The depopulated village of Al-Mas'udiyya (Summayl) / District of Jaffa

Subdistrict: Jaffa

Estimated population of al-Mas‘udiyya in 1948: Approximately 986, based on retrospective demographic projections; the village had already been depopulated by then

Date of depopulation: 25 December 1947

Cause of depopulation: Fear of an imminent military attack, following mounting pressure from the expansion of Tel Aviv and increasing attacks in the surrounding area

Military forces active in the surrounding area: Haganah and Irgun units; no documented direct assault on the village has been identified as the immediate cause of its depopulation

Israeli settlements established on al-Mas‘udiyya’s lands before 1948: None

Post-1948 development on the former village site: The site and its lands were absorbed into the expanding urban area of Tel Aviv

Al-Mas‘udiyya was situated approximately 5 kilometres northeast of Jaffa. It was also known as Summayl or Summayl Jaffa, distinguishing it from Summayl in the Gaza Subdistrict.

The village stood on the eastern edge of the coastal sand dunes. Wadi Musrara, a tributary of the al-‘Awja River, passed to its east, near the present road between Tel Aviv and Petah Tikva. The village was located south of the al-‘Awja River and was arranged along a north–south axis.

More precisely, al-Mas‘udiyya occupied flat, sandy terrain on the central coastal plain, approximately 1.5 kilometres east of the Mediterranean coast and 1.5 kilometres south of the al-‘Awja River. It was originally known as Summayl and acquired the name al-Mas‘udiyya during the early twentieth century.

The village had a mosque built over the remains of an earlier structure that may have been a church. The available sources do not establish that a separate functioning church remained in the village during the final years of the British Mandate.

Boundaries of al-Mas‘udiyya

Al-Mas‘udiyya was bordered by the following villages, towns, and geographical areas:

• North: al-Shaykh Muwannis.
• West: the Mediterranean Sea.
• South: Tel Aviv.
• Southeast: Sarona.
• East: the area locally identified as Qabbaniyat.
• Northeast: al-Jammasin al-Gharbi.

Architectural Form of al-Mas‘udiyya

In the 1870s, al-Mas‘udiyya was described as an ordinary village whose houses were built primarily of adobe and mud. It contained a large well and a cave. Its houses stood close together in a compact pattern extending from north to south.

Education in al-Mas‘udiyya

An elementary school was established in the village in 1931. By the mid-1940s, it had an enrolment of 31 pupils.

Population of al-Mas‘udiyya

• The 1922 British Mandate census recorded 449 residents.
• The population increased to 658 in 1931, when the village contained 127 houses.
• In 1945, the population was estimated at 850, comprising 830 Muslims and 20 Christians.
• A retrospective demographic projection places the village population at approximately 986 in 1948. Since al-Mas‘udiyya had already been depopulated on 25 December 1947, this figure represents projected population growth rather than the number physically residing in the village during 1948.
• Some secondary accounts give a rounded estimate of approximately 6,100 refugees originating from the village in the late 1990s. The standardised projection used by Palestine Remembered gives 6,055 for 1998. These are estimates rather than official census figures.
• Pressure resulting from the physical expansion of Tel Aviv had already caused many residents to leave al-Mas‘udiyya by 1946.

Population of al-Mas‘udiyya

The 1948 figure is a retrospective demographic projection, not a count of residents present in the village, which had been depopulated in December 1947. The 1998 figure is also an estimate rather than an official census count.

Number of Houses in al-Mas‘udiyya

The 1931 figure is an official census count. The 1948 figure is a later estimate and does not indicate that the houses were still inhabited at that date.

Economic Life in al-Mas‘udiyya

Most residents worked in citrus cultivation and animal husbandry, while smaller numbers were employed in commerce, handicrafts, and the service sector. In 1938, the residents cultivated approximately 275 dunams with citrus trees.

* One dunam equals approximately 1,000 square metres.

Depopulation of al-Mas‘udiyya

The History of the Haganah records that al-Mas‘udiyya agreed to a truce with the Haganah following a meeting held in Petah Tikva toward the end of 1947. Despite this agreement, the village became one of the earliest Palestinian villages to be completely depopulated, on 25 December 1947.

According to Benny Morris, the residents left because they feared an imminent attack. Their village was in a particularly vulnerable position, only a few hundred metres from the outskirts of Tel Aviv, while attacks against Palestinian localities were increasing. The residents initially sought refuge in neighbouring al-Jammasin. Al-Jammasin itself was completely depopulated by mid-March 1948.

Although Haganah and Irgun forces conducted numerous operations throughout the surrounding area during the winter of 1947–48 and the following spring, the available sources do not document a direct military assault on al-Mas‘udiyya on 25 December. It is therefore more accurate to identify that date as the village’s depopulation date rather than its date of military occupation.

The residents’ departure should also be understood within the longer process of displacement produced by Tel Aviv’s urban expansion. Palestinian families had been leaving under this pressure since at least 1946, before the remaining population fled amid the escalating violence and fear of attack in December 1947.

Al-Mas‘udiyya Today

The former village area became part of Tel Aviv, whose urban expansion absorbed the village site and its lands. No separate Israeli settlement was established on al-Mas‘udiyya’s land.

According to the field survey published by Walid Khalidi, one abandoned house that had belonged to Muhammad Baydas remained standing. Local accounts also identify surviving houses formerly belonging to the Abu Jabara and Abu Ayta families that came to be occupied by Jewish residents. These specific property attributions derive from local documentation and require consultation of land records for definitive confirmation.

Cactus and castor-oil plants, together with several palm and cypress trees, continued to mark the former village site. Nearby stood the al-Mas‘udiyya, or Summayl, Bridge, an arched steel structure associated with the locality.

Sources

• PalQuest, “al-Mas‘udiyya”.
• Palestine Remembered, “al-Mas‘udiyya — Jaffa”.
• Walid Khalidi (ed.), All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992.
• PalQuest, methodology and sources for depopulated Palestinian villages.
• Government of Palestine, Census of Palestine, 1922.
• Government of Palestine, Census of Palestine, 1931.
• Government of Palestine, Village Statistics, April 1945.
• Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, consulted for the circumstances of the village’s depopulation and the residents’ initial displacement to al-Jammasin.