"Abu Kishik", ʿĀdel az-Zawaty, a Paper Clipping

Handwritten in Arabic, this paper clipping documents the name of "Abu Kishik", a village on the Central Coastal Plain, two kilometres to the northwest of the al-Auja River with a road connecting it to the Jaffa-Haifa highway, and other roads connecting it to the neighbouring villages. The area was first used by the Bedouin Arabs of Abu Kishk as they used to erect their seasonal tents there, then it developed into a village the houses of which spread randomly and its residents were mostly Muslims. In 1925, a school was established in the village housing 108 students in the mid-forties, including 9 girls. The village also had a few small shops and the shrine of a sheikh named Saʿad was located to the north of the village in the fields extending between it and the neighbouring village of Al-Sawalima. In 1944/45, a total of 2,487 dunums of its land were allocated to citrus and bananas, 14,018 dunums to grain and 226 dunums were used as orchards. Agriculture was dependent in part on rainwater, and in another on irrigation (especially from artesian aquifers), which was extremely important to orchards. In addition to agriculture, villagers also raised livestock. Abu Kishk most likely was captured shortly before the end of the British Mandate over Palestine on 15 May 1948.