Abu Kabir

Abu Kabir (Arabic: أبو كبير) was a satellite village of Jaffa founded by Egypt following Ibrahim Pasha's 1832 defeat of Turkish forces in Ottoman era Palestine.

"[6] Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau, the French archaeologist, visited in 1873–1874, searching for the site of the ancient Jewish cemetery of Joppa (Jaffa).

[7] He notes that during the heavy winter rains, the gardens between Jaffa and Saknet Abu Kabir became a small marshy lake that was known as al-Bassa by the locals.

[9] Under an entry entitled The Jewish necropolis of Joppa, Clermont-Ganneau relates that after inquiring with the local fellahin (peasants) in Abu Kabir, he was led "a few yards further on" from the hamlet, "in the middle of some poorly tilled gardens," where building stone was quarried by the villagers.

Clermont-Ganneau identified this as Helleno-Jewish funeral epigraphy, ascribing it to Hezekiah, and writes that it, "settled once and for all the nature of the burial ground I had just discovered.

"[7] In a letter published by the Palestine Exploration Fund, he expressed his hope to return noting, "We must at least find two or three more inscriptions of the same kind coming from the same neighbourhood.

[14] It consisted of a main built-up part bordering the Jewish sector of Jaffa from the south, and several small concentrations of houses within the surrounding citrus groves.

They proposed that the whole of Manshiyya, including Hassan Bey Mosque, as well as large parts of the Abu Kabir neighborhood, be transferred to the borders of the new Jewish city and state.

"[15] On 23 August 1944, the British Criminal Investigation Department (CID) barracks at Jaffa, and police stations at Abu Kabir and Neve Shaanan were raided for arms by the Irgun.

[17][18] On 30 November 1947, the day after the UN voted on the Partition Plan, an Arab mob in Abu Kabir attacked a car with Jewish passengers, killing all three.

On 2 December the Haganah's Kiryati Brigade blew up an Arab house in Abu Kabir, and the IZL torched several buildings four days later, killing at least two persons.

[19] During Operation Lamed Hey (Hebrew for "35"), named for the 35 casualties of an attack on the Convoy of 35, Abu Kabir was raided to "cleanse it of the forces acting there.

[22] On 19 April 1948, The Palestine Post reported that "In the Abu Kebir area, the Haganah dispersed Arabs who tried to erect an emplacement facing the Aka factory in Givat Herzl.

A university library was also founded, new study tracks were opened, a teaching staff was formed, laboratories and classrooms were built, and an administration established for the campus.

[29] In the tour book Israel and the Palestinian territories (1998), "the former village of Abu Kabir" is described as being located in a green space to the east of Jaffa.

Gardens in Abu Kabir
Historic Arab house in Abu Kabir
Church in Abu Kabir
Abu Kabir detention center
The Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabir