Al - Bassa al - Bassa ' ( , also known as Betzet in ) was a Palestinian Arab village in the British Mandate of Palestine ' s District of Acre . It was situated close to the Lebanese border , north of the district capital , Akko ( Acre ) , and above sea level . Etymology . Bassa has been identified with the border town Betset ( בצת ) listed in the Tosefta and the Jerusalem Talmud as subject to the laws of Shmita . It was called " Bezeth " during the Roman period , and its Arabic name is " al - Basah " . In the period of Crusader rule in Palestine , it was known as " Le Bace " or " LeBassa " . Imad ad - Din al - Isfahani ( d . 1201 ) , a chronicler and advisor to Saladin , referred to the village as " Ayn al - Bassa " . History . The site shows signs of habitation in prehistory and the Middle Bronze Age . It was a Jewish settlement between 70 and 425 AD . Blown glass pitchers uncovered in a tomb in al - Bassa were dated to circa 396 AD . An ancient Christian burial place and 18 other archaeological sites were located in the village . " The Survey of Western Palestine " , sponsored by the Palestine Exploration Fund , identified al - Bassa as , " probably a Crusading village " ; however , archaeological excavations uncovered evidence of an ecclesiastical farm in operation there between the 5th to 8th centuries , and pottery sherds indicate continuous inhabitation throughout the Middle Ages . The site was used in 1189 C . E . as a Crusader encampment during a military campaign , and a document dated October 1200 recorded the sale of the village by King Amalric II of Jerusalem to the Teutonic Order . No Crusader era buildings have been found in al - Bassa , and a cross once dated to the Crusader period was later re - dated to the Byzantine era . A - Bassa was the first village listed as part of the domain of the Crusaders during the hudna between the Crusaders based in Acre and the Mamluk sultan al - Mansur ( Qalawun ) in 1283 . In 1596 , Al - Bassa was part of the Ottoman Empire , a village in the " nahiya " ( subdistrict ) of Tibnin under the " liwa ' " ( district ) of Safad , with a population of 76 Muslim families and 28 Muslim bachelors . It paid taxes on a number of crops , including wheat olive s , barley , cotton and fruits , as well as on goats , beehives and pasture land . In the 18th century Al - Bassa became a zone of contention between Dhaher al - Omar and the chiefs of Jabal Amil , while under his successor , Jezzar Pasha , Al - Bassa was made the administrative center of the " nahiya " in around 1770 . In 1799 , Napoleon Bonaparte described Al - Bassa as a village of 600 Metawali s . The European traveller Van de Velde visited " el - Bussa " in 1851 , and stayed with the sheikh , Aisel Yusuf , writing that " The clean house of Sheck Yusuf is a welcome sight , and the verdant meadows around the village are truly refreshing to the eye " . He further noted that " The inhabitants of Bussah are almost all members of the Greek Church . A few Musselmans live among them , and a few fellahs of a Bedouin tribe which wanders about in the neighborhood are frequently seen in the street . " In 1863 the village was visited by Henry Baker Tristram who described it as a Christian village , where " olive oil , goats´hair , and tobacco , seemed to be principal produce of the district ; the latter being exported in some quantities , by way of Acre , to Egypt . Bee - keeping , also , is not an unimportant item of industry , and every house possesses a pile of bee - hives in its yard . " In the late nineteenth century , the village of Al - Bassa was described as being built of stone , situated on the edge of a plain , surrounded by large groves of olive s and gardens of pomegranate , fig s and apples . The village had about 1 , 050 residents . The village had a public elementary school for boys ( built by the Ottomans in 1882 ) , a private secondary school , and a public elementary school for girls . Twentieth century . The Franco - British boundary agreement of 1920 described an imprecisely defined boundary between Lebanon and Palestine . It appeared to pass close to the north of al - Bassa , leaving the town on the Palestinian side but cut off from much of its lands . However the French government included al - Bassa in a Lebanese census of 1921 and granted citizenship to its residents . Meanwhile , a joint British - French boundary commission was working to determine a precise border , making many adjustments in the process . By February 1922 it had determined a border that confirmed al - Bassa as being in Palestine . This became official in 1923 . The citizenship of the residents was changed to Palestinian in 1926 . In 1922 , the people of al - Bassa founded a local council which was responsible for managing its local affairs . The British census of September 1922 listed a population of 867 Christians , 150 Metawali s and 1 Jew , though Kaufman reports that the Muslims were Sunni rather than Metawali . The Christians were listed as Greek Catholic ( Melchite ) ( 721 ) , Orthodox ( 120 ) , Church of England ( 17 ) , Armenian Catholic ( 8 ) , and one Roman Catholic . Its main economic activity was olive picking . At the 1931 census , which did not distinguish Metawalis from other Muslims , the village had 868 Muslims , 1076 Christians , and 4 Bahais . This had grown to 1360 Muslims and 1590 Christians by 1945 . 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 . 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 . Al - Bassa was the only Palestinian village in the Galilee with a Christian high school . Some of Bassa ' s former public structures have been preserved and are found today within the Israeli localities of Shlomi and Betzet . 1938 massacre . In 1938 , during the 1936 – 1939 Arab revolt in Palestine , the village was the scene of a massacre committed by British soldiers . On September 6 , 1938 , four soldiers of the Royal Ulster Rifles ( RUR ) were killed when their armoured car ran over a land mine near the village . In retaliation , British forces burnt the village down . After that , perhaps a few days later , about 50 Arabs from the village were collected by the RUR and some attached Royal Engineers . Some who tried to run away were shot . Then , according to British testimony , the remainder were put onto a bus which was forced to drive over a land mine laid by the soldiers , destroying the bus and killing many of the occupants . The villages were then forced to dig a pit and throw all the bodies into it . Arab accounts added torture and other brutality . The total death toll was about 20 . 1948 , and aftermath . Al - Bassa was one of the largest , most developed villages in the north of the country , covering a land area of some 20 , 000 dunams of hills and plains , 2 , 000 of which were irrigated . A regional commercial center , it contained over sixty shops and eleven coffeehouses , a few of which sat along the Haifa - Beirut highway . The active village council had paved roads , installed a system of running water , and oversaw the convening of a wholesale produce market there every Sunday . An agricultural cooperative in the village counted over 150 members that promoted agricultural development , while also providing loans to local farmers . The population of about 4 , 000 was divided almost evenly between Muslims and Christians . Among the village institutions were a government run elementary school , a " National High School " , a Greek Orthodox church , a Catholic church , and a mosque . The village was situated in the territory allotted to the Arab state under the 1947 UN Partition Plan . It was captured by Yishuv´s Haganah forces during the 1948 Arab - Israeli war , in Operation Ben - Ami , on May 14 , 1948 . Al - Bassa ' s defenders were local militia men . Following its capture , the Haganah ' s Palmach forces concentrated the villagers in the local church where they shot and killed a number of youths before chasing the villagers out . One witness to the expulsion said that it was preceded by soldiers shooting and killing five villagers inside the church , while another said seven villagers were shot and killed by soldiers outside the church . Al - Bassa was completely destroyed by the Israelis with the exception of a few houses , a church , and a Muslim shrine , still standing today . At least 60 of the Christian villagers of Al - Bassa were taken by the Haganah to Mazra ' a , where they remained for more than a year . Altogether 81 residents of al - Bassa became Israeli citizens as internally displaced Palestinians who lost their land rights and ended up in places like Nazareth . The only day on which Palestinians did not require a permit to travel during that period was Israel ' s Independence Day . On this day , which Palestinians call Nakba Day , internally displaced Palestinians would visit their former villages . Wakim Wakim , an attorney from Al - Bassa and a leading member of the Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally Displaced explains : " " The day when Israel celebrates is the day we mourn . " " ( emphasis in original ) Most of the former villagers of al - Bassa ( approx . 95 % ) were pushed north towards Lebanon , concentrating in the Dbayeh refugee camp near Jounieh east of Beirut . Prior to and during the Lebanese civil war , this camp suffered severe damage in the fighting and was largely destroyed , though it still has a population of some 4 , 233 people who are mostly Palestinian Christian refugees . Other former residents of Al - Bassa and the refugee camp in Lebanon ended up in Lansing , Michigan where they established an international village club and hold annual gatherings attended by over 300 people . The village was inspected in 1992 , when it was found that although most of the houses of Al - Bassa had been destroyed , a number of historic buildings survived , including two churches , a mosque , and a maqam . Mosque . According to Petersen , the mosque appears to be a relatively modern construct , probably built in the early 1900s . It consists of a tall square room with a flat roof supported by iron girders . There is a cylindrical minaret at the north - east corner . There are tall pointed windows on all four sides , and a mihrab in the middle of the south wall . At the time of the inspection , 1992 , the building was used as a sheep pen . Maqam . The Maqam is located about 20 meters east of the mosque . It consists of two parts : a walled courtyard , and a dome d prayer room . In the courtyard there is a mihrab in the south wall , and a doorway in the east wall leads into the main prayer room . Pendentive s springing from four thick piers support wide arches and the dome . In the middle of the south wall there is a mihrab , next to a simple minbar , made of four stone steps . Culture . Henry Baker Tristram during his 1863 visit to the village made a detailed description of the women ' s Palestinian costumes . Weir , after quoting what Tristram wrote about the head - dresses in Al - Bussah , notes that coin headdresses went out of use for daily wear in Galilee at the beginning of the 20th century , but continued to be worn by brides for their weddings .