Al-Qubayba, Ramle

Al-Qubayba (Arabic: القبيبة‎) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on May 27, 1948, by the Givati Brigade as part of the Second stage of Operation Barak. It was located 10.5 km southeast of Ramla near the Rubin River (or Wadi al-Sarar) which provided the village with water and irrigation for agriculture. Al-Qubayba was mostly destroyed with the exception of a few houses, and Kfar Gevirol was built in its place, now a suburb in the west of Rehovot.

This article is about the former village in Ramle Sub-district. For the former village in Hebron Sub-district, see Al-Qubayba, Hebron. For the Palestinian village in Jerusalem, see Al-Qubeiba, Jerusalem.
Al-Qubayba

القبيبة
Relic of a house built in Al-Qubayba before 1948
Etymology: The little dome[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Qubayba, Ramle (click the buttons)
Al-Qubayba
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°53′41″N 34°46′17″E
Palestine grid128/144
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictRamle
Date of depopulationMay 27–28, 1948[2]
Area
 • Total10,737 dunams (10.737 km2 or 4.146 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total1,720[4][3]
Cause(s) of depopulationExpulsion by Yishuv forces
Current LocalitiesGe'alya;[5] Kfar Gevirol;[5] Kefar Hanaggid is near settlement land,[6] but located on land belonging to Yibna

History

In the late Ottoman era, Pierre Jacotin noted it as an unnamed village on his map from 1799.[7]

In 1863, Victor Guérin found the village to contains four hundred and fifty inhabitants. The houses were grouped together on a hill, and surrounded by gardens planted with figs, olives, cucumbers, and tobacco.[8]

An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed Kubebe with a population of 499, in 210 houses, though the population count included men, only.[9][10]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Kubeibeh as "a moderately large village, principally of mud, with cactus hedges surrounding gardens, standing on high ground. There is a well in the gardens to the east, and another to the south of the village."[11]

British Mandate era

An elementary school for boys was founded in 1929, and by 1945 it had an enrollment of 344 students.[12]

al Qubayba 1941 1:20,000
al Qubayba 1945 1:250,000

In the 1931 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, El Qubeiba had 799 Muslim inhabitants in 160 houses.[13]

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 1,720 Muslims,[4] and the total land area was 10,737 dunams.[3] Of this, Arabs used 4,639 dunams for citrus and bananas, 1,143 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, 2,972 dunums were allocated to cereals,[14] while 43 dunams were classified as built-up urban areas.[15]

1948, aftermath

The Israeli settlements of Ge'alya and Kfar Gevirol were constructed on village land.[5]

In 1992 the village site was described: "The walls and rubble of collapsed houses intermingle with the buildings of the Israeli settlements that have been established on the site. A former pool is used as a garbage dump. Some houses remain. One house, occupied by Jewish residents, is of modest size and is made of masonry; the beams that support its flat roof protrude slightly from the masonry of the exterior walls. Another village house is now used as a restaurant. Part of the school, a long building with a rectangular door and windows, still stands. Cactus hedges and sycamore and palm trees grow on the southern edge of the site."[5]

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 272
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xix, village #251. Also gives cause of depopulation.
  3. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 68
  4. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 30
  5. Khalidi, 1992, p. 408
  6. Morris, 2004, p. xxi, settlement #85.
  7. Karmon, 1960, p. 171
  8. Guérin, 1869, p. 52
  9. Socin, 1879, p. 157
  10. Hartmann, 1883, p. 133, noted 209 houses
  11. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 408
  12. Khalidi, 1992, p. 407
  13. Mills, 1932, p. 22
  14. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 116.
  15. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 166

Bibliography
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