Sasa, Israel Explained

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 .

History

See also: Sa'sa'.

Pre-1948

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 kibbutz

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]

Economy

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]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Sasa . The Bornblum Eretz Israel Synagogues website . Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee . 4 June 2024.
  2. Khalidi, 1992, p. 497
  3. Khalidi, Walid (1992). All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. p. 495
  4. Ilan Pappé, "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine", page 183
  5. http://www.breslev-midot.com/eng/photo_album05.asp Pictures of Tzaddikim's graves in Eretz Yisrael
  6. Kenneth W. Bilby, "New Star in The Near East", Doubleday (publisher), 1950,p.1
  7. http://www.asdnews.com/news/8201/Plasan_Sasa_Wins_Contract_to_Supply_Personal_Armor_to_Israel_Defense_Forces.htm Plasan Sasa wins contract
  8. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1105326.htm Kibbutz Sasa's Plasan nets second big U.S. military tender
  9. http://www.sasa.org.il/ Sasa website
  10. http://www.timesofisrael.com/48-hours-in-the-western-galilee/Trading the Sea of Galilee for the Galilee by the sea