Key Facts about Yubla

Location of Yubla

Yubla stood on the southern side of a shallow natural basin through which Wadi al-Tayyiba flowed. The village lay south of 'Ayn Yubla, which flowed beneath the hill to the north between the settlement and the wadi.

Marshes covered much of the land north and northwest of the village. A secondary road passing through several villages connected Yubla with the main road to Baysan, while dirt tracks connected it with other communities in the area.

Nearby villages included Kafra, Jabbul, al-Murassas, Qumya, Danna, and al-Tayyiba.

The Name and Historical Site

The Crusaders referred to the locality as Hubeleth. Khalidi does not provide a definitive linguistic explanation for the Arabic name Yubla.

In the late nineteenth century, the Survey of Western Palestine recorded heaps of stones at Khirbat Yubla but found no evidence allowing their date to be established.

Yubla during the British Mandate

Yubla was classified as a hamlet in the Palestine Index Gazetteer.

Village houses were constructed along the roads, particularly the road leading toward 'Ayn Yubla. The inhabitants were Muslims and depended primarily on agriculture.

Population of Yubla

Palestine Remembered incorrectly displays 37 as Yubla's 1922 population. The original census lists 36 males and 37 females, producing an official total of 73. The website appears to have reproduced the female count alone as the total.

The 1948 and 1998 figures are later estimates and should not be attributed to British Mandatory census statistics.

Number of Houses

Land Ownership in Yubla

The total registered land area of Yubla in the 1944/45 statistics was 5,165 dunums.

The ownership figures balance correctly: 2,051 + 1,758 + 1,356 = 5,165 dunums.

The original official categories were 2,051 Arab dunums, 1,758 Jewish dunums, and 1,356 Public dunums.

Land Use in 1944/45

Yubla presents an important internal discrepancy in the published 1945 land-use tables. The figures reproduced by Hadawi and PalQuest add up to 25 dunums more than the village's official registered land total.

The resulting 5,190 dunums exceeds the official ownership total of 5,165 by 25 dunums. The Arab-use column likewise exceeds the officially registered 2,051 Arab dunums by exactly 25.

The discrepancy is present in the reproduced official tables themselves. Because the principal sources do not provide sufficient evidence to determine which entry should be reduced by 25 dunums, no unsupported correction has been imposed.

Palestine Remembered introduces a separate presentation problem by listing 2,315 dunums of cereals as Palestinian land. That number combines 1,971 Arab dunums with 344 Public dunums. It likewise presents the entire 1,043 dunums of non-cultivable land without separating the 31 Arab dunums from 1,012 Public dunums. The categories have therefore been kept separate here.

Economic Life

Agriculture was the principal source of livelihood. Villagers cultivated cereals, vegetables, orchards, and other crops.

The published 1944/45 figures record 1,971 Arab dunums of cereals, 37 Arab dunums of plantations and irrigable land, and 25 dunums of citrus and bananas, subject to the 25-dunum accounting discrepancy described above.

The shallow basin and local water resources supported cultivation, although marshes covered extensive areas north and northwest of the village.

Water and 'Ayn Yubla

'Ayn Yubla was one of the defining features of the village and supplied most of the inhabitants' drinking water.

The spring flowed north of the village between the settlement and Wadi al-Tayyiba, and the road leading toward it was one of the principal axes along which village houses were constructed.

Education and Public Institutions

Khalidi and PalQuest do not independently document a village school in Yubla or provide a founding year or enrollment figure.

The principal sources reviewed likewise do not independently identify a village mosque or other public institution. No such institutions have therefore been inferred from neighboring communities.

Archaeology and Khirbat Umm al-Su'ud

Khirbat Umm al-Su'ud lay approximately 1.5 kilometers southeast of Yubla.

Khalidi records rough-stone enclosures and traces of walls at the archaeological locality.

The Crusaders called Yubla Hubeleth, while the nineteenth-century Survey of Western Palestine recorded heaps of stones at Khirbat Yubla without assigning them a secure date.

Operation Gideon and the Baysan Valley Context

The Haganah's Golani Brigade carried out Operation Gideon between 10 and 15 May 1948 as the campaign for control of Baysan and the Baysan Valley.

Khalidi's Yubla entry, however, does not identify an operation, attacking unit, or occupation date for the village and records the occupation-and-depopulation information as unavailable.

Palestine Remembered instead associates Yubla with Operation Gideon and the Golani Brigade and gives 16 May 1948 as the occupation date.

This creates a chronological problem: 16 May falls one day after PalQuest's formal 15 May end date for Operation Gideon. Yubla is also absent from the short list of affected villages shown on PalQuest's Operation Gideon page.

The Operation Gideon/Golani attribution should therefore be understood as Palestine Remembered's classification within the broader Baysan Valley campaign rather than as a village-specific conclusion independently established by Khalidi.

Occupation and Depopulation of Yubla

Walid Khalidi provides no precise date or independent village-specific account of how Yubla's inhabitants left.

Palestine Remembered gives 16 May 1948 and classifies the cause of departure as the influence of the fall or exodus of a neighboring locality, while associating the village with the Golani Brigade.

Given the lack of such detail in Khalidi's entry and the chronological tension with the formal dates of Operation Gideon, the more cautious conclusion is that Yubla was depopulated during the collapse of Palestinian communities in the Baysan Valley in May 1948, while the precise day, operation, and unit that specifically entered the village remain insufficiently established in the principal village source.

Ethnic Cleansing

Palestine Remembered describes the outcome at Yubla as complete ethnic cleansing.

Khalidi does not provide a village-specific account of expulsion or occupation. What is directly established across the sources is that the Palestinian community disappeared from Yubla during the Nakba and did not return to the village. The term “ethnic cleansing” is therefore retained as an attributed characterization used by Palestine Remembered rather than presented here as an independent classification.

Occupation Chronology

1. 01
   10 May 1948

   Beginning of Operation Gideon

   The Golani Brigade began its campaign for control of Baysan and the Baysan Valley.

2. 02
   12 May 1948

   Fall of Baysan

   The fall of the subdistrict center formed part of the wider military and civilian collapse in the valley.

3. 03
   15 May 1948

   Formal end of Operation Gideon

   This is the end date provided by PalQuest.

4. 04
   16 May 1948

   Date given by Palestine Remembered for Yubla

   The site associates this date with Operation Gideon and Golani, although it falls one day after the operation's formal end date.

5. 05
   Not available

   Date established by Khalidi

   All That Remains does not provide a specific occupation date, operation, or attacking unit for Yubla.

6. 06
   Probably during the May 1948 collapse of Palestinian communities in the Baysan Valley

   Depopulation

   Palestine Remembered attributes the exodus to the influence of a neighboring locality's fall; Khalidi provides no independent village-specific mechanism.

7. 07
   Precise date not documented

   Destruction

   The Palestinian built environment was largely removed, and Khalidi's later site description records no surviving village houses.

Israeli Settlements and Yubla's Lands

Khalidi and PalQuest explicitly state that no Israeli settlement was established on Yubla's village lands.

Moledet should therefore not be described as a settlement established on Yubla's land, despite the automated Palestine Remembered settlement field suggesting otherwise. Khalidi's detailed village account explicitly places it on al-Tayyiba land.

Yubla Today

In Walid Khalidi's field description, the village site and part of its lands were enclosed by barbed-wire fencing and used for cattle grazing.

A number of tall date palms, several almond trees, and cactus plants grew near 'Ayn Yubla.

Khalidi does not record surviving Palestinian houses at the site, reflecting the extensive disappearance of the village's built environment by the time of his documentation.

This description derives from fieldwork undertaken before the publication of All That Remains in 1992. It is therefore a documented historical site description rather than comprehensive direct field verification of Yubla's condition in 2026.

Palestine Remembered contains later community documentation, including photographs uploaded in 2015 showing the village landscape, wadi, and grazing areas. These materials provide useful later documentation but do not constitute a comprehensive independent present-day survey.

Sources

• PalQuest – Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question: Yubla
• PalQuest – Operation Gideon
• Palestine Remembered – Yubla, Baysan District
• Walid Khalidi – All That Remains: Yubla
• Government of Palestine – Census of Palestine 1922
• Government of Palestine – Census of Palestine 1931, PCBS reproduction
• Sami Hadawi – Village Statistics 1945
• Institute for Palestine Studies – All That Remains, Walid Khalidi