Sa'sa' Massacre

The Sa'sa' massacre occurred on 15 February 1948, when Palmach forces attacked the Palestinian village of Sa'sa', killing 60 people. The attack took place as part of the 1947-1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine.

Background

Further information: 1947-1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine

One history of 1948 asserts that the reason for the attack was to restore Jewish public confidence in their fighting forces following the deaths of all the members of a platoon attempting to take supplies to Kfar Etzion a month previously.

According to Efraim Karsh, on January 20-21 some 400 armed Arab fighters from 2nd Yarmuk Regiment of Arab Liberation Army based in Sa'sa' carried out attacks on isolated kibbutz Yechiam in western Galilee.

Moshe Kelman was deputy commander of the attack on Al-Khisas of 18 December 1947.

Massacre

In February 1948, Yigal Allon, commander of the Palmach in the north, ordered an attack on Sa'sa'. The order was given to Moshe Kelman, the deputy commander of Third Battalion. The order read: "You have to blow up twenty houses and kill as many warriors as possible". According to Ilan Pappé, "warriors" should be read as "villagers" to properly understand the order.

On February 15, 1948, a Palmach unit entered the village during the night and, without resistance, planted explosives against some of the houses. It was reported at the time that ten or more houses were totally or partially destroyed and 11 villagers were killed (5 of them small children). According to the official history of the Haganah, the village had been used as a base for Arab fighters. However, press reports at the time cited by Khalidi belie this, since the Palmach units met "without opposition" in the village. According to Benvenisti (who gives the date of the attack as 14 February), the Palmach units that raided Sa'sa' killed 60 people and demolished 16 houses.

Aftermath

Further information: 1948 Palestinian expulsion

A Palmach unit attacks Sa'sa, October 1948

It was not until October 30, 1948, as part of Operation Hiram, that the forces of the Haganah occupied Sa'sa'. Those villagers who had not already fled were expelled. There are also allegations of war crimes at this time. Northern Command OC Moshe Carmel later reported that he had seen evidence of killings, and an official investigation by Major Emanuel Yalan suggested that some villagers, including some with disabilities, may have been killed after the village was occupied. However, the relevant files remain closed to historians.

Currently, there are few remains of the Palestinian village of Sa'sa', with the exception of the village mosque, which has now been converted into the kibbutz cultural center.

In 1992, the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the remains of the village: "Some of the old olive trees remain, and a number of walls and houses still stand. Some of the houses are presently used by kibbutz Sasa; one of them has an arched entrance and arched windows. A large portion of the surrounding land is forested, the rest is cultivated by Israeli farmers."

"The History of the Haganah" by Ben-Zion Dinur described the attack as "one of the most daring raids into enemy territory."

See also

• Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel
• Killings and massacres during the 1948 Palestine War

Bibliography

• Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
• Berger, Uri (2017-10-16). "Sasa". Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel (129).
• Bron, Hendrik (Enno) (2006-12-10). "Sasa l Report". Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel (118).
• Bron, Hendrik (Enno) (2013-04-02). "Sasa, Final report l Report". Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel (125).
• Benvenisti, M. (2000). Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948. Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta (translator). University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-92882-2.
• Cohen, Amnon (1973). Palestine in the Eighteenth Century: Patterns of Government and Administration. Jerusalem: Hebrew University. Cited in Petersen, (2001)
• Cohen, Amnon; Lewis, B. (1978). Population and Revenue in the Towns of Palestine in the Sixteenth Century. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09375-X.
• 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. (p. 256)
• Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
• Gibson, S and Braun, E. (1972) Sa'sa', HA, 63-64, pp 11–12 (in Hebrew). Cited in Petersen, 2002
• Guérin, V. (1880). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 3: Galilee, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
• Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
• Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
• Karsh, Efraim (2008). The Arab-Israeli Conflict: The 1948 War. The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. ISBN 978-1404218420.
• 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.
• Morris, B. (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
• Nazzal, Nafez (1978). The Palestinian Exodus from Galilee 1948. The Institute for Palestine Studies. (Sa'sa' pp. 46, 95)
• 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.
• Pappé, I. (2007). The ethnic cleansing of Palestine. (reprint). Oneworld Publications Limited. ISBN 978-1-78074-056-0.
• Petersen, Andrew (2001). A Gazetteer of Buildings in Muslim Palestine (British Academy Monographs in Archaeology). Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-727011-0.
• Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838. Vol. 3. Boston: Crocker & Brewster. (pp. 368-369)
• Schumacher, G. (1888). "Population list of the Liwa of Akka". Quarterly Statement - Palestine Exploration Fund. 20: 169–191.
• Smithline, Howard (1997). "Sasa, West l Report". Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel (16).
• Syon, Danny; Nagar, Yossi (2014-09-08). "Sasa, Final report l Report". Hadashot Arkheologiyot – Excavations and Surveys in Israel (126).