Khirbat Sa'sa'

Khirbat Sa'sa' was a Palestinian Arab village in the Haifa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on April 28, 1948. It was located 15 km east of Haifa.

Khirbat Sa'sa' خربة سعْسع
Village
Etymology: Kh. Sảsả, the ruin of Sảsả [1]
1870s map 1940s map modern map 1940s with modern overlay map A series of historical maps of the area around Khirbat Sa'sa' (click the buttons)
Khirbat Sa'sa' Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 32°46′27″N 35°07′49″E
Palestine grid	162/242
Geopolitical entity	Mandatory Palestine
Subdistrict	Haifa
Date of depopulation	April 28, 1948
Population  (1945)
• Total	130[2]

History

The Romans referred to the village as Kefar Sasai.^[3]

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine found at Kh. Sasa: "caves and foundations".^[4]

British Mandate era

In the 1931 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, it was counted as a part of Shefa-'Amr suburbs, together with 9 other villages, and together they had a total of 1197 inhabitants, all Muslim, in 234 houses.^[5]

In the 1945 statistics Sasa was again counted among Shefa-'Amr suburbs, and it was noted with a population of 130 Muslims.^[6][7][8][9]

Post 1948

In 1992 the village site was described: "Cactuses and fig trees can be found scattered about the site. There are a number of partially collapsed stone walls, one with a large arched opening. The surrounding lands are used as a grazing area."^[10] Village ruins include building foundations, tombs, and cisterns.^[3]

References

1. Palmer, 1881, p. 112
2. Khalidi, 1992, p. 189
3. Khalidi, 1992, p. 190
4. Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 318
5. Mills, 1932, p. 95
6. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 15
7. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 49
8. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 92
9. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 142
10. Khalidi, 1992, p. 190

Bibliography

• Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
• Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H. H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 1. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
• Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
• Khalidi, W. (1992). All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
• Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
• Palmer, E. H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

External links

• Welcome To Sa'sa', Khirbat
• Khirbat Sa'sa', Zochrot
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 5: IAA, Wikimedia commons