Sarafand al-Amar

Sarafand al-Amar
صرفند العمار
Sarafand al-Kubra
Village
Etymology: from a personal name[1]
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Sarafand al-Amar (click the buttons)
Sarafand al-Amar is located in Mandatory Palestine
Sarafand al-Amar
Sarafand al-Amar
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°57′34″N 34°50′58″E / 31.95944°N 34.84944°E / 31.95944; 34.84944
Palestine grid136/151
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictRamle
Date of depopulationNot known[4]
Area
 • Total
13,267 dunams (13.267 km2 or 5.122 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total
1,950[2][3]
Current LocalitiesZerifin and Nir Zevi

Sarafand al-Ammar (Arabic: صرفند العمار) was a Palestinian Arab village situated on the coastal plain of Palestine, about 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) northwest of Ramla. It had a population of 1,950 in 1945 and a land area of 13,267 dunams.[3]

In December 1918, the village's adult male population was killed by New Zealand forces in the aftermath of the Sinai and Palestine campaign, in an illegal retribution for the killing of a New Zealand soldier. It was then depopulated entirely during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.[5]

Today it is part of the Israeli area of Tzrifin.

  1. ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 219
  2. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 30
  3. ^ a b Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 68.
  4. ^ Morris, 2004, p. xix, village #225. Morris gives both cause and date of depopulation as "not known".
  5. ^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 411