Arabic صرفند الخراب Palestine grid 131/149 Current locality Ness Ziona | Subdistrict Ramle Local time Wednesday 3:33 PM Date of depopulation 20 April 1948 | |
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Name meaning Kh Surafend; the ruin of Surafend. Area 5,503 (3,545 Arab-owned, 1,611 Jewish-owned, 347 public lands) dunams
5.5 km² Cause(s) of depopulation Fear of being caught up in the fighting Weather 19°C, Wind NW at 21 km/h, 58% Humidity | ||
Sarafand al-Kharab Arabic: صرفند الخراب) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict, located 50 meters (160 ft) above sea level, 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) west of Ramla, in the area that is today northeast of Ness Ziona.
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History
Pottery remains from the early Islamic period (8-10 century, Umayyad/Abbasid era) have found here.
An Arabic inscription on a slab of marble, formerly held in the private collection of Baron d'Ustinow, was found in Sarafand al-Kharab. Dating to the Fatimid period (1048-1048) and thought to have been brought to the village from Ashkelon, it states: "The slave of amir al-mu'minin may Allah bless him and his pure ancestors, and his noble descendants. And he was then in charge of ... in the border stronghold of Ashqelon in the month of (?) of Rabi' II of the year 440."
A vault, dating from the Crusader era have been found in the village.
Ottoman era
In 1838, Edward Robinson reported that there were two villages by the name of Sarafand in the area, one of which was inhabited by Muslims and the other ruined. Thus, it may be that Sarafand al-Kharab ("Sarafand of the ruins") acquired its name during this period. Both the Sarafand villages belonged to the District of Ibn Humar.
An Ottoman village list of about 1870 counted 22 houses and a population of 107 in Sarfend el Charab, though the population count included men only.
In 1882, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) noted the village on their maps as Khurbet Surafend, and described the archeological remains at the place as being "a tank or birkeh of rubble in cement, resembling those at Ramleh, here exists, with traces of other ruins."
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Sarafand al-Kharab had a population of 385 inhabitants, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 974; 938 Muslims, 33 Christians and 3 Jews, in a total of 206 residential houses.
Sarafand al-Kharab was one of a number of villages in the Lydda-Ramle district of Mandatory Palestine whose equine population was struck by an epidemic of African horse sickness in 1944, resulting in "stand-still" orders preventing the movement of horses outside of town between September and November 1944 and the deaths of 730 horses in the district.
In 1945, the village had a population of 1,040; 930 Muslims and 110 Christians, with a total of 5,503 dunams of land. (3,545 Arab-owned, 1,611 Jewish-owned, 347 public lands) In 1944-45, a total of 4,235 dunams were devoted to citrus and bananas and 499 dunams were allocated to cereals; 64 dunams were irrigated or used for orchards, while 33 dunams were classified as built-up, urban areas.
1948, aftermath
By 8 April, Haganah reports mentioned that Palestinian women and children had started evacuating the village. News of the Deir Yassin massacre might have prompted further evacuation.
By September 1948, Sarafand al-Kharab was one village Israeli general Avner considered "suitable" for filling with newly Jewish immigrants, so called olim.