Sha'ab, Israel

Sha'ab (Arabic: شعب; Hebrew: שַׁעַבּ; meaning "The spur") is an Arab town and local council in the Northern District of Israel. It has an area of 5,442 dunams (6.4 km² (2.5 sq mi)) of land under its jurisdiction. In 2023 its population was 7,645.

French scholar Victor Guérin associated Sha'ab with Saab, a place mentioned by 1st-century Jewish historian Josephus. The Midrash Rabba (Leviticus Rabba s. 20,9) mentions a certain Rabbi Mani of Sha'ab, together with Yehoshua of Sakhnin and Rabbi Johanan bar Nappaha. In the 14th century, the tax income from the village was given to the wakf of the madrasah and mausoleum of the Shafi'i Manjaq in Egypt.

In 1517, Sha'ab was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire along with the rest of Palestine. In 1573 (981 AH) Sha'ab was one of several villages in Galilee which rebelled against the Ottomans. In 1596, the village appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Acre, part of Safad Sanjak, with a population of 102 households and 37 bachelors, all Muslims. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on wheat, barley, fruit trees, "goats and bees", in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 14,354 akçe. 3/4 of the revenue went to a Waqf.

According to local tradition, the village started to flourish under anti-Ottoman rebel Daher al-Umar (c. 1768). In 1859, the population was estimated to be 1,500. Some were Catholic, the majority Muslim. The cultivated fields were estimated to be 80 feddans. Guérin visited in the 1870s, and wrote that the village of Sh'aib consisted of four quarters. The inhabitants, he wrote, were for the most part Muslim, about 800, and some 20 "Schismatic Greek" families. The Muslims had two Mosques and two walis. In 1881, Sha'ab was described as being in a valley with fine olive groves, while part of the hill behind it was cultivated in corn.

A population list from about 1887 showed that Sha'ab had about 1,430 inhabitants; 1,345 Muslims and 85 Greek Catholics.

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Sha'ab had a population of 1,206; 1,166 Muslims and 40 Christians, where the Christians were 15 Orthodox and 25 Melkites. The population increased slightly in the 1931 census to 1,297; 1,277 Muslims, 19 Christians and 1 Jew, in a total of 284 houses.

During the 1936 revolt in Palestine, the British Army attacked Sha'ab, demolishing 190 houses in the village. According to an eyewitness account, the British collectively punished the village for harboring a rebel who allegedly set off a roadside explosive that killed four British soldiers and injured three. A day prior to the demolition of the homes, the army rounded up around 200 of its adult male residents and led them to a valley outside the village. As they were being lined up, a rebel fighter positioned on a nearby hill began yelling and firing into the air, confusing the soldiers and causing Sha'ab's detained men to disperse chaotically. One resident named Hassan Hajj Khatib was killed.

In the 1945 statistics, Sha'ab had 1,740 inhabitants; 30 Christians and 1,710 Muslims. They owned a total of 17,870 dunams of land, while 121 dunams were public. 3,248 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 6,602 dunams for cereals, while 231 dunams were built-up (urban) land.