Lubya- لوبيا

Lubya (translates to beans) was a village 10km away from Tiberias. Many of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon originate from this village.

According to Nakba survivor, Issa, Lubya had the best figs in Palestine. He also said that even the poor lived well. The people of Lubya were the most generous and loving people, everyone shared the produce from their land and they truly believed in growing together as a community.  

According to nakba survivor Abdulkarim Taha, farmers were rich, he never needed money, and lived very well. He owned land and had horses, but zionists forcibly expelled him and was he was forced to refuge in Lebanon where he worked hours in the fields and barely makes a living. 

Lubya has a strong history. Locals of Lubya would also claim that their land (specifically an area called rikk) was where the battle between Salah-Al din and the European crusaders took place, despite the battle being named after their neighboring village(battle of Hiitan) 

But what really set Lubya apart from other Palestinian villages was the legendary folkloric narratives. There is even a story about how the main 5 families of Lubya received their names Aparently, it all came down to a man on a horse demanding a woman to give him water until he snatched the vase from her head and took a sip, which then led her to tell her brothers who grabbed their swords and attacked the man on the horse and his 4 relatives. They all reacted in different ways which resulted in their last names: Dar abu 7ayt “the wall”, Dar Toubeh (repentance), Dar Tafash (run away), Dar Kmeh (The wheat), Dar Amer (the builder)  In 1948, ”iSrAeL” ethnically cleansed Lubya, murdering and expelling it’s inhabitants. 

  Today Lubya has become a park named the “South African Forest”. The name is said to honor South African donors in an attempt to erase the memory of Lubya. Although, refugees from Lubya and other Palestinian villages are barred from returning home they still long to return to their rightful land.  

There is a documentary called “Ancestor’s land” by Mahmoud Issa is available online, it is a documentary of refugees from Lubya visiting their land after al Nakba and there is a clip of them recalling where there houses were.

 Mahmoud.dk