Welcome To al-Mas'udiyya - المسعودية (صميل) (אל-מסעודיה)

District of Jaffa Ethnically cleansed days ago	العربية Google Earth
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Statistic & Fact

Value

Occupation Date

December 25, 1947

Distance From District

5 (km) Northeast of Jaffa

Elevation

25 (meters)

Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Details

Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction

Map Location

See location #14 on the map

View from satellite

Military Operation

Haganah or IZL

Refugees' Migration Routes

Initially, many refugees sought refuge in the neighboring Jammasin, but later they were on the move again.

Exodus Cause

Fear of Jewish attack, or of being caught in the fighting

Village Temains

al-Mas'udiyya was mostly destroyed with the exception of a deserted house that belonged to Muhammad Baydas.

Ethnically Cleansing

Despite of a peace truce between the villagers and the Haganah, the villagers were terrorized into fleeing on 25th of December 1947.

Population

Year	Population*
1922	449
1931	658
1945	850
1948	986
Est. Refugees 1998	6,055

*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics

Number of Houses

Year	Number of Houses
1931	127
1948	190

Near By Towns

	al-Shaykh Muwannis ↑ (N)	al-Jammasin al-Gharbi ↗
Mediterranean ←	al-Mas'udiyya	→ Zionist Colonies
	↓ Tel Aviv	↘ Sarona

Town's Name Through History

The village was known originally by its alternative name Summayl, but it was renamed to al-Mas'udiyya in the early twentieth century.

Schools

al-Mas'udiyya had an elementary school for boys founded in 1931, and in 1945 it had an enrollment of 31 student.

Places of Warship

One mosque which was built on top of a church foundation.

Nearby Wadies & Rivers

al-Mas'udiyya was situated 1.5 km south of the al-'Awja River.

Exculsive Jewish Colonies
That Usurped Village Lands

Tel Aviv City

Village Before Nakba

The village was situated on sandy, flat terrain on the central coastal plain, 1.5 km east of the seashore and 1.5 km south of the al-'Awja River. It was originally known by its alternative name, Summayl, but acquired the name of al-Mas'udiyya in the early twentieth century. In the 1870s it was described as an ordinary mud village with a large well and a cave. The village houses were bunched closely together in a line that ran from north to south. The population was predominantly Muslim; only twenty Christians lived there in 1945. An elementary school, established in the village in 1931, had an enrollment of thirty-one students by the mid1940s. Al-Mas'udiyya also had a mosque, built atop the remnants of an earlier structure, perhaps a church. The people worked primarily in citrus cultivation and animal husbandry. A small number were engaged in commerce, handicrafts, and the service sector. In 1938 the villagers cultivated citrus trees on 275 dunums. The pressure of an expanding Tel Aviv led many of the villagers to leave al-Mas'udiyya by 1946.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

The History of the Haganah reports that al-Mas'udiyya agreed to a truce with the Haganah after a meeting in Petach Tiqwa towards the end of 1947. Nevertheless, it was one of the first villages to be evacuated, on 25 December 1947. Israeli historian Benny Morris states that the evacuation took place because the villagers feared a Jewish attack due to its precarious location; the village was only a few hundred yards from the outskirts of Tel Aviv, and attacks on Arab villages were increasing at the time. Morris states that the villagers fled first to neighboring al-Jammasin, where morale was lowered by the arrival of the refugees, and that al-Jammasin itself was completely emptied by mid-March 1948. The area was the scene of numerous Haganah and Irgun operations in the winter and early spring.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

There are no settlements on village lands, but the expansion of Tel Aviv has encroached on them.

Village Today

The area is part of Tel Aviv. All that remains of the village is one deserted house that belonged to Muhammad Baydas. Cactuses, castor-oil (ricinus) plants, and palm and cypress trees further mark the site. Nearby is the al-Mas'udiyya (or Summayl) bridge—an arched, steel structure.

Source

Dr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains.

Want to browse more? 80,000 pictures were grouped in these gallaries:

Display Name	Clan/Hamolah	Country of Residence
Esraa	التوم/عليان	Toronto, Canada
محمود أبويوسف	عشيرة القطاطوة	غزة, فلسطين
فراس حجاج	حجاج	-
فادي حسن	ابو زيد	عمان
عماد التوم	التوم	الزرقاء, الاردن
Saleh Abusaad	-	Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Billal Saoud	Saoud	Kuwait
Juman A.J	-	Jordan/Palestine
يافاوي Yafawi	أيوب (أبو دقيق) Ayyoub	Amman, Jordan
sharifsaed	أبو سعد	غزة
Ahmed Salem El Sayed Ahmed	-	-

All Registered Members

News piece about Summayl: the building/destruction plans and Zochrot's opposition (Hebrew) Duration: 3 min 45 sec
فيلم عن قرية صميل (المسعوديه) قضاء يافا- انتج عام 2008 وعرض لاول مره في نوفمبر 2010 Duration: 12 min 9 sec

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