Population :
1931 : 654
1944/45 : 890 (includes ‘Arab
al-Zubayd)
The village was located on the north bank of Wadi Band, a
seasonal watercourse which flowed into
the northwest corner of Lake al-Hula. This wadi was filled by water from the
spring of ‘Ayn Mallaha , which lay to
the south of the village and which was one of the most copious springs in Palestine, yeilding between 1,800
and 2,700 cubic meters of water per hour. The
village of Mallaha lay along a highway that led to Safad and Tiberias.
In 1157, following a breakdown in relations between Damascus and the Crusader
Kingdom of Jerusalem, Mallaha was close
to the site of a battle between the armies of Nun al-Din ibn Zangi (also known
by his first name Mahmud) and King
Baldwin III (in command of the
Templars), in which the Muslims
decisively defeated the Crusaders. Their king escaped, however, together with a
small bodyguard. The Syrian Sufi
traveler al-Bakri al-Siddiqi, who journeyed in Palestine in the mid-eighteenth
century, passed by a village named al-Mallaha, which may have been the present
village. The American biblical scholar Edward Robinson observed in 1838 that
al-Mallaha lay northwest of Lake
al-Hula. The modem Mallaha had a
roughly rectangular configuration that stretched from north to south. Its
entire population was Muslim. Agriculture was the mainstay of the village’s economy. In 1944/45 a total
of 1,761 dunums was allocated to cereals.
Israeli
forces seized Mallaha at the very end of Operation Yiftach (see Abil aI-Qamh,
Safad District), on 25 May 1948. They induced the villagers to flee by carrying
out a campaign of psychological warfare. However, a direct attack, which may
have included the use of mortars, cannot be ruled out, since most of the
psychological warfare was conducted some ten days before the reported date of
evacuation. Furthermore, Zionist forces directed mortar fire against a number
of other neighboring villages at this time in the context of Operation Yiftach.
There are no Israeli settlements on village lands. The
settlement of Yesud ha-Ma’ala , founded in 1883, is some 5 km to the southeast.
The sandy hill on which the village was situated is completely overgrown with tall grass, cactuses, and weeds, as well as an assortment of fig, eucalyptus, and date-palm trees. Amidst the overgrowth, stone rubble from destroyed houses can be seen. The surrounding land is cultivated by the settlement of Yesud ha-Maala.
Source(s):
al-Khalidi. All That Remains