Surif () is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

City in the

Hebron Governorate The Hebron Governorate () is an administrative district of Palestine in the southern West Bank. The governorate's land area is and its population according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in mid-year 2019 was 1,004,510. This ...

located 25 km northwest of the city of

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ) is the official statistical institution of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures at the national and international levels. It is a state institution that provid ...

census, Surif had a population of 17,287 in 2017. The population is entirely

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 ...

. Most of the town's 15,000

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 is used for agriculture, in particular, olives, wheat and barley. There are seven mosques and four schools located in its vicinity. Ahmad Lafi is the mayor.

History

Ottoman period

Oral tradition suggests that Surif was founded after the 16th century. In 1838 Surif was noted as a

village, located between Hebron and Gaza, but subjected to the government of

. 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 ...

found Surif to be a village with 700 inhabitants. He further noted that beside a ''birket'' in the rock, a few

cistern A cistern (; , ; ) is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. To prevent leakage, the interior of the cistern is often lined with hydraulic plaster. Cisterns are disti ...

s and an ancient

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

shaft which was placed near a small mosque, all of Surif's constructions seemed more or less modern. An official Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed 87 houses and a population of 265, counting 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 ...

'' described Surif as "A small village on a low hill, with olives to the south." In 1896 the population of Surif was 1,164.

British Mandate

According to 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, Surif had a population of 1,265 inhabitants, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, p
10
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 1,640, in 344 inhabited houses.Mills, 1932, p
33
/ref> In the 1945 statistics the population of Surif was 2,190, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
23
/ref> with a total of 38,876

s of land according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 3,493 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 11.325 for cereals, while 54 dunams were built-up (urban) land. File:Surif 1944.jpg, Surif, British Mandate map, 1:20,000 File:Surif 1945.jpg, Surif 1945 1:250,000 File:Surif from Judean hills.jpg, View of Surif File:Surif cross-stitch.jpg, Example of traditional Palestinian cross-stitch from Surif (2006)

Jordanian rule

In the wake of 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 ...

and the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 2,827 inhabitants in Surif.

Post-1967

Since the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

in 1967, Surif has been under

Israeli occupation Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian terr ...

. Israel has confiscated approximately 1,213

s of land from Surif since 2000, and approximately 1,300 dunums of Surif lands will be behind the

Israeli West Bank barrier The West Bank barrier, West Bank wall or the West Bank separation barrier, is a separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line (Israel), Green Line and inside parts of the West Bank. Israel describes the wall as a necessary securi ...

, when it is finished. In April 2023, the village was attacked for three days by dozens of settlers who broke into the village, injured residents with stones and vandalized and burned olive trees and residences. The attack on the settlers was carried out with the backing of an army that used gunfire and tear gas against residents who tried to defend themselves from the attackers. Since 2021, six cases of settler attacks have been documented, which included destruction of crops, damage to residences and injury to residents.

Demography

Surif was originally settled by people from nearby

Beit Ummar Beit Ummar () is a Palestinian town located eleven kilometers northwest of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate of the State of Palestine. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2017, the town had a population of 16,977 inhabi ...

and possibly others. Some of the residents came from Salqa (a location of unknown identity near GazaGrossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron Studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 385), al-Majdal and

Gaza Gaza may refer to: Places Palestine * Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ** Gaza City, a city in the Gaza Strip ** Gaza Governorate, a governorate in the Gaza Strip Mandatory Palestine * Gaza Sub ...

. It is also known as "Kuffin a-Tahta" since its residents, as those of Beit Ummar, lived there in the 16th century.Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron Studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 368

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Surif Surif
Welcome to Palestine *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 21:
IAAWikimedia commons

Surif Town (Fact Sheet)

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research projects in the fields of management of natural resources, water m ...

, ARIJ
Surif Town Profile
ARIJ
Surif aerial photo
ARIJ
The priorities and needs for development in Surif town based on the community and local authorities’ assessment
ARIJ {{Hebron Governorate Towns in the West Bank Hebron Governorate Municipalities of Palestine