| Simsim | |
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Simsim
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| Arabic | سمسم |
| Name Meaning | "Sesame" |
| Also Spelled | Sumsum, Semsem |
| District | Gaza |
| Coordinates | |
| Population | 855 (1931) |
| Area | 16,797 dunums |
| Date of depopulation | 12 May 1948[1] |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Expulsion by Yishuv forces |
| Current localities | Gevar'am, Or HaNer |
Simsim (Arabic: سمسم), (known to the Crusaders as Semsem) was a Palestinian village, located 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) northeast of Gaza. It was depopulated just prior to the outbreak of 1948 Arab-Israeli war.[2] On 12 May 1948, pre-state Israeli forces expelled the villagers, along with those of the neighboring village of Najd.[3]
Simsim contained two archaeological sites known locally as ar-Ras and Sha'fat al-Mughur (the latter of which contained a Roman cemetery).[2]
In A Handbook for Travellers in Syria and Palestine (1858), Josias Leslie Porter describes the village as standing "amidst a little grove of trees, about a 1/4 mile north of the road."[4] Karl Baedeker and his travelling companions writing in 1894 are more specific, noting that the village is located in an olive grove and that tobacco and sesame are the principal crops grown there.[5]
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In 1596, Simsim was part of the Ottoman Empire, nahiya (subdistrict) of Gaza under the liwa' (district) of Gaza, and it had a population of 110. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley and fruit trees, as well as on goats and beehives.[6]
In the late nineteenth century, Simsim was surrounded by gardens. It had a well, a pool, and an olive grove that was planted to the north.[7]
During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the villagers of Simsim, together with the surrounding villages, were driven out by soldiers from the Negev Brigade on 12-13 May 1948 as part of Operation Barak. In Simsim the occupying troops found only a handful of old people. They blew up five houses and warned that if the village's weapons were not handed over the following day, they would blow up the rest.[8] But the inhabitants repeatedly returned to the village, either to resettle or to cultivate crops. At the end of May, a Negev Brigade unit, with orders to expel "the Arabs from Sumsum and Burayr and burn their granaries and fields", swept through the villages, encountering resistance in Sumsum, and killed "5" (or, according to another report, "20") and blew up granaries and a well.[9] The Israeli troops returned to Simsim yet again, on 9 or 10 June 1948, again burning houses and skirmishing with Arabs.[10]
The present Jewish locality of Gevar'am was established in 1942 on land traditionally belonging to the village. Or HaNer lie less than one km south of the village site, on land formerly belonging to Najd, Gaza.[11]