An Exhibition That Tells the Story of a Resilient Arab Village on the Seashore!

Jisr al-Zarqa: “We Were Here Before the Baron.”

The story begins hundreds of years ago. The village of Jisr al-Zarqa once enjoyed vast expanses of land, covering approximately 12,000 dunams. At that time, its boundaries extended eastward to the Carmel mountain range; westward to the sea; southward to the Roman water channel and the Arab al-Barra families—Arab families who lived outside the walls of Caesarea, hence the name Arab al-Barra (Barra = outside); and northward as far as Tantura. Evidence of this can be found in the cemetery that still exists today in Ma’agan Michael Kibbutz.

The families arrived in Jisr al-Zarqa from different places and at different periods. At the time, the village was known as “Arab al-Ghawarna,” not because of the Jordan Valley, as some have claimed, but because of the topographical area in which they lived, known as the Ghor. The term Ghor refers to any low-lying area of land. When we speak of the Ghor of Jisr al-Zarqa, we are referring to a flat plain filled with swamps—the Kabara swamps.

Some of the families living in Jisr al-Zarqa arrived in the area with the campaign of Ibrahim Pasha during the first half of the nineteenth century, including the Rashwan family. Others were indigenous Palestinians from the area, while the village also received Palestinian families who sought refuge there following the displacement of 1948, such as the Abu Nada family, which was displaced from Tantura, and the Abu Zard family from the village of Ijzim.

The two largest families in Jisr al-Zarqa are Palestinian in origin: the Amash and Jirban families. This confirms the presence of Arab al-Ghawarna in the area for many years before Baron Rothschild arrived. These families, who formed the Arab al-Ghawarna community, lived in the swamp area, which was drained decades after their settlement there. Members of these families also lived in the Kabara area, on the slopes of the Carmel, and around the Seven Mills Bridge, the site of today’s village, as well as near what was known as Abu al-Nour’s Mill, whose remains still exist today northwest of the settlement of Binyamina.

As the families came together in this area, a social fabric began to emerge and a community gradually took shape, characterized by a distinctive local dialect in which the letter qaf was pronounced as ghayn. The location where the families lived determined the nature of the work and livelihoods they relied upon. The Amash family traditionally raised buffalo and practiced agriculture, while the Jirban family engaged in hunting and fishing because of its proximity to the sea. Other families worked in agriculture and pottery-making and used plants such as sammar, reeds, ballan, and falha to make baskets, brooms, mats, and other household utensils. The community was characterized by an absence of cultural and social hierarchy, and the socioeconomic status of all its residents was low.

During the winter, families living in the swamp area would move to the relatively elevated Kurkar ridge, where the village’s houses stand today, because of the rising water levels and the difficulty of living under such conditions during the winter season.

The name of the village of Jisr al-Zarqa reflects its ancient history. While some believe that its name refers to the Ottoman bridge known as “William,” this belief is incorrect, as the Ottoman bridge was built in 1898, decades after the local population had already settled in the area. The name was instead derived from the Ottoman-era Mills Bridge, which was, in practice, the Roman dam built by Herod to channel running water toward the aqueduct of the ancient city of Caesarea. Later, during the Byzantine period, the dam was used for additional purposes, and the first grain mill was established there. During the Ottoman period, six more grain mills were added, and the dam thus became known as the “Seven Mills Bridge.”

The presence of water, mills, and grain attracted many families to settle near these resources, and the first houses of Jisr al-Zarqa were built at this site. The remains of these houses still bear witness to this history, as does the historic Sheikh Salem cemetery located in Ma’agan Michael Kibbutz. The residents of Jisr al-Zarqa possess an Ottoman title deed documenting their ownership of this cemetery.

As for the name “al-Zarqa,” it refers to Wadi al-Zarqa, the Arabic name for what is now known as Nahal Taninim (Crocodile Stream), whose waters are distinguished by their deep blue color. It is worth noting that until the 1980s, the village of Jisr al-Zarqa did not appear by that name on Israeli maps; instead, Nahal Taninim was indicated. The village, however, is mentioned in the Palestinian Encyclopedia and appears clearly on Ottoman and British maps.

In the late nineteenth century and with the beginning of intensified Zionist immigration to Palestine, the families of Jisr al-Zarqa, like other Palestinian families throughout the country, faced difficulties concerning land ownership and the failure to officially register their land in the Ottoman land registry. This was due to fears of being required to pay taxes and to avoid the conscription of their sons into the Ottoman army. Nevertheless, part of the village’s land was registered in the name of aristocrats from Lebanon, while some residents lived on lands held in common under Ottoman ownership.

The Beginning of Zionist Settlement and Rothschild’s Arrival in the Area

In 1883, a group of Romanian Jewish families affiliated with the Hibbat Zion societies arrived in Haifa on their way to settle north of the Hula swamps. According to the Zionist narrative, these families, who were part of the early waves of Jewish immigration preceding organized Zionism, remained in Haifa for some time before moving to the Palestinian village of Zamarin, after managing to purchase Palestinian land with the assistance of the French Vice Consul in Haifa, Francis Germain.

The early settlers attempted to establish farms and make a living through agriculture. However, because they lacked experience with the land and with agriculture itself, they soon fell into a severe financial crisis that threatened their survival, after the Hibbat Zion organization refused to assist them and left them to their fate. According to Zionist accounts, relief came to this group from Baron Edmond James de Rothschild, the French Jewish philanthropist.

The financial grant provided by Rothschild to the Romanian settlers helped them overcome the crisis that threatened the survival of the entire settlement. In 1887, Rothschild and his wife made a secret visit to Palestine. They arrived from Alexandria at the port of Jaffa, then visited Jerusalem and several Jewish settlements of the period before finally reaching the settlement nucleus at Zamarin.

There, he instructed the settlers to purchase additional land and change the name of the settlement from Zamarin to “Zikhron Ya’akov,” in memory of his father, James Jacob. He also ordered the planting of vineyards for wine production. Rothschild began to take a strong interest in the area during his subsequent visits, including another arrival through the port of Tantura.

Rothschild continued to visit Palestine, making five visits in total, until his final visit before his death in 1925. By then, the Zionist movement had significantly expanded its influence under the British Mandate and following the Balfour Declaration. Rothschild financed land purchases in the region, particularly from Lebanese feudal landowners who had acquired extensive areas of land in Palestine under Ottoman rule, including in the Haifa and Jezreel Valley regions.

With Baron Rothschild’s arrival toward the end of the nineteenth century, local residents’ oral history recounts that he stood on Mount Carmel and observed the simple lives of the people and the Arab al-Ghawarna. At the time, malaria was widespread in the area because of the swamps, making settlement and agricultural development difficult for Rothschild.

As a result, the PICA company was established and a project to drain the swamps was launched. This marked the first Nakba of the Arab al-Ghawarna: most of their lands were confiscated, approximately 26 years before the Nakba of 1948. During that period, the Zionist movement and the British Mandate recognized the Arab al-Ghawarna as owning only approximately 1,566 dunams—the land that would later become Jisr al-Zarqa.

As a result, they lost ownership of their lands in Kabara and the swamps, which were taken for settlement and drainage projects. In 1948 came their second Nakba, when they were expelled from the northern lands of Jisr al-Zarqa in order to establish what is now Ma’agan Michael Kibbutz.

During the swamp-drainage operations, PICA preferred to employ Jewish workers, in accordance with the Zionist movement’s slogan at the time of “Hebrew labor,” which favored Jewish workers over Arab workers as part of a plan to build a separate Jewish economy. However, the spread of malaria and the Jewish immigrants’ lack of adaptation to the local climate made the disease even more deadly among them, claiming many lives.

Baron Rothschild and his administrators were therefore forced to turn to the local population. The Arab al-Ghawarna had a natural resistance to malaria, which medical research later attributed to their carrying a genetic trait associated with sickle-cell anemia that helps provide resistance to malaria.

The effectiveness of Arab labor—”Avoda Aravit“—was thus demonstrated, and local residents participated in draining the swamps. The people of Arab al-Ghawarna also began interacting and building relationships with residents of surrounding villages, including Binyamina, Zikhron Ya’akov, and approximately 40 other Palestinian villages that were later depopulated or destroyed between Jisr al-Zarqa and Haifa, including al-Shuna, Umm al-‘Alaq, Sabarin, Zamarin, Tantura, and Kafr Lam.

Despite the Zionist movement’s claim that Rothschild granted Palestinians along the coast areas of land, the displacement and confiscation of land tell a different story. Indeed, the Rothschild project, as it later developed and as the Zionist movement continued it after his death, sought to erase entire communities, displace their inhabitants, and Judaize the entire southern Triangle region of the Carmel.

Entire villages in the area were erased, and Jewish settlements and towns were established on their ruins, including Binyamina and Or Akiva, as well as kibbutzim established on the remains of villages that had been erased, such as Ein Ayala Kibbutz on the ruins of Ein Ghazal.

“We Are Not Guests in Our Own Land”

“We Were Here Before the Baron”!!

Written by: Samah Eid

Based on: Oral history, sources, and documents concerning the village of Jisr al-Zarqa

Language editing: Dr. Kawthar Jaber

Historical review: Muhammad Hamdan Amash and Sami Al-Ali

Museum curator: Narjes Othmana