Al-Sanbariyya

Al-Sanbariyya was a Palestinian village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 1, 1948, by Palmach's First Battalion under Operation Yiftach. It was located 31.5 km northeast of Safad, near Wadi Hasibani.

Al-Sanbariyya
السنبرية
Etymology: Kh. es Sambarîyeh, the ruin of the Sambarîyeh[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Sanbariyya (click the buttons)
Al-Sanbariyya is located in Mandatory Palestine
Al-Sanbariyya
Al-Sanbariyya
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 33°14′05″N 35°37′07″E
Palestine grid208/293
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictSafad
Date of depopulationMay, 1948[2]
Population
 (1945)
 • Total130[3]
Current LocalitiesMa'yan Barukh[4] and Dafna[4]

History

North of the village, a column with an inscription mentioning the Roman Emperor Julian (331–363 CE) was found.[4]

In 1875, Victor Guérin traveled in the region, and noted that "debris of a small village" ... "is referred to me as Kharbet Sembezieh".[5]

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it as "a few ruined Arab houses".[6]

British Mandate era

In the 1931 census of Palestine, during the British Mandate for Palestine, the village had a population of 83; 77 Muslims and 6 Christians, in a total of 20 houses.[7]

Al-Sanbariyya threshing floor, 1938

In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 130 Muslims,[3] with a total land area of 2,532 dunams.[8] Of this, 539 dunams were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 1,739 for cereals,[9] while 6 dunams were classified as non-cultivable areas.[10]

1948, aftermath

A complaint to Mapam said that "...I spoke to a number of members from Ma'ayan Baruch and nearby kibbutzim and I got the impression that there exists the possibility that there is a desire to destroy the villages and [the Arabs'] houses so that it will be impossible for the Arabs to return to them. A week ago a representative of the JNF (possibly Yosef Nahmani) came to visit. He saw that in the village of al Sanbariya ...several houses were still standing, albeit without roofs. He told the secretariat of the kibbutz to destroy the houses immediately and he said openly that this will enable us to take the village's lands, because the Arabs won't be able to return there. I am sorry to say the kibbutz agreed immediately without thinking about what they were doing."[11]

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 28
  2. Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #4. Causes of depopulation given as "?"
  3. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 11
  4. Khalidi, 1992, p. 494
  5. Guérin, 1880, p. 351
  6. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 121
  7. Mills, 1932, p. 110
  8. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 71 Archived 2011-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
  9. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 121 Archived 2018-09-26 at the Wayback Machine
  10. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 171 Archived 2018-09-26 at the Wayback Machine
  11. Morris, 2004, p. 357

Bibliography
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