PalestineRemembered About Us Oral History العربية
Menu Pictures Zionist FAQs Haavara Maps
PalestineRemembered.com Satellite View Search Donate Contact Us Looting 101 The Home of Palestinians العربية
About Us Zionist FAQs Conflict 101 Pictures Maps Oral History Haavara Facts Not Lies Zionism 101 Zionist Quotes

Welcome To al-Sammu'i - السموعي (א-סמועי)

District of Safad
Ethnically cleansed days ago
العربية

Google Earth
Picture for al-Sammu'i Village - Palestine: : خارطة توزيع المنازل ، أنقر الخارطة لتكبيرها - 1948
 Gallery (29)
Statistic & Fact Value
Occupation Date May 12, 1948
Distance From District 4 (km) West of Safad
Elevation 675 (meters)
Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Detailswhat's new
Pre-Nakba Map showing before and after destruction
Map Location See location #68 on the map

View from satellite
Military Operation Operation Hiram
Exodus Cause Influence of fall of, or exoduce from, neighboring town
Village Temains The village has been completely destroyed, with the exception of some sections of stone walls, a well, and a canal
Ethnically Cleansing The village has been mostly ethnically cleansed on 12th of May 1948
Pre-Nakba
Land Ownership
Ethnic Group Land Ownership (Dunums)*
Arab 9,713
Jewish 0
Public 5422
**Total 15,135
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
Land Usage
As of 1945
Land Usage Arab (Dunum)*
Irrigated & Plantation 422
Olive Groves 170
Planted W/ Cereal 4,204
Built up 27
Arable 4,626
Non-Arable 10,482
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Population
Year Population*
1596 308
19th century 200
1922 173
1931 213
1945 310
1948 360
Est. Refugees 1998 2,208
*Sourced from British Mandate's Village Statisitics
Number of Houses
Year Number of Houses
1931 39
1948 65
Near By Townswhat's new
Mirun
↑
(N)
'Ayn al-Zaytun
↗        
Bayt Jann  ←
al-Sammu'i
→   al-Zahiriyya al-Tahta
↘           
al-Farradiyya
Places of Warship One mosque
Shrines / Maqams A shrine for a local sage known by al-Shaykh Muhammad al-'Ajami
Nearby Wadies & Rivers The village had number of springs terminated into a water tank
Exculsive Jewish Colonies
Who Usurped Village Lands		 Kefar Shammay and Amirim

Village Before Nakba

The village stood on the eastern slope of Mount Zabud, and overlooked Safad to the east. It was about 100 m west of the Safad-Acre highway. In 1596, al-Sammu'i was a village in the nahiya of Jira (liwa' of Safad) with a population of 308. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, and olives, as well as on other types of produce and property, such as goats, beehives, vineyards, and a press which was used for processing either olives or grapes. [Hut. and Abd.:177] The American biblical scholar Edward Robinson was told that al-Sammu'i lay on a 'comparatively level and easy' road when he passed through the region in the mid-nineteenth century. [Robinson 1856:72] Guérin, who saw the village in 1852, said that it was populated by 100 Muslims. When the authors of the Survey of Western Palestine reached the village, in 1877, it had 200 residents and was situated on a hill. There was a shrine for a Shaykh Muhammad al-'Ajami in the village as well as a number of cisterns. Many of al-Sammu'i's stone houses appeared to have been built of ancient materials. [SWP (1881) I:200,256]

The outline of al-Sammu'i was a narrow rectangle. The 'Arab al-Madariba Bedouin pitched their tents southeast of the village every year when they passed by it in the course of their migratory cycle. Al-Sammu'i had a mosque―its population was predominantly Muslim―and a number of springs. One of them, on the north side, supplied drinking water, which was stored in three water tanks built by the villagers. Fruit and olive orchards were planted on the land south of the village; in the 1942/43 season 170 dunums were planted with olive trees. In 1944/45 a total of 4,204 dunums was allotted to cereals and 422 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards. Antiquities inspectors noted that there was a columned building in al-Sammu'i that was in ruins; this and other architectural fragments pointed to an earlier habitation of the site .

Village Occupation and Ethnic Cleaning

Israeli historian Benny Morris indicates that al-Sammu'i was wholly or partially evacuated in May 1948, but it was not occupied until October of that year. The initial flight, on 12 May, could have been caused by the fall of the city of Safad on the tenth of that month. This fact, together with the Haganah's psychological warfare campaign and mortaring of the villages in the area led to the exodus of many communities from the upper Galilee at this time. [M:123]

At the end of October, al-Sammu'i fell within a pocket formed by converging units of the Israeli army during Operation Hiram (see 'Arab al-Samniyya, Acre sub-district). According to Morris, the village put up some resistance to the Israeli attack. As evidence, he cites the Israeli Minority Affairs Ministry's reference to al-Sammu'i as an example of a village which resisted and was therefore 'depopulated ―either by flight or by partial flight plus expulsion.' No further details are given.

Zionists Colonies on Village Lands

Israel established the settlement of Kefar Shammay (193262) in 1949 on village lands,just to the east of the village site. Also on village lands, but further to the south, was the settlement of Amirim (192260), founded in 1950.

Village Today

The site is deserted. All that remains of the buildings are some sections of stone walls, a well, and a canal. A few olive and fig trees grow on the site, and the surrounding land is mostly used by Israeli farmers for grazing.

Source

Dr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains.
Related Maps Town Lands' Demarcation Maps
خرائط للقضاء توضح حدود القرى والاودية
Town's map on MapQuest
View from satellite
Help us map this town at WikiMapia
Related Links Wikipedia's Page
Facebook Page
Google Search
Google For Images
Google For Videos
More Information مخطط البلد
في كتاب كي لا ننسى
في كتاب بلادنا فلسطين
المزيد من موقع هوية

Bibliography and References

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

Display Name Clan/Hamolah Country of Residence
أنور ابو القآسم - Palestine
Nabeel Elhaj - -
abw kefah - السموعي, فلسطين
ابن السموعي من اليمن - مديرية يريم/مدينة كتاب, اليمن
ليلى مصطفى قدورة قدورة الرياض السعودية
أحمد حميد أحمد علي طه قاسم أحمد قاسم الحاج الحاج GA, USA
محمد أشقر - النرويج
ayman achkar الاشقر -
raghd al hajj al hajj lebanon, lebanon
Randa Ahmad Achkar ashkar GERMANY
Agiad Ashkar Ashkar Norway
Nabil Ashkar Ashkar Doha, Qatar
Ghazi El-Ashker Al Ashker Canada
All Registered Members
Fake Valor: Why Did Zionist Jews Hoist Nazis Flag on Their Ships in the 1930s?

What is new?