Al-Sawalima was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jaffa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on March 30, 1948. It was located 11 km northeast of Jaffa, situated 2 km north of the al-'Awja River.
Al-Sawalima
السوالمة
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Village
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| Etymology: es Sûâlimîyeh, the ruin of the Sâlem family[1] | |
A series of historical maps of the area around Al-Sawalima (click the buttons)
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  Al-Sawalima Location within Mandatory Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 32°06′59″N 34°50′51″E / 32.11639°N 34.84750°E / 32.11639; 34.84750 | |
| Palestine grid | 134/170 |
| Geopolitical entity | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdistrict | Jaffa |
| Date of depopulation | March 30, 1948[4] |
| Population
(1945)
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| • Total | 800[2][3] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Fear of being caught up in the fighting |
| Secondary cause | Influence of nearby town's fall |
| Current Localities | Neve Sharett |
In 1051 AH/1641/2, the Bedouin tribe of al-Sawālima from around Jaffa attacked the villages of Subṭāra, Bayt Dajan, al-Sāfiriya, Jindās, Lydda and Yāzūr belonging to Waqf Haseki Sultan.[5]
In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine noted at Khurbet es Sualimiyeh: “Traces of ruins only.“[6]
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Sawalmeh had a population of 70 Muslims,[7] increasing in the 1931 census when Es-Sawalmeh had 429 Muslim inhabitants.[8]
In the 1945 statistics, the village had a population of 800 Muslims,[2] while the total land area was 5,942 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[3] Of the land area, a total of 894 were used for growing citrus and banana, 191 were for plantations and irrigable land, 4,566 for cereals,[9] while 291 dunams were classified as non-cultivable areas.[10]
Al-Sawalima had an elementary school for boys founded in 1946, with 31 students.[11]
Benny Morris gives "Fear of being caught up in the fighting" and "Influence of nearby town's fall" as reasons for why the village became depopulated on March 30, 1948.[4]
In 1992 the village site was described: "Cactuses grow on the village site. No identifiable traces of the former dwellings (tents or adobe houses) remain. Only the remnants of the one-room school are discernable. A highway runs past the north side of the site."[12]
