Suruh سروح | |
|---|---|
Village | |
| Etymology: personal name, possibly from "to flow freely" (water) or "to pasture at large" (cattle)[1] | |
.jpg) 1870s map.jpg) 1940s map.jpg) modern map.jpg) 1940s with modern overlay mapA series of historical maps of the area around Suruh (click the buttons) | |
  Suruh Location withinMandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates:33°05′06″N35°17′35″E / 33.08500°N 35.29306°E /33.08500; 35.29306 | |
| Palestine grid | 177/276 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Acre |
| Date of depopulation | early November 1948[4][5] |
| Area | |
• Total | 18,563dunams (18.563 km2; 7.167 sq mi) |
| Population (1945) | |
• Total | 1,000[2][3] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Expulsion byYishuv forces |
| Current Localities | Shomera,[6]Even Menachem,[6]Kefar Rosenwald,[6]Shtula[6] |
Suruh (Arabic:سروح), was aPalestinianArabhamlet, located 28.5 kilometers (17.7 mi) northeast ofAcre. It became depopulated in the1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Suruh contained twokhirbats ("sites of ruins") with a variety of ancient artifacts, includingcisterns, and rock-hewntombs.[7]
An 1875 visitor,Victor Guérin, describes it as a ruin, which he calledKhurbet Seroueh. Guérin noted; "These ruins cover the summit of the hill. At the highest point we observed the remains of a very ancient square tower, measuring fourteenpaces on each side, the lowercourses consisting of very large blocks, roughly squared and without cement. The interior is full of similar blocks, piled up in confusion, in the midst of which terebinths and pomegranates have taken root. Near this tower a few old houses served as an asylum to four families ofMetawileh. On thelintel of the door of one of these houses a square cross inscribed in a circle can still be traced. The terraces of another house are supported in the interior by arched arcades in good cut stone of Roman, or at least Byzantine, date. There are also the remains of numerous houses which have been destroyed, a dozen cisterns cut in the rock, a column lying on the ground, and the fragment of a sarcophagus."[8]
In 1881, thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Suruh as "a small village, containing about ninety Moslems, situated on a ridge, with olives and arable land round; there are three rock-cutcisterns.[9] The residents lived by agriculture and raising live-stock.[7]
In the1945 statistics the populationTarbikha,Al-Nabi Rubin and Suruh together was 1000 Muslims,[2] and they had a total of 18,563dunams of land.[3] 619 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,204 used for cereals,[10] while 112 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[11]
During the1948 Arab-Israeli war, the inhabitants of Suruh, the neighbouring hamlet ofNabi Rubin and the main village ofTarbikha, were given expulsion orders byIsraeli forces.[5] A predominantlySunniMuslim hamlet, Suruh and Nabi Rubin were satellite hamlets of Tarbikha, a largelyShi'ite village. Most of Suruh's inhabitants and those the neighbouring localities ended up leaving toLebanon.[5]
In 1992 the village site was described: "Only rubble, trees, cactuses, shrubs, and weeds are visible. Most of the site is used for grazing."[6]
