Saliha

Infobox Former Arab villages in Palestine
name=Saliha


imgsize=
caption=
arname=صَلْحَة
meaning=
altSp=
district=sf
population=1070
popyear=1945
area=11,735
areakm=
date=30 October 1948
cause=M
cause2=E
cause3=
curlocl=Yir'on and Avivim

Saliha ( _ar. صَلْحَة) was a Palestinian village, located twelve kilometres north of Safad and one kilometer south of the border with Lebanon on the edge of a deep wadi (i.e. valley) known as Wadi Saliha.

Under the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, Saliha was to be included in the proposed Arab State of Palestine, while the boundary between it and the proposed Jewish state was to run north of the built-up area of the village.Moore, p. 160.]

During the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Saliha was the site of a massacre carried out by Israeli forces shortly before the village was completely depopulated.Morris, p. 498.] The built structures in the village, with the exception of an elementary school for boys, were also destroyed.

1948 war

Between 30 October 1948 and 2 November 1948, Saliha was the first of three villages (the others being Safsaf and Jish) in which a was committed by the Seventh Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces of Morris, p. 487.] under the command of General Moshe Carmel.Rogan, p. 53.]

In the case of Saliha, the troops entered the village and blew up a structure, possibly a mosque, killing the 60 to 94 people who had taken refuge inside. These estimates, made by Benny Morris, are based on documentary evidence that include a 6 November 1948 diary entry by Yosef Nahmani, which refers to "'60 - 70' men and women murdered after 'they had raised a white flag'".Morris, p.500.] Also referenced by Morris are handwritten notes taken by Aharon Cohen from the Mapam Political Committee meeting on 1 November 1948 in which Galili, also known as Moshe Erem is recorded stating: "94 in Saliha blown up in a house".

After the assault was over, the remaining inhabitants of the village were expelled,Morris, p. 498.] forming part of the Palestinian exodus of 1948.

Yoav Gelber lists Saliha alongside Deir Yassin, Abu Shusha, Sufsuf, and Lydda as forming part of the "Palestinian pantheon of massacres ... villages where Palestinians claimed that atrocities had taken place".Gelber, p. 324.]

Today

Salman Abu-Sitta, author of the "Atlas of Palestine",cite web|title=Bibliography and References|publisher=Palestine Remembered|date=25 June 2007|accessdate=2007-12-20|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Bibliography.html] estimated that the number of Palestinian refugees from Saliha in 1998 was 7,622 people.cite web|title=Welcome to Saliha|publisher=Palestine Remembered|accessdate=2007-12-20|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Safad/Saliha/]

Of what remains of Saliha's built structures today, Walid Khalidi writes that, "The only remaining landmark is a long building (which may have been a school) with many high windows. The site is a flat, mostly cultivated area."

The Israeli Jewish localities of Yir'on and Avivim are located on the former lands of Saliha.

ee also

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

References

Bibliography

*Gelber, Yoav. (2006) "Palestine 1948: War, Escape And The Emergence Of The Palestinian Refugee Problem". Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 1845190750
*Moore, Dahlia; Aweiss, Salem. (2004) "Bridges Over Troubled Water: A Comparative Study Of Jews, Arabs, and Palestinians". Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 027598060X
*Morris, Benny. (2004) "The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00967-7
*Rogan, Eugene L. (2007) "The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521875986