It has been suggested that Gath (city) be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since July 2010.

Tell es-Safi
The area in 2008
Tell es-Safi
Arabic	تلّ الصافي
Also Spelled	Tall al Safi
District	Hebron
Coordinates	31°41′59.23″N 34°50′48.77″E / 31.6997861°N 34.8468806°E / 31.6997861; 34.8468806Coordinates: 31°41′59.23″N 34°50′48.77″E / 31.6997861°N 34.8468806°E / 31.6997861; 34.8468806
Population	1,290[1] (1945)
Area	27,794[1] dunums
Date of depopulation	9–10 July 1948[2]
Cause(s) of depopulation	Military assault by Yishuv forces

Tell es-Safi (Arabic: تل الصافي‎, Tall aṣ-Ṣāfī, "the white hill"; Hebrew: תל צפית‎, Tel Tzafit) was a Palestinian village, located on the southern banks of Wadi 'Ajjur, 35 kilometers (22 mi) northwest of Hebron that was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.^[3][4]

Archaeological excavations at the site of the village reveal that it had been continuously inhabited since the 5th millennium BCE.^[5] On the Madaba Map, its name is transcribed as Sapitha, while the Crusaders called it Blanch Garde. Described in the writings of Arab geographers in the 13th and 16th centuries CE, at the time of the rule of the Ottoman Empire in Palestine, it was part of the district of Gaza. In modern times, the houses were built of sun-dried brick, and there was a mosque, a walī for a local sage, and a marketplace. The villagers were Muslim and cultivated cereals and orchards.

The village was forcibly depopulated in July 1948 following an order issued to the 51st Battalion by Shimon Avidan, commander of the Givati Brigade.^[6] Today it is part of the modern-day state of Israel and serves as an archaeological site.^[7]

History [link]

Tell es-Safi sits on a site 300 feet (91 m) above the plain of Philistia and 700 feet (210 m) above sea level, and its white-faced precipices can be seen from the north and west from several hours distant.^[7] Excavations there indicate that the site was settled, "virtually continuously from the Chalcolithic until the modern periods." Stratigraphic evidence attests to settlement in the Late Bronze and Iron Age (I & II) periods.^[5] A large city in the Iron Age, the site was "enclosed on three sides by a large man-made siege-moat."^[8]

There is evidence indicating that Tell es-Safi was the place of the Philistine city Gath.^[9] The place appears on the Madaba Map as Saphitha. According to the Jerusalem Post archeologists have uncovered a Philistine temple and evidence of a major earthquake in biblical times, during digs carried out at the Tel Tzafit National Park. Other major finds there were evidence of the destruction of Gath by Hazael King of Aram- Damascus around 830 BCE, and evidence of the first Philistine settlement in Canaan.^[10]

During the Crusades the place was called Blanch Garde ("White guard"), likely referring to the white rock outcrop next to the site. Richard Lion-Heart was nearly captured while inspecting his troops next to the site. During this period a fort was built on the site, this fort was later destroyed by Saladin.^[11] The remnants of the castle of Blanchegarde, erected in 1141 by Fulk of Anjou, dismantled after being taken by Saladin in 1191, reconstructed by Richard of England in 1192, and retaken by Muslims forces shortly thereafter, served as a place of some importance in the village for centuries.^[7]

Yaqut al-Hamawi, writing in the 1220s, described the place as a fort near Bayt Jibrin in the Ramleh area, while the Arab geographer Mujir al-Din al-Hanbali (d. ca. 1522), noted that the village was within the administrative jurisdiction of Gaza.^[11]

In 1596 Tell al-Safi, was a village in the Ottoman Empire, nahiya (subdistrict) of Gaza under the liwa' (district) of Gaza, with a population of 484. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley and sesame, and fruits, as well as goats and beehives.^[12]

In the late 19th century, Tell al-Safi was described as a village built of adobe brick with a well in the valley to the north.^[13] James Hastings notes that the modern village prior to its depopulation also contained a sacred walī.^[7]

The villagers of Tall al-Safi were Muslim, and they had a mosque, a marketplace, and a shrine for a local sage called Shaykh Mohammad. In 1944 a total of 19,716 dunums of land were used for cereals, while 696 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.^[14]

1948, and after [link]

In 1948, Tell es-Safi was the destination for the women and children of Qastina, sent away by the menfolk of Qastina at this time, but they returned after discovering there was insufficient water in the host village to meet the newcomers' needs.^[15]

On 7 July Givati commander Shimon Avidan issued orders to the 51st Battalion to take the Tall al-Safi area and "to destroy, to kill and to expel [lehashmid, leharog, u´legaresh] refugees encamped in the area, in order to prevent enemy infiltration from the east to this important position."^[16] According to Benny Morris, the nature of the written order and, presumably, accompanying oral explanations, probably left little doubt in the battalion OC's minds that Avidan wanted the area cleared of inhabitants.^[17][18]

Walid Khalidi writing in 1992 describes what remains of Tell es-Safi: "The site is overgrown with wild vegetation, consisting mainly of foxtail and thorny plants, interspersed with cactuses, date-palm and olive trees. There are remnants of a well and the crumbling stone walls of a pool. The surrounding land is planted by Israeli farmers with citrus trees, sunflowers, and grain. A few tents belonging to a group of Bedouin are occasionally pitched nearby."^[11]

The remains of a Crusader fort and the modern Arab village, extant from medieval times until its depopulation in 1948, can still be seen on the tel.^[5]

References [link]

Bibliography [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tel Zafit

External links [link]

• Tall-al-Safi Palestine Remembered
• Tall al-Safi, at Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center