Info
District: Safed
Population 1948: 1760
Occupation date: 01/05/1948
Jewish settlements on village/town land before 1948: None
Jewish settlements on village/town land after 1948: Kfar Blum Expansion
Background:
al-Salihiyya Before 1948
The village lay in a flat area in the al-Hula Plain, next to the intersection of the Jordan River with Wadi Tur’an, which descended into Lake al-Hula some 4 km due south. It was linked to neighboring villages via a network of secondary roads, around which the village houses were clustered. Travelers who visited al-Salihiyya in the late nineteenth century described it as a village built of adobe bricks, situated on arable land on a plain close to a marsh. The village population was about ninety.
The center of the village was defined by a small market place. Its population was predominantly Muslim. Al-Salihiyya had a Mosque and elementary school. Agriculture was the resident’s economic mainstay, they grew vegetables and fruits in the eastern and northern segments of the village land. In 1944/45 a total of 4,230 dunuins was allocated to cereals and 23 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards.
Occupation and Depopulation
al-Salihiyya fell on 25 May, as part of Operation Yiftach (see Abil aI-Qamh, Safad District).
Israeli Settlements on Village Lands
There are no settlements on village lands. Kefar Blum, founded 1943, is just to the northwest of the site on lands that traditionally belonged to the village of Qaytiyya.
The Village Today
The village has been obliterated; no trace of it remains. Residents of the settlement of Kefar Blum cultivate the surrounding land, on lands that traditionally belonged to the village of Qaytiyya.
---------------------------
Source: al-Khalidi, Walid (ed.). All that remains: the Palestinian villages occupied and depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington DC: 1992.