Was it the great father or something else? The name Abu Kabir echoes through Tel Aviv’s history. Today we explore Abu Kabir. It is a place once a satellite village of Jaffa. Egyptian Muslims founded it.
Ibrahim Pasha defeated Turkish forces. This happened in Ottoman-era Palestine. Egyptian rule lasted until 1840. Many Egyptians settled around Jaffa. They established Sakhanat Abu Kabir. Others included Sakhanat al-Muzariyya. Many came from Tall al Kabir or Tel Abu Kabir. They named the new village after their hometown.
Around 1870, Saknet Abu Kebir was noted as a Bedouin camp. It had 136 houses. The population was about 440. Only men were counted.
In 1881, it was recorded as Saknet Abu Kibeer. Its translation means settlement of Abu Kebir.
Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau visited in 1873-1874. He searched for the ancient Jewish cemetery of Joppa. He described Saknet Abu Kabir as a hamlet. He walked through gardens surrounding Jaffa to reach it. During winter rains, the gardens became a marshy lake. Locals called it al-Bassa.
Clermont-Ganneau spoke with local peasants in Abu Kabir. They led him to poorly tilled gardens. Here, villagers quarried building stone. Sepulchral chambers were exposed. These were hollowed out in calcareous tufa. Similar graves were found between Abu Kabir and Mikveh Israel.
He purchased a small marble titulus. It had a Greek inscription and a menorah. Clermont-Ganneau identified it as Helleno-Jewish funeral epigraphy. He ascribed it to Hezekiah.
The Jewish necropolis was looted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tombs were used between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD. Most of the necropolis is now within Saint Peter’s Church compound.
Between 1882 and 1884, Biluim pioneers set up a commune. It was among the orange and lemon groves of Abu Kabir. The house is now in Tel Aviv’s Neve Ofer neighborhood.
Violence reached Abu Kabir during the 1921 Jaffa riots. Yosef Haim Brenner was living at the Yitzker family’s dairy farm. On May 2, 1921, Brenner and the Yitzkers refused to leave. They were murdered.
As Jaffa expanded, Abu Kabir was incorporated. It remained largely agricultural. It bordered the Jewish sector of Jaffa.
In 1944, the Irgun raided the British CID barracks at Jaffa. They also raided police stations at Abu Kabir and Neve Shaanan. They were seeking arms.
In 1947, Abu Kabir was at the entrance to Tel Aviv. It was on the main road to Jerusalem. On November 30, 1947, Arabs attacked a car with Jewish passengers. All three were killed. Jewish retaliatory strikes followed. The Haganah blew up an Arab house. The IZL torched buildings.
During Operation Lamed Hey, Abu Kabir was raided. The Haganah struck simultaneously. Thirteen Arabs were killed.
In March 1948, a major attack aimed to destroy Abu Kabir. By then, it was mostly abandoned. Sappers blew up houses. Davidka mortars were used.
David Ben-Gurion said Jaffa’s Arab population should not return. Walid Khalidi writes that the Haganah completed demolition by March 31.
Today, the name Abu Kabir persists. The Tel Aviv Municipality moved the Biological-Pedagogical Institute there. It later became part of Tel Aviv University.
The L. Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine is located here. It is known as the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.
In 2011, the Tel Aviv municipality renamed part of Abu Kabir as Tabitha.