Al-Sawalima

{{short description|Former village in Jaffa, Mandatory Palestine}}

{{pp-extended|small=yes}}

{{Infobox settlement

| name = Al-Sawalima

| native_name = السوالمة

| native_name_lang = ar

| settlement_type = Village

| etymology = es Sûâlimîyeh, the ruin of the Sâlem familyPalmer, 1881, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/215/mode/1up 215]

| pushpin_map = Mandatory Palestine | pushpin_map_caption = Location within Mandatory Palestine | image_map = {{Historical map series|default=2|date1=1870s|date2=1940s|date3=modern|date4=1940s with modern overlay|width=225|name=al-Sawalima}} | map_caption = A series of historical maps of the area around {{PAGENAME}} (click the buttons)

| pushpin_mapsize = 200

| coordinates = {{coord|32|06|59|N|34|50|51|E|type:city_region:PS|display=inline,title}}

| 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, 1948Morris, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PR18 xviii], village #198. Also gives causes of depopulation

| established_title2 = Repopulated dates

| population_as_of = 1945

| population_total = 800Department of Statistics, 1945, p. [http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p28.jpg 28]Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Jaffa/Page-053.jpg 53]

| 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.{{Cite journal |last=Marom |first=Roy |date=2022-11-01 |title=Jindās: A History of Lydda's Rural Hinterland in the 15th to the 20th Centuries CE |url=https://www.academia.edu/90931976/Jind%C4%81s_A_History_of_Lyddas_Rural_Hinterland_in_the_15th_to_the_20th_Centuries_CE |journal=Lod, Lydda, Diospolis |pages=13–14.}}

In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine noted at Khurbet es Sualimiyeh: “Traces of ruins only.“Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp02conduoft#page/266/mode/1up 266]

Excavations revealed traces of Late Ottoman infant jar-burials, commonly associated with nomads or itinerant workers of Egyptian origins.Taxel, Y., Marom, R., & Nagar, Y. (2025). [https://www.academia.edu/129069336/An_Infant_Jar_Burial_from_Zarn%C5%ABqa_Muslim_Funerary_Practices_and_An_Infant_Jar_Burial_from_Zarn_qa_Muslim_Funerary_Practices_and_Migrant_Communities_in_Late_Ottoman_Palestine_Migrant_Communities_in_Late_Ottoman_Palestine An Infant Jar Burial from Zarnūqa: Muslim Funerary Practices and Migrant Communities in Late Ottoman Palestine]. 'Atiqot, 117, 269–293.

=British Mandate era=

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Sawalmeh had a population of 70 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jaffa, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n22/mode/1up 20] increasing in the 1931 census when Es-Sawalmeh had 429 Muslim inhabitants.Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 17]

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 800 Muslims, while the total land area was 5,942 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. 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,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20II/Jaffa/Page-096.jpg 96] while 291 dunams were classified as non-cultivable areas.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/Jaffa/Page-146.jpg 146]

Al-Sawalima had an elementary school for boys founded in 1946, with 31 students.Khalidi, 1992, p. 258

=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.

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."Khalidi, 1992, p. 259

References

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Bibliography

{{refbegin}}

  • {{cite book |editor =Barron, J. B. | title = Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922 |url=https://archive.org/details/PalestineCensus1922 |publisher = Government of Palestine | year = 1923}}
  • {{cite book|last1=Conder|first1=C.R.|author-link1=Claude Reignier Conder|last2=Kitchener|first2=H. H.|author-link2=Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|year=1882|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp02conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology|location=London|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund|volume=2}}
  • {{cite book|title=Village Statistics, April, 1945 |url=http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/Hebrew/library/Pages/BookReader.aspx?pid=856390|author=Department of Statistics|year=1945|publisher=Government of Palestine}}
  • {{cite book|title=Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html|first=S.|last=Hadawi|author-link=Sami Hadawi|year=1970|publisher=Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center|access-date=2009-08-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181208215837/http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html|archive-date=2018-12-08|url-status=dead}}
  • {{cite book|title=All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_By7AAAAIAAJ |first=W.|last=Khalidi|author-link=Walid Khalidi|year=1992|location=Washington D.C.|publisher=Institute for Palestine Studies|isbn=0-88728-224-5}}
  • {{cite book | editor = Mills, E. | title = Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas |url=https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas | publisher = Government of Palestine | location = Jerusalem | year = 1932}}
  • {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C |first=B.|last=Morris |author-link=Benny Morris |year=2004 |title=The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited|isbn=978-0-521-00967-6 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
  • {{cite book|last=Palmer|first=E. H.|author-link=Edward Henry Palmer|year=1881|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund}}

{{refend}}