Suruh

Suruh contained two khirbats ("sites of ruins") with a variety of ancient artifacts, including cisterns, and rock-hewn tombs.Khalidi, 1992, pp. 31-32

An 1875 visitor, Victor Guérin, describes it as a ruin, which he called Khurbet Seroueh. Guérin noted; "These ruins cover the summit of the hill. At the highest point we observed the remains of a very ancient square tower, measuring fourteen paces on each side, the lower courses consisting of very large blocks, roughly squared and without cement. The interior is full of similar blocks, piled up in confusion, in the midst of which terebinths and pomegranates have taken root. Near this tower a few old houses served as an asylum to four families of Metawileh. On the lintel of the door of one of these houses a square cross inscribed in a circle can still be traced. The terraces of another house are supported in the interior by arched arcades in good cut stone of Roman, or at least Byzantine, date. There are also the remains of numerous houses which have been destroyed, a dozen cisterns cut in the rock, a column lying on the ground, and the fragment of a sarcophagus."Guerin, 1880, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr00gugoog#page/n141/mode/1up 123]- [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr00gugoog#page/n142/mode/2up 124]; as given in Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/192/mode/1up 192]-193

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Suruh as "a small village, containing about ninety Moslems, situated on a ridge, with olives and arable land round; there are three rock-cut cisterns.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/149/mode/1up 149] The residents lived by agriculture and raising live-stock.

In the 1945 statistics the population Tarbikha, Al-Nabi Rubin and Suruh together was 1000 Muslims, and they had a total of 18,563 dunams of land. 619 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,204 used 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/Acre/Page-081.jpg 81] while 112 dunams were built-up (urban) land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/Acre/Page-131.jpg 131]

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the inhabitants of Suruh, the neighbouring hamlet of Nabi Rubin and the main village of Tarbikha, were given expulsion orders by Israeli forces.Morris, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PA506 506] A predominantly Sunni Muslim hamlet, Suruh and Nabi Rubin were satellite hamlets of Tarbikha, a largely Shi'ite village. Most of Suruh's inhabitants and those the neighbouring localities ended up leaving to Lebanon.

In 1992 the village site was described: "Only rubble, trees, cactuses, shrubs, and weeds are visible. Most of the site is used for grazing."

• Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel

{{reflist|25em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{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=1881|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp01conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology|location=London|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund|volume=1}}
• {{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|last=Guérin|first=V.|author-link=Victor Guérin|title=Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine|url=https://archive.org/details/descriptiongogr00gugoog|volume=3: Galilee, pt. 2|year=1880|publisher= L'Imprimerie Nationale|location=Paris|language=fr}}
• {{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}}
• {{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|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}}

• [http://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Suruh/index.html Welcome To Suruh]
• [http://www.zochrot.org/en/village/49358 Suruh], Zochrot
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 3: [http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8366 IAA], [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.03.jpg Wikimedia commons]
• [http://www.alnakba.org/villages/acre/suruh.htm Suruh], at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center

{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War}}

Category:District of Acre

Category:Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War

Category:1948 disestablishments in Israel