tribe and the source of fear among other villages.
The Subeih tribe settled in the area around Lubya, according to Abu Majid, during the Ottoman period. “‘Akil al-Hasi, a Bedouin Arab from the Hanadi tribe, was appointed Governor of Galilee. When he arrived there he brought with him the tribe of al-Subeih. There was a habit that when a tribal leader became powerful enough he sent a message to Istanbul requesting to be appointed governor of the area in which he resided. ‘Akil was such a leader, and as such was accorded his request in return for paying taxes to the central administration in Istanbul.”
When asked to recount what she remembers about Lubya and its history, Ramzia Hassan Abu Dhais (Um Isam)^¹⁰¹, who is the daughter of mukhtar Abu Dhais, chose to begin with the battle against Arab al-Subeih. Um Isam is also the wife of Abu Isam. She is the mother of ten children, eight boys and two girls. Um Isam is almost as strong as her father, both in appearance and in the way that she manages the daily affairs of her household. All Lubyans in Dayr Hanna and al-Makr knew her and viewed her with respect and admiration. The man killed in the story was Um Isam’s grandfather. It is likely that she heard the story in her house when she was a young girl.
“The battle between Lubya and the Subeih, a tribe well-known in the whole area, happened long ago in the time of my grandfather. The Subeihs came to Lubya, ate, slept, and received all the hospitality required from us, but left the village stealthily after stealing a few cows from the farmers. My grandfather followed them, accompanied by a small group, which included my father. A known fighter from the Subeih, named Jalmoud, and my grandfather were killed in the ensuing battle. My father returned home and vowed to disperse the Subeih tribe, which is exactly what happened later on.”
Ahmad, Um Isam’s son, continued reciting the events that took place against the Subeih tribe during the Ottoman era. This story is part of the family heritage. “My grandfather was fourteen years old when his father was killed. One year after the first battle with Subeih, the latter tried again to invade Lubya, but the Lubyans this time were ready for them. The Subeih had a brave fighter named Jalmoud. Among the Lubyans there was a man named Kayid who was so blind that he sometimes rode his horse in the opposite direction. Kayid killed Jalmoud during the battle because Jalmoud didn’t pay due attention to him.”
Yousef Issa told me another story about Kayid. When people crossed over from Jordan to steal cattle from Lubya, Kayid without fail would follow them because he could not stop his horse. So he would shout, “khayyal il-khail Kayid” (Kayid is a brave rider) and the thieves would run for their lives, abandoning the stolen cattle. They came to Lubya one day and asked to meet this brave man. They were astonished to find out that he was very small and short. They felt ashamed that he was, in fact, the one who prevented them from stealing.
Khalid al-Salayma^¹⁰², who is a friend of Abu Khalil, also knew about the battle with the Arab al-Subeih. “I am from al-Shajara. We are located in the middle between the Subeih tribe and Lubya. As far as I know from different oral sources, this incident took place in 1902.” This incident continues to be a source of controversy between the Subeih and Lubyans in exile. Abu Khalil told me a story of a young man from the Subeih who claimed that the Subeih defeated the Lubyans. He found an elderly woman from Lubya, Um Mahmoud al-Jalili, who was 120 years old at the time, who told him the details of what happened.
Um Mahmoud told him how the Shihabis and ‘Atwat hamayil had bad relations, but after mukhtar Abu Dhais was killed, Fawwaz al-Ali, the head of the Shihabi family invited all the village to his home. He addressed the village: ‘It is either we or the Subeih tribe in this area.’ Women began giving their gold, and for one week the village bought guns. Fawwaz al-Ali previously had a problem with Lubyans and had left the village and took refuge with the Subeih tribe. He therefore knew the area where the tribe was living as well as other details that helped the Lubyans to defeat the Subeih as revenge for the death of the mukhtar. The Arab al-Subeih who stayed in Palestine live in a village named Arab al-Shibli near Tabor mountain.
Abu Majid also remembered a story about ‘Akil al-Hasi, the Governor of the Galilee, and the Ottoman authorities. The story gives some insight into the relationship between the Ottoman authorities and the constituent parts of its empire. “The Ottomans asked Shimdeen Agha, the leader of the Kurds in Damascus, to arrest al-Hasi for refusing to pay the required taxes. Shimdeen sent one of his sons, Hassan Agha, with two hundred horses on a mission to confront al-Hasi and arrest him. But the latter knew about the impending event in advance and succeeded in deflecting the surprise element of the attack. The confrontation between the two parties took place in Lubya near Hajar al-Nousrani and lasted from morning till mid-day with the Lubyans watching it unfold from the rooftops of their houses.”
“The area where Hassan Shimdeen was killed is known to the Lubyans as thra’ Shimdeen (Shimdeen’s arm). It is also the place where Giv’at Avni [the new Israeli settlement built in 1992] is located. His grave is still there, in Lubya, near that of the Prophet Shwameen. In the confrontation, the Lubyans sided with the Kurdish leader. When the latter was defeated, al-Hasi addressed them saying, ‘Now you can collect the dead body of your chief (agha).’ The mother of Hassan Shimdeen used to pay yearly visits to her son’s grave on one of the holy Muslim feast days. Lubyan children who saw her arrive and recognized her shouted: ‘Um al-Agha’ (mother of the agha) is coming.” When I visited Lubya with Abu Nimr [add??] he showed me the place where the battle took place “at al-Kinnara on the north side of the street where some factories were built on the land of Lubya.”
“When the father of Shimdeen knew about his son’s death, another detachment was sent under the leadership of his other son, Rasool, to avenge him,” said Abu Majid. “He addressed his son saying, ‘Either you die like your brother or you bring me al-Hasi dead.’ Rasool arrived with his detachment near ‘Ayn Mahil, not far from Kufr Kama, on the borders of Lubya. The Bedouins started to leave the area to al-Karak [in today’s Jordan], and so did al-Hasi, without confronting the detachment. In Karak he asked to be given asylum with a local tribe by the name of Huwaitat. As for Rasool, he became the new leader of Nazareth.”
“Later on, al-Hasi lived with the sheikh of ‘Ibillin village for almost a year, but couldn’t bear to live much longer among the Bedouins. He therefore went in search of Abdel-Qader al-Jaza’iri [the Algerian fighter who was expelled from Algeria after his defeat by the French army], who was held in very high esteem in Damascus. al-Hasi asked Abdel-Qader to reconcile him with Shimdeen and the two of them went together to the al-Muhajireen in the Kurdish area of Damascus where reconciliation took place according to the old tradition. The ‘ikal (head band) was placed around the neck of the guilty party, who in this case was al-Hasi, and although the Kurds were angry at the latter, their leader offered him mercy and told him that whoever killed his son must be a brave man. He gave al-Hasi permission to stay on in ‘Ibillin which was in fact where he died and was buried.”
Relations with Jewish communities
The life of Jews who were living in Palestine before the advent of modern political Zionism was very different than the life of the Jewish community in the country after the arrival of successive waves of Jewish immigrants. Many of the elderly generation of Lubyans spoke of the good relations between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in Palestine prior to the advent of political Zionism and the 1917 Balfour Declaration under which the British government committed itself to the establishment of a Jewish state in the country.^¹⁰³
“We had normal relations,” said Amina Ali Ismail. “We bought wares from them in Tiberias.” “We used to invite our neighbours the Jews for a cup of coffee when we worked near one another,” said Yousef Issa. “We used to greet on another, and trade between us was good. Even in the worst conditions they used to send delegations to our makhateer asking for the continuation of good relations between us and the nearby settlements.”
The town of Tiberias, not far from Lubya, was an example of early relations between the two communities. Izra Lavi^¹⁰⁴ was one of several Jewish Israeli officers who occupied Lubya in 1948. “I was born in Tiberias on 26 January 1926. I still remember my old Palestinian friends, Abu Harb, Naim al-Hallak, and his sons Nathmi and Adil. They worked as officers in the Syrian army.” Ester Lavi^¹⁰⁵, who is married to Izra, interrupted to tell me that her Palestinian “neighbour Husayn used to say: ‘I will marry you.’ We played together and we helped each other. We used common facilities, sharing our building with the Arabs.”
“Sheikh al-Tabari and the Mayor Moshe [Sahar] were friends, and agreed that they would never get involved in the fighting,” said Izra. “In 1948, there were 3,500 Muslims and 4,500 Jews in Tiberias. Formerly, the Muslims were in the majority and the mayor was a Muslim. When the Jews became the majority a Jew was elected mayor. The Jews and the Arabs were brothers. The leaders of the two communities told each other that they didn’t want any problems between them. In Safad, for example, there were problems. When Arabs from Safad came to Tiberias they used to say, ‘The Muslims from Safad are flowers while Muslims from Tiberias are bullshit and cowards.’”
Elyahu [last name?]^¹⁰⁶, one of Izra's friends who participated in the interview also confirmed the good relations he had with Palestinian Arabs when he was secretary of the Tiberias municipality in the 1930s. His comments highlight again the friendship between Jews and Palestinians in Tiberias. He spoke fluent Arabic. “I was born in Tiberias. When I was 19 years old I started working at the Tiberias Municipality. In 1936, I became its secretary. I got my pension four years ago. We lived as brothers here in Tiberias where there were 6,500 Jews and 5,000 Arabs. Both Muslims and Christians lived in the city. We still have a lot of friends among the Arabs.”
“When the troubles started in 1948, the leaders of the two communities met to resolve various issues. In 1947 we worked with the secretary of the city, Sidki al-Abdullah, Abu Ramzi, an Arab, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day. The battle for Tiberias started on Thursday and Abu Ramzi warned us that the situation was deteriorating, and ordered us to close the municipality. He went home but we stayed on after contacting the mayor. At 9 p.m. the shooting began. This is proof that we lived together and cared about each other. When I visited Jordan, I visited my friends from Tiberias whom I had not seen since 1948.”
Abu Wajdi^¹⁰⁷, a friend of mine, was well-known in Tiberias and had good relations with a number of the Jewish officers who occupied Lubya in 1948. He was still working in Tiberias even after the Nakba, selling gas and practicing his hobby of painting. “Once I was in the house of Abu Nimr (Habib Kahhala) and heard him say to Sahar: ‘You kicked the Arabs out of Tiberias, why didn’t you and the Mufti succeed in controlling the situation?’ Sahar answered: ‘No, that is not true. I still have the paper, signed by the Mufti and myself, which says that we agreed that no hostilities should take place in Tiberias. An Arabic proverb says: ‘The one who marries my mother will be my uncle.’ The Jews and the Arabs must stay in the land.’”
Nahom Abbo is a writer and the officer who took part in all of Israel’s wars, before and after its establishment. He was another one of the officers who entered Lubya in 1948. He speaks fluent Arabic and is well acquainted with Lubyans. He showed neither fear nor hesitancy in delving into almost every little detail, and only in a few minor cases, such as that of the shooting of an Arab in Tiberias, was he reluctant to speak. He began the interview with the origins of his name dating back a thousand years ago in the Old Testament so as to prove his link to the country.
“I was born here. Our family has been in the chronicles for the last 250 years. The first letters of our family name were taken for the Torah, the Old Testament, (‘Ayn means ‘Asolim, B means Biamona, and O means Viyashar - i.e. we are made honest and upright). Our family bought many plots of land in Rosh Pina, Safad, Maroun, and al-Shajara. My uncle, whose name was Shlomo al-Khayal, stayed in al-Shajara until 1922. A group of men from Lubya and Kufr Sabt worked with him. I used to meet Palestinians from different villages, and when they would hear my family name they would start telling me different stories about the Abbo family. I still have friends among the Arabs.”
Elderly Lubyans and Israeli Jews who fought against Lubya in the 1948 both identified the arrival of foreigners, whether Jews from abroad, or Arabs from neighbouring countries, as the spark for the beginning of the problems between Arabs and Jews in Palestine. “The problem began when the Jews from outside came to Palestine,” said Amina “They made problems for us and for the national Jews.” Izra recalled that “in 1948 volunteers from Iraq and Syria arrived in Tiberias. That is when the problems started. Moshe Sahar [the mayor of Tiberias] wrote about the arrival of those men from abroad. One day, they opened fire on Jews and burned a car. Soon after, the Mufti and Sahar met to affect reconciliation between them, but a month later the problems between the Jews and Arabs resumed. That incident marked the beginning of the war in Tiberias.”
“I had once an Arab friend from the Najjada Party and we played on the same football team in the club. He said to me: ‘Izra, why do you come here every day? There are foreigners here who might shoot you.’ I said to him: ‘Look, I am from Tiberias, and this land is my homeland, and I want to go where I want.’ I was walking one day through the narrow streets of Tiberias near the fish market, accompanied by a friend, David Shibi, who was also my guard and spoke fluent Arabic. I saw ten men waiting for me. I was not sure where they were from. I asked David to take another direction to avoid the ambush I suspected they were preparing for me. The Arab guards asked: ‘Who is there?’ and my friend David answered them in Arabic. From that moment I realised that I was in danger. I’ve told you this story as testimony of our good relations until the foreigners came.”
Nahom, who was condemed to death by the British because of his alleged involvement in the death of an innocent Palestinian in Tiberias in revenge for the death of his own friends by Palestinians, had similar recollections on the beginnings of the conflict between Arabs and Jews in Palestine.^¹⁰⁸ “In Tiberias, excuse me saying this, Arabs and Jews lived as brothers, but the problems started when those foreigners interfered. Even when the riots of 1929 erupted in Hebron and Safad, nothing happened in Tiberias. Arab leaders such as Sheikh Nayif al-Tabari held meetings with Nour Abu al-‘Afia and Shimon Dahan. Mufti al-Husayni, however, did not like the relations between Jews and Arabs in Tiberias, so he sent his groups to create problems.”
For some the early relations between Jews and Arabs lasted even after 1948. Husam Khalil^¹⁰⁹, the grandson of mukhtar Khalil al-Abid, told me about the good relations between his grandfather and Chaim Lavikov, a high-ranking officer in the Israeli army. “I know for a fact that a Jew by the name of Chaim Lavikov who came with his family from Poland in 1915 was working on my grandfather’s farm. I paid him a visit a few years ago at his house in Holon in the Tel Aviv area. He told me how his father had instructed him to run to mukhtar Haj Khalil’s house if the Arabs won the war. In the event that the Jews won, he should take care of Haj Khalil’s family. My uncle Sa’id, who lives in Jordan, lost contact with his son during the revolution, so I went to see Chaim, who was then a high-ranking officer responsible for minorities in the Israeli army, to ask for his help in locating my cousin in an Israeli prison. Chaim said to me: ‘Because of the respect I had for Haj Khalil, I will do my best to help you.’ We found out later that my cousin was killed in Lebanon.” I tried to find Chaim in Tel-Aviv, but I was informed that he had died recently.
Abu Nimr, one of the only Lubyans that is still allowed to use some of the land in the village, also spoke of ongoing relations with Jews who settled on Lubya's land. “I was in Lubya from the age of seven till 18 and I loved it dearly. I did not have any problem with the religious settlers of Lavi and Giv’at Avni [the two Jewish settlements which were built on the land of Lubya],” he told me. “It will surprise you to know that six years ago there was a demonstration by the inhabitants of Kibbutz Lavi, during which they proceeded to block the main road to Tiberias. They were asking the government to open a special road for me to facilitate access to my agricultural land – dairakh jisha li Salah Shehada (a road for Salah Shehada). Even the government was astonished that the settlers went as far as blocking the road for one whole hour. I was not there when this incident took place. Another incident of the same nature took place in 1967 when a gas tank fell on my land. The people from the kibbutz came and dug a ditch around my plantation to protect it from being consumed by the fire that ensued.”

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