Al-'Abisiyya

Not to be confused with Al-'Abbasiyya (Jaffa Subdistrict) or Aabbassiyeh, Lebanon.

Al-'Abisiyya was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Safad. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on May 29, 1948, by The Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach. It was located 28.5 km northeast of Safad near to the Banyas River which the village relied on for irrigation.

Al-'Abisiyya العابسية
Village
Etymology: From personal name[1]
1870s map 1940s map modern map 1940s with modern overlay map A series of historical maps of the area around Al-'Abisiyya (click the buttons)
Al-'Abisiyya Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 33°11′55″N 35°37′59″E
Palestine grid	209/289
Geopolitical entity	Mandatory Palestine
Subdistrict	Safad
Date of depopulation	May 25, 1948[2]
Population  (1945)
• Total	1,220[3]
Cause(s) of depopulation	Influence of nearby town's fall
Current Localities	Sde Nehemia

History

The village contained the khirbas of Tall al-Sakhina, Tall al-Shari'a, and al-Shaykh Ghannam.

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described the village as "a collection of mud hovels in the plain of the Huleh, on the Nahr Banias containing seventy Moslems. They till the land, which is arable round the village, there is a large supply of water and some trees near the village."^[4]

British Mandate era

In the 1931 census of Palestine, during the British Mandate for Palestine, the village had a population of 609, all Muslims, in a total of 31 houses.^[5]

In the 1945 statistics the population of Al-'Abisiyya (including nearby Azaziyat, Ein Fit and Khirbat es Summan) was 1,220 Muslims,^[3] with a total of 15,429 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.^[6] Arabs used 4 dunums of land for citrus and bananas, 6,390 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 2,830 for cereals;^[7] while 17 dunams was built-up (urban) area.^[8]

1948, aftermath

In May 1948, Sde Nehemia requested, "somewhat shamefacedly", 1,700 dunams of land from the newly depopulated village of Al-'Abisiyya.^[9]