Arab al-Zubayd was a Palestinian village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947âÂÂ1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 20, 1948, when the villagers fled on hearing the intentions of The Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach. It was located 15 km northeast of Safad, near the al-Mutilla-SafadâÂÂTiberias highway.
In 1838, in the Ottoman era, ez-Zubeid was described as an Arab tribe residing in the vicinity of Safad.
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Arab Zubaid had a population of 257; 255 Muslims and 2 Melkite Christians, increasing in the 1931 census, when it was counted together with Al-'Ulmaniyya, to 432; 5 Christians and 427 Muslims, in a total of 100 houses.
The population, combined with that of Mallaha, came to 890 Muslims in the 1945 statistics, with a total of 2,168 dunams of land.
The village relied on its abundant springs for farming. In 1944âÂÂ45 a total of 1,761 dunums was allocated to cereal farming. while 20 dunams were classified as built-up land.
According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, the villagers fled on 20 April (prior to the occupation of any neighboring villages), anticipating an Israeli attack. In August 1948, Golani Brigade units were preparing to blow up the village in spite of a complaint from the nearby Kibbutz ShaâÂÂar ha-âÂÂAmaqim, which objected. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion denied responsibility, saying: "No permission was given by me or to any commander to destroy houses." The village was nevertheless destroyed.
In 1992, Khalidi wrote that the area was strewn with rubble covered by a thicket of woods, grass, and thorny plants, and he saw animals grazing in the hills. Some land in the plain had been turned into a nature reserve and the rest cultivated by Israeli farmers."