Khirbat al-Sarkas
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{{Infobox settlement
| name = Khirbat al-Sarkas
| native_name = خربة السركس
| native_name_lang = ar
| other_name = Khirbet as Sarkas
| settlement_type = Village
| etymology = lit. "The ruins of the Circassians"
| 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}} | map_caption = A series of historical maps of the area around {{PAGENAME}} (click the buttons)
| pushpin_mapsize = 200
| coordinates = {{coord|32|26|49|N|34|57|37|E|type:city_region:PS|display=inline,title}}
| grid_name = Palestine grid
| grid_position = 146/205
| subdivision_type = Geopolitical entity
| subdivision_name = Mandatory Palestine
| subdivision_type1 = Subdistrict
| subdivision_name1 = Haifa
| established_title1 = Date of depopulation
| established_date1 = 15 April 1948Morris, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PR18 xviii] village #178. Also gives cause of depopulation
| established_title2 = Repopulated dates
| unit_pref = dunam
| area_total_dunam =
| population_as_of = 1931
| population_total = 383
| blank_name_sec1 = Cause(s) of depopulation
| blank_info_sec1 = Expulsion by Yishuv forces
| blank3_name_sec1 = Current Localities
| blank3_info_sec1 = Gan Shmuel,Khalidi, 1992, p. 189 Talmei Elazar
}}
Khirbat al-Sarkas ({{langx|ar|خربة السركس}}) was a village in Palestine, located 42 kilometres south of Haifa. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
History
The village was founded by Circassians from Russia who were expelled from their country by the armies of the Czar in the 19th century, approximately 1860.Oliphant, 1887, p. [https://archive.org/stream/haifaorlifeinmod00olipuoft#page/181/mode/1up/search/circassian 181]; cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 189
A population list from about 1887 showed that Jerakes had 130 Muslim inhabitants, who were noted as "Circassians”.Schumacher, 1888, p. [https://archive.org/stream/quarterlystateme19pale#page/n206/mode/1up 181]
The village was abandoned by the Circassians because of a Malaria epidemic. It was then settled by local Muslim Arabs.{{citation needed|date=February 2011}}
Gan Shmuel was established in 1913, about 1 km from the village.
=British Mandate era=
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kherbet al-Sharkas had a population of 74; all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n36/mode/1up 34] increasing sharply in the 1931 census to 383, still all Muslim, in a total of 80 houses.Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 95]
=1948, aftermath=
Though the Arab Higher Command had ordered the evacuation of the village's women and children three times prior to April 1948, the villagers did not leave.Morris, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PA245 245] Described by Benny Morris as "a friendly village", it was nonetheless one of the villages depopulated at the order of the Israeli Haganah, per their policy to clear the coastal plain of Arab villages in the lead up to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The women and children left between 20 April and 22 April 1948, and the men a few days later.
Talmei Elazar was established near the village site in 1952.
In 1992 the place was described: "Cactuses and spikes of grain are scattered across the site; there are no traces of any landmarks or houses. The land near the site is used by Israeli farmers for raising cattle and growing citrus."
References
{{reflist|25em}}
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|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|title= Haifa, or Life in Modern Palestine|url=https://www.archive.org/details/haifaorlifeinmod00olipuoft|first=L.|last= Oliphant|author-link=Laurence Oliphant (author)|year=1887|publisher=Blackwood|location=Edinburgh and London}}
- {{cite journal | last = Schumacher | first =G.| author-link = Gottlieb Schumacher | title = Population list of the Liwa of Akka | journal = Quarterly Statement - Palestine Exploration Fund | volume = 20 | pages = 169–191 | url = https://archive.org/details/quarterlystateme19pale | year = 1888}}
{{refend}}
External links
- [https://www.palestineremembered.com/Haifa/al-Sarkas,-Khirbat/index.html Welcome To al-Sarkas, Khirbat]
- [http://www.zochrot.org/en/village/49345 Khirbat al-Sarkas], Zochrot
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 8: [https://web.archive.org/web/20141015091439/http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8389 IAA], [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.08.jpg Wikimedia commons]
- [http://www.alnakba.org/villages/haifa/sarkas.htm al-Sarkas, Khirbat] at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarkas}}
Category:Arab villages depopulated prior to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
Category:Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War