Abu Ghosh

Abu Ghosh אבו גוש‎ • אַבּוּ ע'וֹשׁ‎‎ أبو غوش‎
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Abu Ghosh Location within Israel
Coordinates:
District	Jerusalem
Government
• Type	Local council
Area
• Total	2,500 dunams (2.5 km2 or 600 acres)
Population (2014)
• Total	6,795

Abu Ghosh (Arabic: أبو غوش‎‎; Hebrew: אבו גוש‎) is an Arab town in Israel, located 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) west of Jerusalem on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway. It is situated 610–720 meters above sea level.

History

Abu Ghosh is one of the earliest areas of human habitation in Israel. Archaeological excavations have revealed three Neolithic settlement phases, the middle phase is dated to the 7th millennium BCE. Its old Arabic name of Qaryat al-'Inab ("Grape Village") has led Abu Ghosh to be identified with the biblical site of Kiryat Ye'arim, known in English as Kiriath-jearim (Hebrew meaning: "Village of Woods"), and where the Ark of the covenant was taken after it had left Beth-shemesh.

Legio X Fretensis of the Roman army had a station house in Abu Ghosh until the end of the 3rd century.

The village has also been associated with Anathoth, the birthplace of the prophet Jeremiah.

Ottoman era

Abu Ghosh is the name of an Arab family that settled here in the early 16th century. According to the family tradition, they had Circassian descent, and the founder fought with Selim I. In the 18th century they lived in a village near Bayt Nuba, from which they ruled the surrounding region. However, according to the tradition, the Banu 'Amir tribesmen and the villagers of Beit Liqya rose against them and slaughtered the entire Abu Ghosh clan except for one woman and her baby, who continued the Abu Ghosh name.

The family controlled the pilgrimage route from Jaffa to Jerusalem, and imposed tolls on all pilgrims passing through. They were given this privilege during the sultanate of Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-1566). The churches in Jerusalem also paid a tax to the Abu Ghosh clan. In the 19th century, the village was also referred to as Kuryet el' Enab. In 1834, during Egyptian period in Palestine, the Egyptian governor Ibrahim Pasha abolished the Abu Ghosh's right to exact tolls from the pilgrimage route and imprisoned the clan's chief, Ibrahim Abu Ghosh, leading to the clan's temporary participation in the countrywide Peasants' Revolt.

The Abu Ghoshes were among the well-known feudal families in Palestine. They governed 22 villages. The sheikh of Abu Ghosh lived in an impressive house described by pilgrims and tourists as a "true palace..., a castle..., a protective fortress...”

Abu Ghosh was attacked by Egyptian military forces in the 1834 revolt in Palestine. It was attacked again in 1853 during a civil war between feudal families under Ahmad Abu Ghosh who ordered his nephew Mustafa to go to battle. A third attack on Abu Ghosh, carried out by the Ottoman military forces, helped and executed by the British forces, took place during the military expedition against the feudal families in the 1860s.

Kiryat Anavim, the first kibbutz in the Judean Hills, was founded near Abu Ghosh in 1914, on land purchased from the Abu Ghosh family.

Arab–Jewish relations

Abu Ghosh mosque

When Chaim Weizmann, later the first president of the State of Israel, visited Palestine in the spring of 1920, he was graciously hosted by the residents of Abu Ghosh. From the early 20th century, the leaders of Abu-Ghosh worked together and were on friendly terms with the Zionist leaders. Throughout the Mandate period, the village of Abu Ghosh was on friendly terms with local Jews.

In 1947-1948, the road to Jerusalem was blocked and passage through the hills surrounding Jerusalem was crucial for getting supplies to the besieged city. Of the 36 Arab Muslim villages in these hills, Abu Ghosh was the only Muslim one that remained neutral, and in many cases helped to keep the road open. "From here it is possible to open and close the gates to Jerusalem," said former President Yitzhak Navon. Many in Abu Ghosh helped Israel with supplies.

During Operation Nachshon the Haganah reconsidered an attack on Abu Ghosh due to opposition of the Stern Gang, whose local commanders were on good terms with the mukhtar (village chief).

Issa Jaber, director of the local department of education, says that the personal relationship with Zionist leaders during the prestate period set the basis for later cooperation. “We had a perspective for the future,” he says.

Entrance to Crusader church in Abu Ghosh

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the Har’el Brigade Headquarters were located in Abu-Ghosh. Many of the villagers left Abu Ghosh during the heavy fighting in 1948, but most returned home in the following months. During the early years of the state of Israel the village was subjected to repeated searches by the army and anyone who had not registered as resident in November 1948 could be expelled. One case attracted a lot of public criticism. In June 1950, the IDF and police rounded up 105 men and women believed to be infiltrators were deported across the Jordanian desert. In an open letter to the Knesset, the inhabitants of Abu Ghosh claimed that the army had "surrounded our village, and taken our women, children and old folk, and thrown them over the border and into the Negev Desert, and many of them died in consequence, when they were shot [trying to make their way back across] the borders." The letter further stated that they woken up to "shouts blaring over the loudspeaker announcing that the village was surrounded and anyone trying to get out would be shot....The police and military forces then began to enter the houses and conduct meticulous searches, but no contraband was found. In the end, using force and blows, they gathered up our women, and old folk and children, the sick and the blind and pregnant women. These shouted for help but there was no saviour. And we looked on and were powerless to do anything save beg for mercy. Alas, our pleas were of no avail... They then took the prisoners, who were weeping and screaming, to an unknown place, and we still do not know what befell them."

Knesset member Moshe Erem accused the army of excessive force, a charge that Prime Minister Ben Gurion denied. He also defended the policy of expulsions. Foreign Minister Sharett, concerned about international reaction, argued that there should be more searches with fewer people being deported at one time and then only adult males. One of the issues causing concern in this case was that some of those expelled had been resident in Abu Ghosh for over a year. In the wake of public pressure, the vast majority of villagers were allowed to return. In July 1952, MK Beba Idelson objected to the deportation of an Abu Ghosh woman and her four children, who was said to have cancer. The police minister Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit rejected the claim that the woman had cancer. The village remained under martial law until 1966.

The Israeli government, subsequently on peaceful terms with the village, invested in improving the infrastructure of the village.

Abu Ghosh mayor Salim Jaber attributed the good relations with Israel to the great importance attached to being hospitable: "We welcome anybody, regardless of religion or race." According to a village elder interviewed by the Toronto Globe and Mail: "Perhaps because of the history of feuding with the Arabs around us we allied ourselves with the Jews...against the British. We did not join the Arabs from the other villages bombarding Jewish vehicles in 1947. The Palmach fought many villages around us. But there was an order to leave us alone. The other Arabs never thought there would be a Jewish government here...During the first truce of the War of Independence, I was on my way to Ramallah to see my father and uncles, and I was captured by Jordanian soldiers. They accused me of being a traitor and tortured me for six days."

Local government

Abu Ghosh is governed by a local council, and is part of the Jerusalem District. The current mayor of Abu Ghosh is Salim Jaber. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Abu Ghosh had a population of 6,795 in 2014.

Religious sites

Christian

Benedictine Monastery

Main article: Benedictine monastery in Abu Ghosh

The Crusader church at the entrance to the village (now the Benedictine Monastery) is one of the best preserved Crusader remains in the country. The Hospitallers had built this late Romanesque/earlyGothic church in 1140 and it was partially destroyed in 1187. It was acquired by the French government in 1899 and placed under guardianship of the French Benedictine Fathers. Since 1956, it has been run by the Lazarist Fathers. Today a double community of nuns and priests continue the worship in the church and offer hospitality, reflecting the ancient story of the couple on the Jerusalem–Emmaus road. Edward Robinson (1838) described it as "obviously from the time of the crusades, and [...] more perfectly preserved than any other ancient church in Palestine." Excavations carried out in 1944 confirm that the Crusaders identified the site as the biblical Emmaus. The church is now known as both Church of the Resurrection and Emmaus of the Crusaders.

Church of Notre Dame in Abu Ghosh

Church of Notre Dame

The Church of Notre Dame de l'Arche d'Alliance (Our Lady of the Ark of the Covenant), built in 1924, is said to occupy the site of the house of Abinadab, where the Ark of the Covenant rested for twenty years until King David took it to Jerusalem. It is built on the site of a fifth-century Byzantine church. It is recognizable by the roof-top statue of Mary carrying the infant Jesus in her arms.

Muslim

• Abu Ghosh's historic mosque is in the town center.
• Akhmad Kadyrov Mosque, the new mosque completed in 2014, is the largest mosque in Israel. Built with money donated by the Chechen government.

Music and culture

Pouring "Turkish" coffee in Abu Ghosh

The Abu Gosh Music Festival is held twice a year, in the fall and late spring, with musical ensembles and choirs from Israel and abroad performing in and around the churches in Abu Ghosh. The Elvis Inn, a restaurant in Abu Ghosh, is known for its large gold statue of Elvis Presley in the parking lot.

Local cuisine

Abu Ghosh is popular among Israelis for its Middle Eastern restaurants and hummus. In 2007, it was described as the "hummus capital of Israel." In January 2010, Abu Ghosh secured the Guinness World Record for preparing the largest dish of hummus in the world. Jawdat Ibrahim, owner of Abu Ghosh hummus restaurant, organized the event, which brought together 50 Jewish and Israeli-Arab chefs. The winning 20-foot (6.1 m) dish weighed 4,087.5 kilograms (8992.5 pounds), about twice as much as the previous record set by Lebanon in October 2009. In May 2010, Lebanon regained the Guinness World Record, more than doubling Abu Ghosh's January 2010 total.

Chametz ceremony

Since 1997, Jaaber Hussein, a Muslim Arab-Israeli hotel food manager from Abu Ghosh, has signed an agreement with Israel's Chief Rabbis to purchase all of the state's chametz, the leavened products not kosher for the Jewish holiday of Passover. This symbolic deal allows the state to respect religious edicts without wastefully destroying massive quantities of food. In 2009, Hussein put down a cash deposit of $4,800 (about 20,000 shekels) for $150 million worth of chametz, acquired from state companies, the prison service and the national stock of emergency supplies. At the end of Passover each year, the deposit is returned to Hussein and the state of Israel "buys back" all the food products.

See also

• Arab localities in Israel

References

Bibliography

• Edward Robinson Biblical Researches in Palestine and Adjacent Countries (first published in three volumes, Boston and London, 1841);