Sajad

Infobox Former Arab villages in Palestine
name=Sajad


imgsize=
caption=
arname=سجد
meaning=
altSp=
district=rl
population=300
popyear=1931
area=2,795
areakm=
date=1 June 1948
cause=
cause2=
cause3=
curlocl= Israeli military zone

Sajad ( _ar. سجد) was a Palestinian village, located sixteen kilometers south of Ramla. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.cite web|title=Welcome to Sajad|publisher=Palestine Remembered|accessdate=2008-02-22|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/al-Ramla/Sajad/index.html]

History

The village of Sajad was the site of a railway station built by the French in Ottoman era Palestine. The station was closed after a new railway line and station were built at nearby Wadi Sarar in 1915.Gilbar, 1990, p. 209.] A military operation planned by the pre-state Israeli forces against the village of Sajad as part of Operation Nahshon is recorded in a document from the Nahshon Headquarters to the 52nd Battalion, dated 15 April 1948.Morris, 2004, pp. 235, 293-294.] According to Benny Morris, "Battalion 3 was ordered to annihilate and destroy the village of Sajad."

Today

There are Palestinian refugees from Sajad who still long to return to the site of their former village and who express deep distrust of other Arab countries in which they live as refugees. For example, Hassan, a refugee living in the Marka camp in Jordan stated: "We do not have any confidence in the Arabs and they are traitors, sometimes I get so depressed about it, I do not even want to talk to my children about what happened to my village Sajad in Palestine ... I prefer to live in a tent in my homeland than a castle anywhere else ... because I will always feel that the castle is not really mine."Chatty and Hunt, 2005, p. 96.]

According to Walid Khalidi, the site of the former village of Sajad is inaccessible, as it is now a military zone in Israel.

References

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