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Abandoned Arab Village - Saraa (not the kibbutz)[edit]
I discussed this on Google Earth, with an Arab who supplied written evidence of the people who lived there.
The original village still stands. The land was owned by Christians (I think the Greek Orthodox church) and still is. The Muslims rented their homes and worked on the fields owned by the church. During the first world war and before the collapse of the Turkish forces in the 'to become' Palestine - a German spy was caught in the village. (I don't remember the source... but will continue searching)
The nearby monastery of Dir Rafaat is run by Arab Christians, who rent the complex to the Retorno institute for Juvenile Delinquents. Images from WWI (as seen in the book "A second look on the land of Israel" by Prof. B.Z. Kedar) show the Kibbutz Tzora area vacant (and later, with British tents built during the 1918 move of General Allenby towards Jerusalem) פשוט pashute ♫ (talk) 22:36, 29 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The Kibbutz originally settled on the grounds of the abandoned Arab village. In the early 1950s the kibbutz moved to it's current location. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Yigalrechtman (talk • contribs) 11:04, 30 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
