Avivim

Avivim (Hebrew: אֲבִיבִים), is a moshav in the far north of Israel, in the Upper Galilee. It is located less than one kilometre (3,000 feet) from the Blue Line with Lebanon, on lands of the Shiite village of Saliha, depopulated after a massacre carried out by Israeli forces. In 2014 its population was 497.

History

In 1920, Saliha was designated part of Lebanon under the auspices of the Franco-British Boundary Agreement. It was one of 24 villages transferred to British control in 1924 following the 1923 demarcation of the border between the British Mandate for Palestine and the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. It thus formed part of Palestine.

Under the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, Saliha was to be included in the proposed Arab state, while the boundary between it and the proposed Jewish state was to run north of the built-up area of the village. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Saliha was the site of a massacre carried out by Israeli forces shortly before the village was completely depopulated. The built structures in the village, with the exception of an elementary school for boys, were also destroyed. Israeli forces blew the village mosque, killing 60–94 people who were inside.