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.

Al-Sawalima

السوالمة
Village
Etymology: es Sûâlimîyeh, the ruin of the Sâlem family[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Sawalima (click the buttons)
Al-Sawalima
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°06′59″N 34°50′51″E
Palestine grid134/170
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictJaffa
Date of depopulationMarch 30, 1948[2]
Population
 (1945)
 • Total800[3][4]
Cause(s) of depopulationFear of being caught up in the fighting
Secondary causeInfluence of nearby town's fall
Current LocalitiesNeve Sharett

History

In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine noted at Khurbet es Sualimiyeh: “Traces of ruins only.“[5]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Sawalmeh had a population of 70 Muslims,[6] increasing in the 1931 census when Es-Sawalmeh had 429 Muslim inhabitants.[7]

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 800 Muslims,[3] while the total land area was 5,942 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[4] 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,[8] while 291 dunams were classified as non-cultivable areas.[9]

Al-Sawalima had an elementary school for boys founded in 1946, with 31 students.[10]

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.[2]

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."[11]

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 215
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xviii, village #198. Also gives causes of depopulation
  3. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 28
  4. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 53
  5. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 266
  6. Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jaffa, p. 20
  7. Mills, 1932, p. 17
  8. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 96
  9. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 146
  10. Khalidi, 1992, p. 258
  11. Khalidi, 1992, p. 259

Bibliography
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