Sa'sa'

Infobox Former Arab villages in Palestine
name=Sa'sa'


imgsize=250px
caption=IDF soldiers in Sa'sa', 30 October 1948
arname=سعسع
meaning=
altSp=
district=sf
population=1,130
popyear=1945
area=14,796
areakm=
date=30 October 1948
cause=F
cause2=E
cause3=
curlocl=Sasa

Sa'sa' ( _ar. سعسع) was a Palestinian village, located 12 kilometres northwest of Safed that was depopulated by Israeli forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Sa'sa' during the 1948 war

On February 15 1948, a Palmach unit entered the village during the night and, without resistance, planted explosives against some of the houses. Ten or more houses were totally or partially destroyed and 11 villagers were killed (5 of them small children). [New York Times, Feb 16, 1948.] According to the official history of the Haganah, the village had been used as a base for Arab fighters. [W. Khalidi, All that remains, p496.]

It was not until October 30 1948, as part of Operation Hiram, that the forces of the Haganah occupied Sa'sa'. Those villagers who had not already fled were expelled. There are also allegations of war crimes at this time. Northern Command OC Moshe Carmel later reported that he had seen evidence of killings, and an official investigation by Major Emanuel Yalan suggested that some villagers, including cripples, may have been killed after the village was occupied. However, the relevant files remain closed to historians. [Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, p501.]

See also

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

References

Additional bibliography

*Benvenisti, Meron (2000). "Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948". University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21154-5, pp. 153.

External links

* [http://www.palestineremembered.com/Safad/Sa'sa'/index.html Palestine Remembered - Sa'sa']