Ein Hod: The ethnically cleansed Palestinian village that became an Israeli artists’ colony
Ein Hod, which was an Arab village before the mass expulsion of Palestinians in the 1948 Nakba, has emerged as a haven for Israeli artists
Samah Watad reports in Middle East Eye on 14 May 2026:
The stone village of Ein Hod sits on the slopes of Mount Carmel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Narrow winding roads, old cactus fences and galleries are scattered between preserved Palestinian homes.
When Yara Mahajneh, an independent Palestinian artist, arrived there one evening carrying equipment for an exhibition, she found gates, guards and restricted entry surrounding the quiet artists’ village. “What kind of protection does a peaceful, liberal artists’ village need?” she recalled asking.
Mahajneh was attending her graduate exhibition at the Janco Dada Museum in Ein Hod, a former Palestinian village known as Ein Hawd that was later transformed into an Israeli artists’ colony.
“During my four years studying art at the University of Haifa, no one taught us the history of Ein Hawd,” Mahajneh said. “We studied European and Israeli art, but not Palestinian art or the story of the village itself”. Yara Mahajneh, an independent Palestinian artist, says Palestinians living inside Israel are often disconnected from their own histories
Independent Palestinian artist Yara MahajneYara Mahajneh, an independent Palestinian artist, says Palestinians living inside Israel are often disconnected from their own histories
Before 1948, Palestinian families from the Abu al-Hija clan lived there. Palestinian historian and philologist Mustafa Kabha says the family’s local history is tied to the wider Abu al-Hija presence in Palestine, whose roots are often traced in local narratives to fighters who arrived with Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi during the Crusader period.
“The village was inhabited mainly by the Abu al-Hija family,” Kabha said, adding that its history is connected to other Abu al-Hija communities across Palestine, including Kawkab Abu al-Hija, which still exists today, and the displaced village of al-Hadatha near Tiberias.
By 1948, Ein Hawd had a population of around 800 to 850 residents, according to Sameer Abu al-Hija, a Palestinian historian and descendant of villagers displaced during the Nakba. Most residents relied on agriculture, growing wheat, barley, vegetables, olives and carob, while also raising sheep and producing charcoal.