{"id":4739,"date":"2024-03-02T12:22:12","date_gmt":"2024-03-02T12:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.com\/?p=4739"},"modified":"2025-09-26T10:04:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:04:43","slug":"suruh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/2024\/03\/02\/suruh\/","title":{"rendered":"Suruh"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The village of Saruh<\/strong> stood on a rocky elevation overlooking the village of Tarshiha<\/strong> and facing the nearby village of Shaqra (al-Shaghur)<\/strong>. Like those neighboring villages, Saruh was administratively affiliated with Tarshiha<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In the late 19th century<\/strong>, Saruh was a small agricultural village<\/strong>, also known for livestock grazing<\/strong>. It had a population of approximately 90 residents<\/strong>, most of whom were Muslim<\/strong>. The houses were built of stone<\/strong>, and the villagers cultivated grains<\/strong>, olives<\/strong>, grapes<\/strong>, tobacco<\/strong>, and other crops.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In 1944\u20131945<\/strong>, a total of 1,200 dunums<\/strong> of village lands were allocated for grain cultivation. Residents benefited from the facilities and services<\/strong> available in Tarshiha<\/strong>, which was located just one kilometer away<\/strong>, and they sent their children to school there.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Near Saruh were two archaeological sites<\/strong>, containing various ancient artifacts<\/strong>, including ruined walls<\/strong>, pottery<\/strong>, and rock-cut tombs<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Occupation and Ethnic Cleansing<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n

The inhabitants of Saruh<\/strong> were among the first to be expelled<\/strong> during the Israeli military campaign to “cleanse” the northern border<\/strong> with Lebanon in the second week of November 1948<\/strong>. At the time, major battles of the war had concluded, and Israeli forces advanced rapidly toward many of the villages in the region.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

According to Israeli historian Benny Morris<\/strong>, it is unclear whether the residents of Saruh were forced to flee to Lebanon<\/strong> (as was the case with many neighboring villages) or were transported by truck<\/strong> to another location within the territory occupied by Israel, as happened with other depopulated villages.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Israeli forces continued to conduct raids for several weeks<\/strong> after the main operation ended, to ensure that villagers did not attempt to return<\/strong> to their homes. Morris does not specify the exact fate of Saruh or its inhabitants.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Village Today<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Today, nothing remains<\/strong> of Saruh except for rubble<\/strong>, stones<\/strong>, cacti<\/strong>, and wild vegetation<\/strong>. The site is now used primarily as pastureland for livestock<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Zionist Settlements on Village Lands<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n

The kibbutz Shomera<\/strong> (grid ref. 177276) was established in 1949<\/strong> on part of the village site. Additionally, the industrial settlement of Eylon Mines<\/strong> (grid ref. 178275), founded in 1967<\/strong>, and the settlement of Shomrat 1<\/strong> (grid ref. 179276), founded in 1969<\/strong>, were also established on Saruh\u2019s lands.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

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    The village of Saruh stood on a rocky elevation overlooking the village of Tarshiha and facing the nearby village of Shaqra (al-Shaghur). Like those [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acre"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/\u0633\u0631\u0648\u062d.jpg.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4739"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8083,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739\/revisions\/8083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakbamemorymuseum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}