Info
District: Tulkarm
Occupation date: 01/04/1948
Jewish settlements on village/town land before 1948: None
Jewish settlements on village/town land after 1948: אזור תעשיה ושכונות צפוניות רעננה (קרית גולומב), קרית רמז, קרית שזר, קרית בן-צבי
Background:
Tabsur Before 1948
The village stood on undulating terrain on the coastal plain. It was linked to the town of Qalqilya, about 8 km to the east, by a secondary road that also crossed the coastal highway a short distance to the east of the village.
Tabsur was constructed prior to the middle of the nineteenth century on an archaeological site. In the late nineteenth-century, Tabsur was a moderate-sized hamlet with a well to the North. The village was designed in a rectangular fashion, extending in a north-west direction. Its houses were built of mud and cement. Under the British Mandate the village established an elementary school for boys. Drinking water was supplied through village wells, while agriculture was based on grain, legumes, watermelons, and cucumbers.
Occupation and Depopulation:
According to Benny Morris Tabsur was “the first village largely to be abandoned” in the area of heavy Jewish settlement north of Tel Aviv. Most villagers reportedly left as early as 21 December 1947 out of fear of Jewish attacks. With considerable attacks in the surrounding areas there is no record of a specific assault on Tabsur. 3 April marks the official date, according to an Israeli military intelligence report, that people from Tabsur were expelled by order of the Haganah in the course of the final “clearing” of this coastal area.
Israeli Settlement on Village Lands:
In between the boundary of Jaffa and Tulkarm the settlement of Ra’anana south of the village was established in 1921. It has since expanded to form a town extending onto the village land of Tabsur. Batzra was founded in 1946 on village lands and is just north of the village site.
The Village today:
The village site today has been completely covered with Israeli citrus orchards, making it difficult to distinguish from surrounding lands.
The land is populated with citrus and cypress trees.
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Source: al-Khalidi, Walid (ed.). All that remains: the Palestinian villages occupied and depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington DC: 1992.
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