Al-Sawalima

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 1882 the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' noted at ''Khurbet es Sualimiyeh'': “Traces of ruins only.“

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
20
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census when ''Es-Sawalmeh'' had 429 Muslim inhabitants.Mills, 1932, p
17
/ref>

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, while 291 dunams were classified as non-cultivable areas.

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

Bibliography

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External links

Welcome To al-Sawalimaal-Sawalima
Zochrot
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 13
IAA

Wikimedia commons
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War

Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
District of Jaffa