the expulsion caused a public controversy. the leaders of the leftist mapam party condemned it, but they were undermined by the mapam-dominated regional jewish settlements bloc (one mapam kibbutz of which was already cultivating al-ghabisiyya's land) which declared that the "arabs of ghabisiyya should on no account be allowed to return to their village". in september 1950, some of the villagers again resettled the village but were sentenced to several months in prison and given fines.