| Khirbat al-Sarkas | |
| Native Name: | خربة السركس |
| Native Name Lang: | ar |
| Other Name: | Khirbet as Sarkas |
| Settlement Type: | Village |
| Etymology: | lit. "The ruins of the Circassians" |
| Pushpin Map: | Mandatory Palestine |
| Pushpin Mapsize: | 200 |
| Coordinates: | 32.4469°N 34.9603°W |
| Grid Name: | Palestine grid |
| Grid Position: | 146/205 |
| Subdivision Type: | Geopolitical entity |
| Subdivision Name: | Mandatory Palestine |
| Subdivision Type1: | Subdistrict |
| Subdivision Name1: | Haifa |
| Established Title1: | Date of depopulation |
| Established Date1: | 15 April 1948[1] |
| Established Title2: | Repopulated dates |
| Unit Pref: | dunam |
| Population As Of: | 1931 |
| Population Total: | 383 |
| Blank Name Sec1: | Cause(s) of depopulation |
| Blank Info Sec1: | Expulsion by Yishuv forces |
| Blank3 Name Sec1: | Current Localities |
| Blank3 Info Sec1: | Gan Shmuel,[2] Talmei Elazar |
Khirbat al-Sarkas (ar|خربة السركس) was a village in Palestine, located 42 kilometres south of Haifa. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
The village was founded by Circassians from Russia who were expelled from their country by the armies of the Czar in the 19th century, approximately 1860.[3]
A population list from about 1887 showed that Jerakes had 130 Muslim inhabitants, who were noted as "Circassians”.[4]
The village was abandoned by the Circassians because of a Malaria epidemic. It was then settled by local Muslim Arabs.
Gan Shmuel was established in 1913, about 1 km from the village.[2]
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Kherbet al-Sharkas had a population of 74; all Muslims,[5] increasing sharply in the 1931 census to 383, still all Muslim, in a total of 80 houses.[6]
Though the Arab Higher Command had ordered the evacuation of the village's women and children three times prior to April 1948, the villagers did not leave.[7] Described by Benny Morris as "a friendly village", it was nonetheless one of the villages depopulated at the order of the Israeli Haganah, per their policy to clear the coastal plain of Arab villages in the lead up to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.[7] The women and children left between 20 April and 22 April 1948, and the men a few days later.[7]
Talmei Elazar was established near the village site in 1952.[2]
In 1992 the place was described: "Cactuses and spikes of grain are scattered across the site; there are no traces of any landmarks or houses. The land near the site is used by Israeli farmers for raising cattle and growing citrus."[2]
