Sarid () is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located near Migdal HaEmek, it falls under the jurisdiction of Jezreel Valley Regional Council. In it had a population of .
History Ottoman-era village of Khanâfis During the Ottoman era a Muslim village called Ikhneifis (also Khanâfis and other versions), meaning "beetles", stood at the site of present Sarid.Palmer, 1881, p. 146 Kneffis, and the neighbouring towns and villages of Nazareth, Mejdal, Yafa, Jebatha and Ma'alul, paid taxes to the monks of Nazareth, who bought the right to collect these taxes from the Ottoman authorities in 1777 for two hundred dollars. Thirty years later, they again purchased this right, though this time for two thousands five hundred dollars, owing to the rise in the price of cereals and ground rents.De Haas, 1934, p. 361 A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as Karm Ennefiiceh.Karmon, 1960, p. 167 .
In 1838, Ukhneifis or Khuneifis was noted as a village in the Nazareth District.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 132Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, p. 167
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) found at Ikhneifis the "ruin of a tower built by Daher el-Omar about a century ago (1162 A.H.)."Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 54 A population list from about 1887 showed that Ikhneifis had about 40 Muslim inhabitants.Schumacher, 1888, p. 184 Gottlieb Schumacher, as part of surveying for the construction of the Jezreel Valley railway, noted in 1900 that Ikhneifis was a “flourishing village”, consisting of 52 huts and 230 inhabitants, and that the place was the property of the Sursocks, of Beirut.Schumacher, 1900, p. 358
Moshe Dayan mentioned it as an example of "there is not one place built in this country which did not have a former Arab population".Dayan called the Arab village "Haneifs". Cited in Rogan and Shlaim, 2001, p. 207
British Mandate era The Arab village At the time of the 1922 census of Palestine "Ikhnaifes" had a population of 39, 38 Muslims and 1 Orthodox Christian.Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Nazareth, p. 38Barron, 1923, Table XVI, p. 50
The Jewish kibbutz
The area was acquired by the Jewish community as part of the Sursock Purchase. The kibbutz was established by Jewish immigrants from Czechoslovakia, Poland and Soviet Union in 1926, on lands purchased from the village of Khuneifis. The land was sold by the Sursock family, its absentee landlords.Stein, 1987, p. 609,000 dunams in Kneifis, with 60 families living there, according to List of villages sold by Sursocks and their partners to the Zionists since British occupation of Palestine, evidence to the Shaw Commission, 1930Grootkerk, 2000, p. 280 The name was taken from the biblical city of Sarid, situated in the southern part of the tribe of Zebulun (Joshua 19:10). The ancient city is thought to be located in nearby Tel Shadud. By the 1931 census, Sarid had a population of 69, 3 Muslims and 65 Jews, in 9 houses.Mills, 1932, p. 76
Economy In the 1950s the kibbutz established Camel Grinding Wheels (CGW), which now has three plants for the manufacture of cutting discs, grinding wheels and coated abrasives.About Kibbutz Sarid One of the more profitable branches was the kibbutz dairy.Stress, Culture, and Community: The Psychology and Philosophy of Stress, S.E. Hobfoll
Notable people
The poets Natan Yonatan and Pinchas Sadeh and the politicians Natan PeledNatan Peled, Knesset and Shlomo RosenShlomo Rosen, Knesset were members of the kibbutz. The later Austrian president Heinz Fischer spent a voluntary year (1963) in the kibbutz. The Irish political strategist Morgan McSweeny lived in the Kibutz for several months in the late 1990s.
References
Bibliography
External links Kibbutz website Survey of Western Palestine, Map 8: IAA, Wikimedia commons from Dr. Moslih Kanaaneh