Puneet Varma (Editor)

Safsaf

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Arabic
  
صفصاف

Also spelled
  
Safsofa

Palestine grid
  
192/268

Local time
  
Tuesday 3:04 AM

Current localities
  
Name meaning
  
"the Osier willow"

Subdistrict
  
Area
  
7,391 dunams

Date of depopulation
  
29 October 1948

Safsaf

Weather
  
8°C, Wind NW at 3 km/h, 80% Humidity

Tracing all that remains of safsaf village palestine


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.

Contents

Cserh ti zsuzsa k l n s szilveszter


History

The village was called Safsofa in Roman times.

Ottoman era

In the early sixteenth century CE, Safsaf was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire, and by 1596, it was a village in the nahiyah ("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.

In 1875 Victor Guérin described it as a village with fifteen Muslim families.

In 1881 the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Safsaf as 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. The villagers cultivated olive and fig trees and vineyards.

British Mandate era

Safsaf became a part of the British Mandate 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 the 1922 census of Palestine Sufsaf had a population of 521; all Muslim, increasing in the 1931 census to 662, still all Muslims, in a total of 124 houses.

By 1945 the population was 910 Muslims, with a total of 7,391 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, a total of 2,586 dunums were allotted to cereals; 769 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, while a 72 dunams was built-up (urban) area.

1948, and aftermath

On October 29, 1948, Israeli forces assaulted the village as part of Operation Hiram. After the villagers surrendered, some 50-70 men were massacred while bound and three women were allegedly raped.

References

Safsaf Wikipedia


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