Abu Shusha - History

History

The Crusaders won a battle against Saladin there in 1177. The Arab village was built at the beginning of the 19th century. In the late nineteenth century, Abu Shusha was described as a small village built of stone and mud and surrounded by cactus hedges, populated by about 100 families. Elihu Grant, who visited the village, described it as "tiny".

In 1869 or 1872, the village lands were purchased by Melville Peter Bergheim of Jerusalem, a Protestant of German origin. Bergheim established a modern agricultural farm, using European methods and equipment. Bergheim's ownership of the land was hotly contested by the villagers, by legal and illegal means. After the Bergheim company went bankrupt in 1892, Abu Shusa's lands were managed by a government receiver. In 1910s, part of the land was sold by the receiver to the villagers and the rest to the Jewish Colonization Association, which gave the villagers one third of their purchase in order to settle the dispute. After World War I, the land in Jewish hands was sold to the Maccabean Land Company, and later transferred to the Jewish National Fund.

The population of Abu Shusha, consisting of Muslim Palestinians, was 627 in 1931 and 970 in 1944/45. The village had a mosque and a number of shops. A village school was founded in 1947, with an initial enrollment of 33 students. In 1944/45 2,475 dunums of village land were allotted to cereals, while 54 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.