Al-Sawalima was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jaffa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on March 30, 1948. It was located 11 km northeast of Jaffa, situated 2 km north of the al-'Awja River.
Al-Sawalima
السوالمة | |
|---|---|
Village | |
| Etymology: es Sûâlimîyeh, the ruin of the Sâlem family[1] | |
.jpg) 1870s map .jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map .jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Al-Sawalima (click the buttons) | |
  Al-Sawalima Location within Mandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 32°06′59″N 34°50′51″E / 32.11639°N 34.84750°E | |
| Palestine grid | 134/170 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Jaffa |
| Date of depopulation | March 30, 1948[4] |
| Population (1945) | |
| • Total | 800[2][3] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Fear of being caught up in the fighting |
| Secondary cause | Influence of nearby town's fall |
| Current Localities | Neve Sharett |
History
editIn 1051 AH/1641/2, the Bedouin tribe of al-Sawālima from around Jaffa attacked the villages of Subṭāra, Bayt Dajan, al-Sāfiriya, Jindās, Lydda and Yāzūr belonging to Waqf Haseki Sultan.[5]
In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine noted at Khurbet es Sualimiyeh: “Traces of ruins only.“[6]
British Mandate era
editIn the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Sawalmeh had a population of 70 Muslims,[7] increasing in the 1931 census when Es-Sawalmeh had 429 Muslim inhabitants.[8]
In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 800 Muslims,[2] while the total land area was 5,942 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[3] Of the land area, a total of 894 were used for growing citrus and banana, 191 were for plantations and irrigable land, 4,566 for cereals,[9] while 291 dunams were classified as non-cultivable areas.[10]
Al-Sawalima had an elementary school for boys founded in 1946, with 31 students.[11]
1948 and aftermath
editBenny Morris gives "Fear of being caught up in the fighting" and "Influence of nearby town's fall" as reasons for why the village became depopulated on March 30, 1948.[4]
In 1992 the village site was described: "Cactuses grow on the village site. No identifiable traces of the former dwellings (tents or adobe houses) remain. Only the remnants of the one-room school are discernable. A highway runs past the north side of the site."[12]
References
edit- ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 215
- ^ a b Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 28
- ^ a b Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 53
- ^ a b Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #198. Also gives causes of depopulation
- ^ Marom, Roy (2022-11-01). "Jindās: A History of Lydda's Rural Hinterland in the 15th to the 20th Centuries CE". Lod, Lydda, Diospolis: 13–14.
- ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 266
- ^ Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jaffa, p. 20
- ^ Mills, 1932, p. 17
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 96
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 146
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 258
- ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 259
Bibliography
edit- Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H. H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
- Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center. Archived from the original on 2018-12-08. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
- Khalidi, W. (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.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Morris, B. (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
- Palmer, E. H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
External links
edit- Welcome To al-Sawalima
- al-Sawalima, Zochrot
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 13: IAA, Wikimedia commons
