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Welcome To al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya - السوافير الشمالية (א-סואפיר א-שמאליה)

District of Gaza
Ethnically cleansed days ago
العربية

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Picture for al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya Village - Palestine: : صورة لمحمد ومريم رباح كان لنا نصيب بعمل مقابلة تاريخ شفوي معهما
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Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date May 18, 1948
Distance From District 33(km) North East of Gaza
Elevation 50 (meters)
Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Detailswhat's new
Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction
Map Location See location #15 on the map

View from satellite
Military Operation Second stage of Operation Barak
Attacking Units Possibly Giva'ti Brigade
Exodus Cause Fear of Jewish attack, or of being caught in the fighting
Village Temains The village has been mostly destroyed with the exception of few deserted houses
Ethnically Cleansing al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed.
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 5,166
Jewish 450
Public 245
**Total 5,861
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)* Jewish (Dunum)*
Citrus Groves 481 189
Irrigated & Plantation 10 0
Planted W/ Cereal 4,633 261
Built up 21 0
Arable 5,124 450
Non-Arable 266 0
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
1596 616
1922 334
1931 454
1945 680
1948 789
Est. Refugees 1998 4,844
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses
Year Number of Houses
1931 77
1948 133
Near By Townswhat's new
Bayt Daras
          ↖
al-Batani al-Gharbi
↑
(N)
Qastina
↗        
al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya
            ↙
Julis
↓
al-Sawafir al-Gharbiyya
↘           
al-Sawafir al-Sharqiyya
Town's Name Through History The Crusades called the village Zeophir, and the Ottomans records referred to it by Sawafir al-Halil.
Schools The village shared a school with the other two Sawafir villages, and in 1945 it had an enrollment of about 280.
Places of Warship One mosque
Archeological Sites The village contained pieces of marble and the shafts and capitals of ancient columns.
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands		 No settlements on village lands.
Featured Video

Village Before Nakba

The village stood on the coastal plain, a short distance to the north of a highway between al-Majdal, Ramla, and the Jerusalem–Jaffa highway. The second, adjectival, part of its name, al-Shamaliyya ('northern') distinguished it from two other neighboring villages with the same first name, al-Sawafir. Together they formed an approximately right-angled triangle, with a northwest-southeast hypotenuse. Al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya may have been located on the site of the biblical Shafir (Micah 1:11), mentioned by Eusebius (A.D. 266–340), the Palestine-born Byzantine historian. Eusebius said that in his days it was a beautiful town between Ascalon and Bayt Jibrin . Most modern scholars, however, locate Shafir at Khirbat al-Qawm rather than at the site of al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya. The Crusader name of the village was Zeophir; they recorded that it was the property of the Bishop of Jerusalem in the early twelfth century. The village appears in the Ottoman records for the sixteenth century as 'Sawafir al-Halil.' It belonged to the nahiya of Gaza (liwa' of Gaza) and had a population of 616. The village paid taxes on wheat, barley, olive trees, and fruit trees.

In the late nineteenth century, the village of al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya had several small gardens and wells. Many of its houses were built of adobe, although a few were made of stone. The residents were Muslim, and the village had its own mosque but shared a school with the other two villages. The number of students in the school was about 280 in the mid-1940s. Agriculture, which was mainly rainfed, constituted the backbone of the economy, and grain, citrus, grapes, and apricots were grown. In 1944/45 a total of 481 dunums was devoted to citrus and bananas and 4,632 dunums were allocated to cereals; 10 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Al-Sawafir al-Gharbiyya contained archaeological remains, such as pieces of marble and the shafts and capitals of ancient columns.

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

Like its sister villages (al-Sawafir al-Sharqiyya and al-Sawafir al-Gharbiyya), al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya was occupied in Operation Barak . Its villagers may have been pushed out by the attack on Bayt Daras on 10 May, which was preceded by a mortar attack. But it is more likely that they left during an attack on the village itself that led to its capture on 12 May (along with nearby Bashshit), according to an Associated Press dispatch which quoted a Haganah source. Israeli historian Benny Morris claims, probably incorrectly, that the villagers fled in May, at the time of the attack on al-Sawafir al-Sharqiyya. The History of the War of Independence states that at the end of the first truce of the war (early July 1948), Egyptian and Sudanese forces planned to capture the three sister villages, but were prevented from doing so at an early stage.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

There are no Israeli settlements on the lands of al-Sawafir al-Shamaliyya. The determination of locations for several settlements in the area is complicated by the numerous changes in their names since they were founded.

Village Today

A few vacant houses and segments of houses, standing amidst wild vegetation, mark the site. One of them has a covered porch supported on two columns. An old village road is also identifiable, and cactuses and fig trees grow on the site. The surrounding lands are cultivated.

Source

Dr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains.
Related Maps Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
خرائط للقضاء توضح حدود القرى والاودية
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Bibliography and References

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abo al nooj naji amman
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سعد ناجي دير البلح
samer abd al jawad أل رباح عمان
abu alqasim - aj, uae
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Saad Yousf Rabah Rabah UAE
صالح ناجي ناجي عمان, الاردن
لاجيء1981 ناجي -
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Yousef Al-Faqi Al-Faqi -
mohmad rabah - -
abo rabah abdalgawad libya, libya
Amassi Al-Amassi Saarland, Germany
Iyad Ismail Ismail UK
Mohamed Yousef Abd Eljawwad Abd Eljawwad Gaza Strip, Palestine
Amal Abdulwahab Ismael Abu Dhabi, UAE
Malik Abdul-Haiy Ismail Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Anas Abdul-haiy Ismail Riyadh, Saudi arabia
amassi al-amassi nova scotia, canada
Raed Hamdan Abduljawad Palestine, Palestine
abduljawad rabah rabah usa
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