Аль-Кабри: История палестинской деревни

the former Palestinian village of al Kabri

In the 13th century, al Kabri was known as "Le Quiebre" and belonged to the fief of Casal Imbert (az Zeeb). In 1253, King Henry granted the whole estate of Casal Imbert, including Le Quiebre, to John of Ibelin. Shortly after, in 1256, John of Ibelin leased az Zeeb and all its dependent villages, including Le Quiebre, to the Teutonic Order for ten years. In 1261, az Zeeb, together with Le Fierge and Le Quiebre, were sold to the Teutonic Order, in return for an annual sum for as long as Acre was in Crusader hands. In 1283, it was still a part of the Crusader states, as it was mentioned under the name "al Kabrah", as part of their domain in the hudna (truce agreement) between the Crusaders based in Acre and the Mamluk sultan al Mansur Qalawun.

According to al Maqrizi, it was under Mamluk rule by 1291, as it was mentioned under the name of "al Kabira" in that year when Sultan al Ashraf Khalil allocated the town's income to a charitable organization in Cairo.

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, al Kabri had a population of 553 inhabitants, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 728 Muslims in 173 houses. During this period, al Kabri's houses were built of stone, mud, and reinforced concrete. The village contained a mosque and a boys' elementary school. Agriculture was the base of the economy with villagers cultivating olives, citrus, and bananas and engaged in animal husbandry, including raising cattle. Together with the nearby Tarshiha, the villages had 47,428 dunums of land at this time. Of this, a total of 743 dunums of land in the two villages was used for citrus and bananas, 5,301 were plantation and irrigable land, 14,123 for cereals, while 252 dunams were built up (urban) land.

Al Kabri was first badly shaken by the Palmach raid on the village on the night 31 January/1 February 1948, in which the house of the main al Husayni affiliated notable, Fares Efendi Sirhan, was partly demolished by a huge explosion. After this, Sirhan and his family fled to Lebanon. On 27 March 1948, the Yehiam convoy bringing supplies to besieged Kibbutz Yehiam was ambushed while passing by al Kabri and 46 Haganah members were killed. In April 1948, the Haganah prepared an initial blueprint for an operation called "Ehud", which provided for attacks on al Kabri, al Nahar, al Bassa and al Zib for "the destruction of the gangs [and] the menfolk, [and] the destruction of property".

The village was likely occupied on the night of 20–21 May during the second stage of Operation Ben Ami, by which time most of the inhabitants had fled. According to Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, the remaining structures in al Kabri's lands in 1992 were "crumbled walls and stone rubble, overgrown with thorns, weeds, and bushes." A Jewish community by the same name, Kabri, was built on land adjacent to the site of the Palestinian village, which is also for agriculture and pasture land.

Al Kabri was at the eastern end of the Western Galilee coastal plain. It was less than from the sea, with the Ga'aton River nearby to the south. The closest modern city is Nahariyya to the west. The villages lands were home to four springs: Ayn Mafshuh, Ayn Fawwar, Ayn al 'Asal, and Ayn Kabri. It is these springs that have brought people to al Kabri since the Neolithic.