al-Basa

The village of Al-Bassa was located on the slopes of a rocky hill north of Wadi al-Bassa, facing west toward the Mediterranean coast. A secondary road connected it to the main coastal highway between Acre and Beirut. Its name is likely derived from the Canaanite word “Basah,” meaning swamp. During the Roman period, the village was known as Bizath, and it was mentioned by the historian Imad al-Din al-Isfahani (d. 1201), a close associate of Sultan Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, in his writings under the name Ain al-Bassa.

Al-Bassa was administratively part of the Tabnin subdistrict of the Safad district, and its inhabitants paid taxes on various crops such as wheat, barley, olives, cotton, and fruits, as well as on other products and assets including goats, beehives, and pasturelands. The village was located in a contested area between Dhaher al-Omar, who briefly became the effective ruler of northern Palestine in the second half of the eighteenth century, and the leaders of Jabal Amil. Later, Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar, Dhaher al-Omar’s successor, made Al-Bassa a subdistrict center.

By the late 1870s, Al-Bassa was built of stone and had approximately 1,050 inhabitants. It was situated at the edge of a plain surrounded by orchards of olive, pomegranate, fig, and apple trees. Before World War I, the village was part of Lebanon but was annexed to Palestine after the war when Britain and France delineated the border between the two countries.

During the British Mandate, Al-Bassa expanded to include a nearby hill known as Al-Jubeil. By 1948, the village contained more than 700 houses. The older houses typically consisted of a single large room with a high ceiling. Each house had a large courtyard used for drying laundry and housing animals. The courtyard also included rooms for storing grain and animal feed, as well as a cistern for collecting rainwater, sufficient for household needs. These older stone houses were closely clustered, separated by paved streets and alleys. The newer houses built after World War I were mostly two stories high, with courtyards that often included home gardens planted with fruit trees and vegetables.

Population and Social Structure

The population of Al-Bassa, combined with that of the neighboring Khirbat Mas‘ub, was recorded as 1,590 Christians and 1,360 Muslims in 1944-1945. By 1948, the total population was estimated at approximately 4,000, without specific religious affiliation noted. The population increase was attributed to an influx of migrants from other areas who found employment in nearby British military bases, along with a decrease in emigration from the village.

Al-Bassa was the second-largest village in the area by population. A village council was established in 1922. Its revenue was 121 Palestinian pounds in 1929 and rose to 1,407 pounds in 1944. The council’s expenditures amounted to about half its annual revenue in both years. After 1946, the council’s budget began to suffer deficits due to the construction of a water canal network supplying drinking water to the village homes. Prior to this network, residents obtained drinking water from rainwater-collecting cisterns, a spring within the village vicinity, and an artesian well drilled about 15 km west of the village in the 1940s.

The council also assisted villagers in agricultural matters, such as hiring field guards, whose salaries were paid by the farmers, and advised residents on agricultural practices and harvest timing. The village contained an official boys’ elementary school established by the Ottoman government in 1882, a private secondary school, and an official girls’ elementary school. Residents themselves established two sports clubs, two mosques, two churches, and several shrines and holy sites revered by both Muslims and Christians.

The workers in Al-Bassa founded a local branch of the Palestinian National Labor Union, which defended workers’ interests and established cooperative stores in the village. Al-Bassa had over twenty shops serving the needs of local and neighboring villages. A wholesale and retail market (Hasba) operated in the village center on Sundays.

Besides agriculture, villagers worked in crafts such as soap making and as employees in the nearby British military bases.

Agriculture and Economy

During the Mandate period, some villagers were engaged in animal husbandry, especially cattle raising. At least ten families subsisted on herds of goats and sheep. Irrigation for crops was supplied through canals and rainwater, mainly supporting fruit trees and vegetables primarily grown about 2 km west of the village, in an area also featuring parks and cafés.

In the early 1940s, a cooperative owned agricultural tools, a truck, and a harvesting machine. Although the main crops were wheat and other grains, the land was also used for growing vegetables, fruits, and nuts. In 1944-1945, a total of 614 dunams of land in Al-Bassa and Khirbat Mas‘ub was allocated for citrus and bananas, 10,437 dunams for cereals, and 4,699 dunams were irrigated or used as orchards.

Numerous archaeological remains were found within and around the village, including remnants of an ancient village, mosaic floor fragments, wells, and rock-cut tombs. In 1932, the Palestinian Department of Antiquities uncovered a Christian cemetery dating to the 4th century CE, containing coins and glassware. Additionally, more than 18 ruins were located near the village.

Occupation and Ethnic Cleansing

According to two Israeli sources and a United Press report, Al-Bassa was occupied on 14 May 1948 during Operation Ben-Ami (see Al-Ghabisah, Acre district). However, the Palestinian historian Afif al-Arif dates its fall three days earlier, on 11 May. The book “History of the Haganah” states that Zionist forces landed by boats near this coastal village, marking their first naval operation. It adds that the villagers fled upon the arrival of Zionist forces, but eyewitnesses later interviewed by Palestinian historian Nafiz Nazzal reported differently. Many women and children left fearing fighting, but some residents remained. On the day of the attack, villagers initially resisted but then retreated northward.

Village residents recall that occupying forces ordered the remaining villagers—mostly elderly men—to gather in the village church. Some young men, including at least one woman, were taken outside and executed by firing squad. The rest were ordered to bury the dead. Israeli historian Benny Morris does not mention this incident but states most villagers had fled prior to the attack, and the remainder fled during it. He adds that some were ordered or advised to head north to Lebanon. Approximately 100 villagers, mostly elderly Christians, were transferred to the village of Al-Marzah along with other displaced villagers from the Galilee. According to Nazzal, some villagers were later killed when attempting to return and reclaim their property.

The Village Today

Today, only two major buildings remain: the Roman Catholic Church and an Islamic shrine. The church is built of stone, rich in architectural features, including a high window topped with a circular arch and two smaller windows beside it, each with arches. The pulpit area is semicircular with high arched windows. The bell tower rises above a stepped roof covered with tiles. The church is now dilapidated on one side, with cracked walls.

Zionist Settlements on Village Lands

In 1949, the Israelis established the settlement of Bietsat (163275) on the village site, populated by Jewish immigrants from Romania and Yugoslavia. The same year, members of the Yiftach Brigade founded the settlement. Also in 1949, members of the Yiftach Brigade affiliated with the Palmach established the settlement of Kfar Rosh HaNikra (161277) on village lands.

Originally a military base called Tzahal, the settlement of Lehmani was established in 1949 and renamed after U.S. Senator Herbert Lehman visited in 1959. The development town of Shlomi (164275) was founded in 1950 on village lands slightly south of the original site; it now has a population of approximately 2,200. The settlement of Metzoke Dragot (165274), founded in 1940, expanded over time and some of its buildings now lie on village lands.