Abu Ghosh
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| Hebrew | אבו גוש |
| Arabic | أبو غوش |
| Government | Local council |
| District | Jerusalem |
| Population | 5,200 (CBS end of 2001) |
| Jurisdiction | 2,500 dunams (2.5 km²) |
Abu Ghosh is an Israeli Arab village west of Jerusalem on the road to Tel Aviv whose inhabitants were known for their friendly relations with their Jewish neighbors. It is a Local council in the Jerusalem District. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War they did not participate in the fighting. It is famed by Israelis for its superior hummus.
According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), as of September 2001 Abu Ghosh had a population of 5,200, predominantly Muslim Arabs.
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[edit] Geography
Abu Ghosh is located approximately 10 kilometers west of Jerusalem, just north of the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway. Neighboring Abu Ghosh to the southwest is the Jewish town and religious institution, Qiryat Ye'arim.
Abu Ghosh is 610-720 meters above sea level.
[edit] History
Located by the Old Testament site of Kiriath-Jearim, Abu Ghosh is in the middle of the Kiriath-Jearim Ridge Route between Nicopolis and Jerusalem, nine miles (83 stadia) from the capital. The town was named after a family of robbers who inhabited it in the 19th century. This family, the Sheiks Abu Ghaush, terrified the travelers in the first half of the century until the Turkish government took care of them. The biblical name, Kiriath Jearim, means “village of forests,” while the modern name, Kiriath el’Enab means “village of grapes.” Kiriath-Jearim was known in the Bible for housing the ark of the covenant for about 120 years after its capture by the Philistines and its return to Beth Shemesh. A Roman fort was found with a Greek inscription stating that the Tenth Legion stationed there. Monkish tradition also identified the village as Anathoth, the birthplace of the prophet Jeremiah. There used to be a convent of Minorites with a Gothic church at Abu Ghosh, which was later transformed in the times of Robinson into a stable. Robinson described it as “obviously from the time of the crusades, and […] more perfectly preserved than any other ancient church in Palestine.” Excavations were done in 1944 on that church, proving the Crusader identification of the site as the biblical Emmaus.
The Church of Notre Dame de l'Arche de l'Alliance (Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant), built in 1924, is said to occupy the site of the house of Abinadab where the Ark of the Covenant rested for twenty years until King David took it to Jerusalem. It is built on the site of a fifth-century Byzantine church.
[edit] 1948-1950
The villagers of Abu Ghosh had first been expelled in 1948, but the bulk of the inhabitants "infiltrated" back home in the following months/years. In the second half of 1949, the IDF and police started to descend on Abu Gosh in a series of more or less brutal search-and-expel operations, where they rounded up the most recent "infiltrators" and pushed them over the border into Jordan. (Morris, p. 267-268): Following one such round-up, in early 1950, the inhabitants of Abu Gosh sent off an "open letter", to Knesset members and journalists, writing that the Israelis had repeatedly
"surrounded our village, and taken our women, children and old folk, and thrown them over the border and into the Negev Desert, and many of them died in consequence, when they were shot [trying to make their way back across] the borders".
So far, the inhabitants had held their peace.
"But we cannot remain silent in face of the latest incident last Friday, when we woke up to the shouts blaring over the loudspeaker announcing that the village was surrounded and anyone trying to get out would be shot....The police and military forces then began to enter the houses and conduct meticulous searches, but no contraband was found. In the end, using force and blows, they gathered up our women, and old folk and children, the sick and the blind and pregnant women. These shouted for help but there was no saviour. And we looked on and were powerless to do anything save beg for mercy. Alas, our pleas were of no avail... They then took the prisoners, who were weeping and screaming, to an unknown place, and we still do not know what befell them." (quoted in Morris, 1994)
Partly due to public outcry, most of the inhabitants were allowed home. Morris writes (p. 269): In the end only several dozen Abu Gosh families remained in exile, as refugees, in the Ramallah area in the West Bank.
[edit] References
- Benny Morris (1994): "1948 and After." ISBN 0-19-827929-9. (Chapter 8, p. 257-289: The Case of Abu Ghosh and Beit Naqquba, Al Fureidis and Jisr Zarka in 1948 -or Why Four Villages Remained.)
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
[edit] See also
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| Cities | Bet Shemesh · Jerusalem |  |
| Local councils | Abu Ghosh · Mevaseret Zion · Qiryat Ye'arim | |
| Regional councils | Mateh Yehudah | |
