Suhmata
| Suhmata | |
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 Suhmata
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| Arabic | سحماتا |
| Also Spelled | Soukhmata[1] Sahmatah, Samueth, Samahete |
| Sub-district | Acre |
| Coordinates | 33°00′18.64″N 35°18′13.79″E / 33.0051778°N 35.3038306°ECoordinates: 33°00′18.64″N 35°18′13.79″E / 33.0051778°N 35.3038306°E |
| Population | 1,130 (1945) |
| Area | 17,056 dunums |
| Date of depopulation | 30 October 1948[2] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
| Current localities | Tzuriel, Hosen |
Suhmata (Arabic: سحماتا) was a Palestinian village, located 25 kilometres (16 mi) northeast of Acre. It was depopulated by the Golani Brigade during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
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[edit] History
Separated from the neighbouring village of Tarshiha by a deep gorge, the ruins of a Byzantine era church lay within Suhamata's village lands.[3][4][5] Underground water reservoir and a burial cave that apparently dates to the Roman period have been found at the village site.[6][7] Suhmata had a Christian population at least until the Persian invasion of Palestine (A.D. 614-627)[8] and presumably many people remained Christian for some time after that.[9] Excavations in 1932 revealed an inscription in the church's mosaic floor that dates to 555 CE.[10] The Crusaders referred to the village as Samueth or Samahete.[4][5] Suhamata, the village of Suphie, and some houses in Castellum Regis were purchased by Baldwin IV from Petronilla[disambiguation needed], the vicecomitissa of Acre, for 4,500 bezants.[11] However, Ronnie Ellenblum writes that it is unlikely that there was actual Frankish settlement in Suhmata.[11] A Crusader-era castle constructed in the village was rebuilt by Dhaher el-Omar in the latter half of the 18th century.[4][9]
In the late nineteenth century, Suhmata was a village built of stone and situated on a ridge and the slope of a hill. The village residents, numbering about 400, tended fig and olive trees.[12]
In the late Ottoman era, an elementary school for boys was founded in the village (1886), and during the British Mandate in Palestine, an agricultural school was established.[4][9] These schools, a mosque, a church, two rain-fed irrigation pools,[9] and some 288 houses made up the built-up portion of the village just prior to the outbreak of the 1948 war.[4]
Over 70 percent of the village land was rocky and uncultivated, covered with oak and wild pears. The agricultural land was planted with wheat, barley, maize, tobacco, and vegetables. Suhmata's tobacco had a reputation for quality. In 1944/45 a total of 3,290 dunums was allocated to cereals; 1,901 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.[9]
[edit] 1948 war and aftermath
During Operation Hiram, on 30 October 1948, the First Battalion of Israel's Golani Brigade assaulted the village, resulting in the exodus of its villagers.[4] The village was left in ruins.[13]
A naming committee established by the Jewish National Fund, which operated from 1948 to 1951 until its incorporation into a Governmental Naming Committee set up by Israel, renamed Suhmata, "Hosen", meaning "Strength." Meron Benvenisti writes that the committee chose this symbolic new name after determining that there was no known Jewish historical connection to the village of Suhmata.[14]
The refugees of Suhmata, including those internally displaced and all descendants are estimated to number some 8,050 people today [4] Suhmata's former inhabitants founded a village committee in 1993 which organizes volunteer efforts. The village committee also conducted a survey of the displaced population from Suhmata and their distribution inside Israel.[15] The village was also the focus of the 1996 play Sahmatah by Hanna Eady and Ed Mast.[16]
[edit] See also
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
- List of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict
[edit] References
- ^ Guérin, 1880, p.74
- ^ Morris, 2004, xvii, village #64. Also provides cause of depopulation.
- ^ Robinson, 1857, p. 76.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Welcome to Suhmata". Palestine Remembered. http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Suhmata/index.html. Retrieved 2007-12-12.
- ^ a b Pringle, 1997, p. 118.
- ^ Lerer, 2008, Zuri’el
- ^ Lerer, 2009, Suhmata
- ^ Makhul, Naji 1977, (Acre and its villages since Ancient Times. In Arabic.) p.134, quoted in Khalidi, p.29
- ^ a b c d e Khalidi, 1992, p.29
- ^ Avi-Yonah,1933: "The Byzantine Church at Suhmata." The Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine 3 (2) p.92-105, quoted in Khalidi, p.29
- ^ a b Ellenblum, 2003, p. 45, note #10.
- ^ Conder & Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p.149. Cited in Khalidi, p.29
- ^ Mansour, 2004, p. 220.
- ^ Benvenisti, 2002, pp. 34-35.
- ^ Masalha and Said, 2005, p. 98.
- ^ Americans for Middle East Understanding February - March 1999
[edit] Bibliography
- Benvenisti, Meron (2002), Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-23422-7, 9780520234222, http://books.google.com/books?id=7itq6zYtSJwC
- Conder, Claude Reignier and H.H. Kitchener (1881): The Survey of Western Palestine: memoirs of the topography, orography, hydrography, and archaeology. London:Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund. vol 1
- Ellenblum, Ronnie (2003), Frankish Rural Settlement in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-52187-4, 9780521521871
- Guérin, M. V, 1880, Description Géographique, Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine. Galilee, "Tome II" Paris: Imprimerie Nationale
- Khalidi, Walid; Elmusa, Sharif S. (1992), All that Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0-88728-224-5, 9780887282249
- Lerer, Yoav, (18/12/2008): Zuri’el, Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel, No. 120.
- Lerer, Yoav, (21/6/2009): Suhmata, Survey Final Report, Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel, No. 121.
- Mansour, Atallah (2004), Narrow Gate Churches: The Christian Presence in the Holy Land Under Muslim and Jewish Rule, Hope Publishing House, ISBN 1-932717-02-1, 9781932717020
- Masalha, Nur; Said, Edward W. (2005), Catastrophe Remembered: Palestine, Israel and the Internal Refugees : Essays in Memory of Edward W. Said (1935-2003), Zed Books, ISBN 1-84277-623-1, 9781842776230
- Morris, Benny (2004), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-00967-7, 9780521009676
- Pringle, Denys (1997), Secular Buildings in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: An Archaeological Gazetteer, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-46010-7, 9780521460101
- Robinson, Edward; Smith, Eli; Kiepert, Heinrich (1857), Later Biblical Researches in Palestine, and in the Adjacent Regions: A Journal of Travels in the Year 1852, Crocker and Brewster, http://books.google.com/books?id=IcgoAAAAYAAJ
[edit] External links
- Abnaa' Suhmata, "Sons of Suhmata", the website of the village committee established in 1993.
- Welcome to Suhmata at Palestineremembered
- Suhmata is here, 29/10/2005, Zochrot.
- Hazneh Sama’an (Umm Afif), Suhmata, testimony, 2005, Zochrot.
- Suhmata at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
- Suhmata photos, Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh
- http://www.yairgil.com/051029-zochrot/index.htm (29/10/2005)
- http://jacobk9.tripod.com/id37.html (29/10/2005)
