Safsaf
| Safsaf | |
 Safsaf
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| Arabic | صفصاف |
| Name Meaning | "the weeping willow" |
| Also Spelled | Safsofa |
| Sub-district | Safad |
| Coordinates | 33°00′41.81″N 35°26′44.37″E / 33.0116139°N 35.4456583°ECoordinates: 33°00′41.81″N 35°26′44.37″E / 33.0116139°N 35.4456583°E |
| Population | 910[1] (1945) |
| Area | 7,391[1] dunums |
| Date of depopulation | 29 October 1948[2] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Military assault by Yishuv forces |
| Secondary cause | Fear of being caught up in the fighting |
| Current localities | Sifsufa,[3][4] Bar Yohai[5] |
Safsaf (Arabic: صفصاف, the weeping willow, also known in Roman times as Safsofa) was a Palestinian village located 9 kilometres northwest of Safed, present day Israel. Its villagers fled to Lebanon after the Safsaf massacre in October 1948, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
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[edit] History
The village was called Safsofa in Roman times.[6]
In the early sixteenth century CE, Safsaf was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire, and by 1596, it was a village in the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Jira, part of Sanjak Safad. It had a population of 138, and it paid taxes on several agricultural items including wheat, barley, olives and fruits, as well as other types of produce, such as beehives and goats.[7]
In the late nineteenth century, travellers reported that Safsaf was a small village situated on a plain, with a population of about 100. They also noted that "ornamented stones of a preexisting public building" had been built into the doorway of the village mosque.[8] The villagers cultivated olive and fig trees and vineyards.[9]
Safsaf became a part of the British Mandate of Palestine in 1922. During this time the village lay on the eastern side of the Safad-Tarshiha highway and extended in a northeast-southwest direction. All the residents of Safsaf were Muslims. A mosque and several shops were located in the village center, and an elementary school was established during this period. Agriculture was the main economic activity, and it was both irrigated from springs and rainfed. Fruits and olives were cultivated on the land north of the village. In 1944/45 a total of 2,586 dunums were allotted to cereals; 769 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.[4][10]
On October 29, 1948, Israeli forces assaulted the village as part of Operation Hiram.[11] After the villagers surrendered, some 50-70 men were massacred while bound and 3 women were allegedly raped.[4][12][13][14]
[edit] See also
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
- List of massacres committed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
- Safsaf massacre
[edit] References
- ^ a b Hadawi, 1970, p.71
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #45. Also gives causes of depopulation.
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. xxi, Settlement #49, established January 1949.
- ^ a b c Khalidi, 1992, p. 491
- ^ Established in 1979. Khalidi, 1992, p. 491
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p 490
- ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah p.177, quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 490.
- ^ SWP (Survey of Western Palestine), (1881) I 257. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 491
- ^ SWP, I 200. Quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 491
- ^ Hadawi, 1970, p.121
- ^ Welcome to Safsaf, Palestine Remembered, http://www.palestineremembered.com/Safad/Safsaf/index.html, retrieved 2007-12-12
- ^ Benvenisti, 2000, p. 153
- ^ Nazzal, 1978, p. 93-96
- ^ Morris, 2004, p. 481
[edit] Bibliography
- Benvenisti, Meron (2000). Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21154-5, pp. 153.
- 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
- Guérin, M. V. (1880): Description Géographique, Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine. Galilee, "Tome II" Paris: Imprimerie Nationale (p. 418 ff)
- Hadawi, Sami (1970), Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center, http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html
- Morris, Benny (2004), The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-00967-7
- Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0-88728-224-5
- Nazzal, Nafez (1978): The Palestinian Exodus from Galilee 1948, The Institute for Palestine Studies, (Safsaf, p. 93-96, 107)
- le Strange, Guy (1890), Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500, Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, http://www.archive.org/details/palestineundermo00lestuoft
[edit] External links
- welcome to safsaf - Nidal Hamad
- Welcome to Safsaf
- Safsaf, from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
- Safsaf photos, Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh
- Safsaf, Dr. Khalil Rizk.
