Al-Sawalima Explained

Al-Sawalima
Native Name:السوالمة
Native Name Lang:ar
Settlement Type:Village
Etymology:es Sûâlimîyeh, the ruin of the Sâlem family[1]
Pushpin Map:Mandatory Palestine
Pushpin Mapsize:200
Coordinates:32.1164°N 34.8475°W
Grid Name:Palestine grid
Grid Position:134/170
Subdivision Type:Geopolitical entity
Subdivision Name:Mandatory Palestine
Subdivision Type1:Subdistrict
Subdivision Name1:Jaffa
Established Title1:Date of depopulation
Established Date1:March 30, 1948[2]
Established Title2:Repopulated dates
Population As Of:1945
Population Total:800[3] [4]
Blank Name Sec1:Cause(s) of depopulation
Blank Info Sec1:Fear of being caught up in the fighting
Blank1 Name Sec1:Secondary cause
Blank1 Info Sec1:Influence of nearby town's fall
Blank3 Name Sec1:Current Localities
Blank3 Info Sec1:Neve Sharett

Al-Sawalima was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jaffa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on March 30, 1948. It was located 11 km northeast of Jaffa, situated 2 km north of the al-'Awja River.

History

In 1051 AH/1641/2, the Bedouin tribe of al-Sawālima from around Jaffa attacked the villages of Subṭāra, Bayt Dajan, al-Sāfiriya, Jindās, Lydda and Yāzūr belonging to Waqf Haseki Sultan.[5]

In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine noted at Khurbet es Sualimiyeh: “Traces of ruins only.“[6]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Sawalmeh had a population of 70 Muslims,[7] increasing in the 1931 census when Es-Sawalmeh had 429 Muslim inhabitants.[8]

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 800 Muslims,[3] while the total land area was 5,942 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[4] Of the land area, a total of 894 were used for growing citrus and banana, 191 were for plantations and irrigable land, 4,566 for cereals,[9] while 291 dunams were classified as non-cultivable areas.[10]

Al-Sawalima had an elementary school for boys founded in 1946, with 31 students.[11]

1948 and aftermath

Benny Morris gives "Fear of being caught up in the fighting" and "Influence of nearby town's fall" as reasons for why the village became depopulated on March 30, 1948.[2]

In 1992 the village site was described: "Cactuses grow on the village site. No identifiable traces of the former dwellings (tents or adobe houses) remain. Only the remnants of the one-room school are discernable. A highway runs past the north side of the site."[12]

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 215
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #198. Also gives causes of depopulation
  3. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 28
  4. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 53
  5. Marom . Roy . 2022-11-01 . Jindās: A History of Lydda's Rural Hinterland in the 15th to the 20th Centuries CE . Lod, Lydda, Diospolis . 13–14..
  6. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 266
  7. Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jaffa, p. 20
  8. Mills, 1932, p. 17
  9. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 96
  10. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 146
  11. Khalidi, 1992, p. 258
  12. Khalidi, 1992, p. 259