Samakh, Tiberias

Infobox Former Arab villages in Palestine
name=Samakh


imgsize=
caption=
arname=سمخ
meaning=
altSp=
district=tb
population=3,320
popyear=1945
area=18,611
areakm=
date=3 March-18 April 1948
cause=E
cause2=F
curlocl=Ma'agan

Samakh was a Palestinian village located at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee in Palestine (now Israel). It had a population of 3,320 Arab Muslims and Arab Christians in 1945. [http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/3822b5e39951876a85256b6e0058a478/5fbced3943293bbd0525656900654aa6!OpenDocument Appendix B - Non-Jewish Population within the Boundaries Held by the Israel Defence Army on 1.5.49 - as on 1.4.45] ] Defended by the Syrian Army the town's inhabitants were expelled by Haganah forces beginning in March 1948, with the remainder leaving in the wake of an assault by the pre-state Israeli forces of the Golani Brigade on April 18 1948.cite web|title=Welcome to Samakh|publisher=Palestine Remembered|accessdate=2007-12-04|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Tiberias/Samakh/index.html] Most of the former residents became internally displaced refugees in the Arab city of Nazareth in what is today northern Israel.

There was battle there in World War I: see The Destruction of the Turkish Armies during the Battle of Megiddo.

Between 1905 and 1948, the town was an important stop on the Jezreel Valley railway and Hejaz railway, being the last effective stop in the British Mandate of Palestine (the station at al-Hama was geographically isolated). Today, the grounds of Samakh are occupied by the Tzemah Industrial Zone, as well as a part of the kibbutz Ma'agan.

ee also

* List of villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war

References