| Sasa | |
| Foundation: | January 1949 |
| District: | north |
| Council: | Upper Galilee |
| Affiliation: | Kibbutz Movement |
| Pushpin Map: | Israel northeast#Israel |
| Pushpin Mapsize: | 250 |
| Coordinates: | 33.0269°N 35.3944°W |
| Website: | www.sasa.org.il |
Sasa or Sassa (Hebrew: סָאסָא) is a kibbutz in the Upper Galilee area of northern Israel. Located one mile from the border with Lebanon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Upper Galilee Regional Council. In it had a population of .
See also: Sa'sa'.
Architectural fragments of a synagogue from the Late Roman and/or Byzantine period were excavated at the site and are visible inside the kibbutz.[1]
In 1992, the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the remains of Sa'sa' village: "Some of the old olive trees remain, and a number of walls and houses still stand. Some of the houses are presently used by the kibbutz; one of them has an arched entrance and arched windows. A large portion of the surrounding land is forested, the rest is cultivated by Israeli farmers."[2] The village mosque has been converted into the kibbutz museum.
The modern kibbutz was founded in January 1949 by a gar'in of North American Hashomer Hatzair members on the land of the depopulated Palestinian village of Sa'sa'.[3] Sa'sa' was demolished by the Israeli Seventh Brigade and Oded Brigade on October 30, 1948. Many of the villagers from Sa'sa live in Nahr al-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon,[4] although some resettled in nearby Jish.
On the grounds of the kibbutz is the alleged tomb of Levi ben Sisi, who is usually believed to have died in far-away Babylonia during the first half of the third century.[5]
In 1950, the American correspondent Kenneth W. Bilby started his book "New Star in The Near East" - depicting the 1948 war and its aftermath - with an eyewitness account of Sassa: "Face Lifting". The Mukhtar of Sassa had fled, and his 2000 Arab villagers with him. By November 1949, 120 young American-born Jews had supplanted them, and the old village roosting on a Galilean hilltop had begun to acquire a Western flavor. The Mukhtar's home was being plastered and cemented into a communal shower. Power-driven lathes, imported from the United States, were turning out furniture for the new Jewish settlements which mushroomed in the Galilee. Prefabricated barracks with beaverboard interiors, fresh-painted American tractors, and an experimental windmill which resembled a radar antenna provided more accouterments of progress. Sassa, which had existed unchanged for over a thousand years, was on the altar - an offering, like the lambs of Abraham, for the betterment of the people of Israel".[6]
Sasa operates Plasan, a plastics factory that manufactures vehicle armour. The company, which is shared between some 100 families, is now a world leader in armor protection technology for vehicles. The kibbutz has signed contracts worth billions of dollars with major clients,[7] including the U.S. military.[8]
Other branches of the economy include a dairy, in cooperation with kibbutz Tuval; a beef herd; fruit trees (kiwi, apple, avocado and grapefruit); Bereshit, a fruit marketing company in cooperation with three other kibbutzim; and Sasa Tech, a manufacturer of technical and home care products.[9] Buza, a chain of ice cream shops founded by a Sasa resident, runs a branch on the kibbutz and offers ice cream workshops.[10]