Al-Qabu

This article is about the depopulated Palestinian Arab village. For the town in Syria, see al-Qabu, Syria.
al-Qabu
القبو
Qabu, Kabu
The mosque for Shaykh Ahmad al-Umari
The mosque for Shaykh Ahmad al-Umari
Etymology: "the vault, or cellar"[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Qabu (click the buttons)
al-Qabu is located in Mandatory Palestine
al-Qabu
al-Qabu
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°43′40″N 35°07′10″E / 31.72778°N 35.11944°E / 31.72778; 35.11944
Palestine grid161/126
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictJerusalem
Date of depopulation22–23 October 1948[4]
Area
[3]
 • Total3,806 dunams (3.806 km2 or 1.470 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total260[2][3]
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces
Current LocalitiesMevo Beitar

Al-Qabu (Arabic: القبو, "the vault, or cellar")[1] was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. The name is an Arabic variation of the site's original Roman name, and the ruins of a church there are thought to date to the era of Byzantine or Crusader rule over Palestine.

Al-Qabu was depopulated on 22–23 October 1948, following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.[5][6] Following Israel's establishment, homes in the village were blown up by Israeli troops in May 1949 and in 1950, the moshav of Mevo Beitar was founded on the village lands.

  1. ^ a b Palmer, 1881, p. 297
  2. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 25
  3. ^ a b Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 58 Archived 2018-11-03 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xx, village #348. Also gives cause of depopulation.
  5. ^ Khalidi, 1992, pp. 307-308.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Morrisp520 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).