Abu Shusha

Abu Shusha () was an Arab village in Palestine, 8 km southeast of Ramle which was depopulated in 1948.
Abu Shusha was located on the slope of Tel Jazar, which is commonly identified with the ancient city of Gezer.
In April-May 1948, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Abu Shusha was attacked several times. The final assault began on May 13, one day prior to Israel's declaration of independence. Abu Shusha residents attempted to defend the village, but the village was occupied on May 14. Those residents who had not already died or fled were expelled by May 21.Morris, 2004, p. 256-257 With their descendants, they numbered about 6198 as of 1998.
==History==
The Crusaders won a battle against Saladin there in 1177. The Arab village was built at the beginning of the 19th century.Ruth Kark, Changing patterns of landownership in nineteenth-century Palestine: the European influence, Journal of Historical Geography, vol 14, no 4 (1984) 357-384. In the late nineteenth century, Abu Shusha was described as a small village built of stone and mud and surrounded by cactus hedges, populated by about 100 families.Conder, Claude Reignier and H.H. Kitchener: The Survey of Western Palestine. London:Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. (1881) II:407. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 358 Elihu Grant, who visited the village, described it as "tiny".Grant, 1907, p. 17. Cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 358
In the 1869 or 1872, the village lands were purchased by Melville Peter Bergheim of Jerusalem, a Protestant of German origin. Bergheim established a modern agricultural farm, using European methods and equipment. Bergheim's ownership of the land was hotly contested by the villagers, by legal and illegal means. After the Bergheim company went bankrupt in 1892, Abu Shusa's lands were managed by a government receiver. In 1910s, part of the land was sold by the receiver to the villagers and the rest to the Jewish Colonization Association, which gave the village one third of their purchase in order to settle the dispute. After World War I, the land in Jewish hands was sold to the Maccabean Land Company, and later transferred to the Jewish National Fund.
The population of Abu Shusha, consisting of Muslim Arabs, was 627 in 1931 and 970 in 1944/45. The village had a mosque and a number of shops. A village school was founded in 1947, with an initial enrollment of 33 students.Khalidi, 1992, p. 358 In 1944/45 2,475 dunums of village land were allotted to cereals, while 54 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.Hadawi, 1970, p.114 Also Khalidi, 1992, p. 358
===1948, and aftermath===
According to Benny Morris, the village was attacked by the Giv'ati Brigade on May 13–14, 1948 during Operation Barak. A few inhabitants fled but most remained. The Giv'ati troops were immediately replaced by militia men from Kibbutz Gezer, who were later replaced by troops from Kiryati Brigade.Morris, 2004, p. 205 On May 19, Arab Legion sources claimed that villagers were being killed. On May 21, Arab authorities appealed to the Red Cross to stop "barbaric acts" they said were being committed in Abu Shusha.Morris, 2004, p. 257 A Haganah soldier was reported to have twice attempted to rape a 20-year-old woman prisoner."Doron" (Maoz) to HIS-AD, "The Interrogation of Women Prisoners in the village of Abu Shusha", 24 Jun. 1948, HA 105\92 aleph. Quoted in Morris, 2004, p. 257 The residents that had remained in the village were expelled, apparently on 21 May.
More recently, research conducted by Birzeit University, mostly on the basis of interviews with former residents, suggests that between 60-70 residents were killed or massacred during the attack.Birzeit University series on Palestinian destroyed villages, 276 page report on Abu Shusha; some information here: In 1995 a mass grave with 52 skeletons was discovered, but their cause of death is undetermined.Benvenisti, 1996, p. 248
The Israeli settlement of Ameilim was founded nearby later in 1948, while Pedaya was established in 1951; both on village land. The remains of the village were destroyed in 1965 as part of a government operation to clear the country of abandoned villages, which were regarded by the Israel Land Administration as "a blot on the landscape".Aron Shai, The fate of abandoned Arab villages in Israel, 1965-1969, History and Memory, Vol 18 (2006) pp86-106.
==See also==
*List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
==References==
==Bibliography==
*M. Benvenisti, (1996), City of Stone, University of California Press, ISBN 0 520 205219
*
*
*
==External links==
*Welcome to Abu-Shusha
*Abu Shusha, from Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
*Abu Shusha by Rami Nashashibi (1996), Center for Research and Documentation of Palestinian Society.
*Abu Shusha - A Survivor's Testimony by Rami Nashashibi (1996), Center for Research and Documentation of Palestinian Society.
Category:1948 Arab–Israeli War
Category:Villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
Category:Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Category:Massacres in Palestine
Category:District of Ramla