Surif


Surif is a Palestinian City in the Hebron Governorate located 25 km northwest of the city of Hebron. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics census, Surif had a population of 17,650 in 2016. The population is entirely Muslim.
Most of the town's 15,000 dunams is used for agriculture, in particular, olives, wheat and barley. There are seven mosques and four schools located in its vicinity.
Ahmad Lafi is the mayor.

History

In 1838 Surif was noted as a Muslim village, located between Hebron and Gaza, but subjected to the government of Hebron.
In 1863 Victor Guérin found Surif to be a village with 700 inhabitants. He further noted that beside a birket in the rock, a few cisterns and an ancient column shaft which was placed near a small mosque, all of Surif's constructions seemed more or less modern.
An official Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed 87 houses and a population of 265, counting men only.
In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Surif as "A small village on a low hill, with olives to the south."
In 1896 the population of Surif was estimated to be about 1164 persons.

British Mandate Era

According to the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Surif had a population of 1,265 inhabitants, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 1,640, in 344 inhabited houses.
In the 1945 statistics the population of Surif was 2,190, all Muslims, with a total of 38,876 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 3,493 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 11.325 for cereals, while 54 dunams were built-up land.

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Surif came under Jordanian rule.
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 2,827 inhabitants in Surif.

Post-1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Surif has been under Israeli occupation.
Israel has confiscated approximately 1,213 dunams of land from Surif since 2000, and approximately 1,300 dunums of Surif lands will be behind the Israeli West Bank barrier, when it is finished.