Tarbikha
March 2, 2024
al-Zeeb
March 2, 2024Umm al-Faraj was situated on a flat stretch of the Acre Plain and was intersected by a main road connecting Tarshiha to the Jewish colony of Nahariya and the city of Acre. During the Crusader period, it was known as Le Fierge.
By the late 19th century, the village was built of stone and had a population of approximately 200 residents. The villagers cultivated crops such as figs, olives, mulberries, and pomegranates. The original homes were clustered closely together in a circular layout, while homes built after 1936 were scattered among orchards. The population was entirely Muslim, and agriculture was their main livelihood. According to British Mandate statistics from 1944–45, the villagers cultivated 745 dunums for grains and 42 dunums for irrigated crops or orchards.
On May 20–21, 1948, during the second phase of Operation Ben-Ami, the Haganah’s Carmeli Brigade launched attacks on Umm al-Faraj and other villages in the western Galilee. Specific operational orders regarding Umm al-Faraj, as issued by the brigade commander, explicitly instructed troops to “kill the men” and “destroy and burn the villages.”
Israeli historian Benny Morris confirms that Haganah engineering units systematically destroyed most of the villages in the area—either during the assault itself or in the days that followed—as part of a broader campaign of depopulation and destruction.
All that remains of Umm al-Faraj is its abandoned and deteriorating stone-built mosque, now sealed off and surrounded by wild vegetation. Some old trees still grow in the area, likely predating the village’s destruction. The surrounding land is now cultivated, and a banana plantation belonging to the Israeli settlement of Ben Ami has been established on former village land.
