Zochrot - al-Mas'udiyya (Summayl)

al-Mas'udiyya (Summayl)

Info

District: Jaffa

Population 1948: 990

Occupation date: 25/12/1947

Occupying unit: Irgun (Etzel) & Hagana units

Jewish settlements on village/town land before 1948: None

Jewish settlements on village/town land after 1948: Tel Aviv expansion

Background:

The village was situted on sandy, flat terrain on the central coastal plain, 1.5 km east of the seashore and 1.5 km south of the al-'Awja river. It was 5 km north of Jaffa.

The History of the Haganah reports that al-Mas'udiyya agreed to a truce with the Haganh after a meeting in Petach Tiqwa towards the end of 1947. Nevertheless, it was one of the first villages to be evacuated, on 25 December 1947. Israeli historian Benny Morris states that the evacuation took place because the villagers feared a Jewish attack due to its preacarious location; the village was only a few hundred yards from the outskirts of Tel Aviv, and attacks on Arab villages were increasing at the time. Morris states that the villagers fled first to neighboring al-Jammasin, were morale was lowered by the arrival of the refugees, and that al-Jammasin itself was completely emptied by mid-March 1948. The area was the scene of numerous Haganah and Irgun operations in the winter and the early spring.

There are no settlements on village lands, but the expansion of Tel Aviv has encroached on them.

The area is part of Tel Aviv. All that remains of the village is one deserted house that belonged to Muhammad Baydas. Cactuses, castor-oil plants, and palm and cypress trees further mark the site. Nearby is the al-Mas'udiyya (or Summayl) bridge – an arched, steel structure.