Sarra is located 17.8 km west of
Nablus. It is bordered by Nablus and
Tell to the east,
Beit Wazan and
Beit Iba to the north,
Jit to the west, and Tell to the south.[3]
History
A grave, dating from the
Roman Empire era in Palestine, was found looted by thieves just outside Serra.[4]
Ottoman era
In 1517, the village was included in the
Ottoman empire with the rest of
Palestine, and it appeared in the 1596
tax-records as Sarra, located in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal of the Liwa of
Nablus. The population was 19 households and 10 bachelor, all
Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues and a fixed tax for people of Nablus area; a total of 1,549
akçe.[5]
In 1870/1871 (1288
AH), an Ottoman census listed the village with a population of 62
households in the nahiya (sub-district) of Jamma'in al-Awwal, subordinate to Nablus.[10]
In 1882, the
PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Surra as: "A small village in a hollow, with a spring on the south east, surrounded by olives."[11]
In the
1945 statistics the population was 540 (all Muslim),[14] while the total land area was 5,928
dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[15]
Of this, 540 dunams were for plantations and irrigable land, 3,513 for cereals,[16] while 34 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[17]
4 March 2011:
Israeli settlers from
Shvut Rachel damaged roughly 500 olive trees belonging to the village, and stoned homes, apparently in reprisal for the dismantling of several mobile homes.[20]
25 July 2011: Settlers torched the farmlands of the village, after Israeli soldiers intervened to stop Israeli peace activists from preventing a group of settlers from uprooting trees, according to
IMEMC.[21]
^Ahmad Jaradat,
'Israeli Settler Violence Report: March and April 2011,'Archived 2011-11-24 at the
Wayback Machine in
Alternative Information Center, 12 June 2011: 'On 4 March, settlers from Shvut Rachel in the southeast Nablus District damaged around 500 olive trees belonging to families from the village of Sorra. According to the Palestinian settlement file office in the northern West Bank, "the settlers attacked in the early morning hours, damaging and uprooting about 500 olive trees. Some of the settlers also entered the village and stoned homes". These attacks are part of the settlers’ "price tag" plan, announced against Palestinians in the West Bank. The plan was ostensibly launched because the Israeli army dismantled several mobile houses in some outposts and settlements in West Bank, including the outpost of Giv’at Gil’ad in the North.'
"Israeli Settler Violence Report: March and April 2011". Archived from the original on November 24, 2011. Retrieved 2012-09-14.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
link)