The Abu Hameds of Mulabbis: an oral history of a Palestinian village depopulated in the Late Ottoman period

Abstract

ABSTRACT Mulabbis was the first Arab village whose lands were acquired by Jews for settlement purposes (1878), and is counted among the earliest villages to be fully depopulated due to Zionist settlement during the Late Ottoman period. However, the history of Mulabbis, or of any of the other villages depopulated at that time, has not been discussed in any depth. By adopting oral history as its socio-cultural prism, this paper identifies the residents of the village, descendants of Abu Hamed al-Masri, and explores their historical narratives as recounted by elders of the family within the context of settler colonialism in Palestine. As an oral history of a village depopulated in the Late Ottoman period, the story of Mulabbis may offer us a glimpse at future trends of cultural recollection of the Nakba: it is an idealized lost homeland, and a relational signifier of patrimony for the descendants of its inhabitants.