Sufla () was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

on October 19, 1948, by the Sixth Battalion of the Harel Brigade under

Operation Ha-Har Operation HaHar (, ''The Mountain''), or Operation El HaHar, was an Israeli Defence Forces campaign against villages southwest of Jerusalem launched at the end of October 1948. The operation lasted from 19 to 24 October and was carried out by tr ...

. It was located 18.5 km west of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

History

Remains from the Crusader era have been found here.Khalidi, 1992, p. 319

Ottoman era

In 1838, it was noted as a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

village, ''es-Sifala'', in the el-Arkub District, south west of

.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
125
/ref> In 1863

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...

noted a large grotto, partly filled with water. According to Guérin, Sufla was "reduced to a dozen houses." An official Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that ''safle'' had a total of 8 houses and a population of 18, though the population count included men only. In 1883, the PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

'' (SWP) described ''Es Sifleh'' as "a small village on a narrow ridge, which falls rapidly from Beit 'Atab. On the south-east is a fine spring ('Ain Sitti Hasna) coming out of a cleft in the rocks."

British Mandate era

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Sufleh'' had a population of 46 inhabitants, all

s,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramleh, p
21
/ref> increasing slightly in the 1931 census to a population of 49 inhabitants, in 10 houses.Mills, 1932, p
23
/ref> In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 60 Muslims, with a total of 2,061

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s of land according to an official land and population survey. Of the land, 400 dunams were for cereals, while 3 dunams were built-up (urban) land. A shrine was located in the village dedicated to a local sage called al-Shaykh Mu'annis. File:Deiraban 1945.jpg, Sufla, Mandate survey, 1:20,000 File:Allar 1945.jpg, Sufla, 1945, 1:20,000

1948 and aftermath

The village was depopulated in October, 1948, by the Harel Brigade under

, as were the villages of

Dayr Aban Dayr Aban (also spelled Deir Aban; ) was a Palestinian people, Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine, Jerusalem Subdistrict, located on the lower slope of a high ridge that formed the western slope of a mount ...

, Bayt 'Itab,

Beit Jimal Beit Jimal (or Beit Jamal; ; ), Beit el Jemâl, meaning "The house of the camel"Palmer, 1881, p286/ref> is a Catholic monastery run by Salesians of Don Bosco, Salesian priests and brothers near Beit Shemesh, Israel. The Christian tradition identi ...

, Bayt Nattif, Az-Zakariyya, and Al-Burayj.Morris, 2004, p
466
/ref> Following the war, the area was incorporated into the

State of Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, although the land of Sufla was left undeveloped. In 1992, the village site was described as: "Stone rubble from houses is scattered throughout the site, which has become an open grazing area. Cave-like structures, formerly used as dwellings, also are present, and cactuses grow among the ruins and rubble. The village cemetery lies to the east of the site, and almond and olive groves cover the areas to the west and north."

References

Bibliography

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External links

Welcome To SuflaSufla
Zochrot *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17:
IAAWikimedia commons
from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
Sufla (Sufle)
{{Palestinian Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestine War Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Jerusalem