Safsaf

Safsaf
صفصاف
Safsofa
Village
Safsaf in 1938
Safsaf in 1938
Etymology: "the Osier willow"[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Safsaf (click the buttons)
Safsaf is located in Mandatory Palestine
Safsaf
Safsaf
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 33°00′42″N 35°26′44″E / 33.01167°N 35.44556°E / 33.01167; 35.44556
Palestine grid192/268
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictSafad
Date of depopulation29 October 1948[4]
Area
 • Total7,391 dunams (7.391 km2 or 2.854 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total910[2][3]
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces
Secondary causeFear of being caught up in the fighting
Current LocalitiesKfar Hoshen,[5][6] Bar Yohai[7]

Safsaf (Arabic: صفصاف Ṣafṣāf, "weeping willow") was a Palestinian village 9 kilometres northwest of Safed, present-day Israel. Its villagers fled to Lebanon after the Safsaf massacre in October 1948, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

  1. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 95
  2. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 11
  3. ^ a b Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 71
  4. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xvi, village #45. Also gives causes of depopulation.
  5. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xxi, Settlement #49, established January 1949.
  6. ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 491
  7. ^ Established in 1979. Khalidi, 1992, p. 491