Sasa, Israel 3.98

Sasa is a kibbutz in the Upper Galilee area of northern Israel. Located one mile from the border with Lebanon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Upper Galilee Regional Council. In it had a population of.HistoryThe modern kibbutz was founded in January 1949 by a gar'in of North American Hashomer Hatzair members on the land of the depopulated Palestinian village of Sa'sa'. Sa'sa' was demolished by the Israeli Seventh Brigade and Oded Brigade on October 30, 1948. Sa'sa' surrendered without resistance and allegations of Israeli atrocities later surfaced. Many of the villagers from Sa'sa live in Nahr al-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, although some resettled in nearby Jish.On the grounds of the kibbutz is the alleged tomb of rabbi Levi ben Sisi, who is actually known to have died in far-away Babylonia during the first half of the third century. In 1992, the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the remains of Sa'sa' village: "Some of the old olive trees remain, and a number of walls and houses still stand. Some of the houses are presently used by the kibbutz; one of them has an arched entrance and arched windows. A large portion of the surrounding land is forested, the rest is cultivated by Israeli farmers." The village mosque has been converted into the kibbutz museum.