Beit Iksa

Coordinates: 31°49′05″N 35°10′50″E / 31.81806°N 35.18056°E / 31.81806; 35.18056
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Beit Iksa
Village council
 • Head of MunicipalityBajes Abud
Area
 • Total7,734 dunams (7.7 km2 or 3.0 sq mi)
Elevation
[1]
747 m (2,451 ft)
Population
 (2017)[2]
 • Total1,773
 • Density230/km2 (600/sq mi)
Name meaning"The house of Iksa"[3]
Websitewww.beit-iksa.com
Map

Beit Iksa (

Arabic: بيت إكسا;[3]) is a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Governorate, located northwest of Jerusalem in the West Bank
.

The village is surrounded on all sides by the Israeli West Bank barrier, and outside Palestinians are denied access through the one Israeli checkpoint leading to it. In 2014 Israeli military authorities announced they would confiscate a further 3,167 acres of Beit Iksa lands, leaving the township, according to the village head, Saada al-Khatib, as a 2,500-dunum area.[4]

Beit Iksa contains two primary schools run by the

Palestinian National Authority. Students attending secondary school travel to Jerusalem or nearby towns for education.[5]

Location

Beit Iksa is a Palestinian village located 6.5 kilometers (4.0 mi) (horizontally) north-west of

An Nabi Samwil to the north, Beit Surik and Lifta to the west.[1]

Etymology

The name Beit Iksa is an old one.[6] The 2nd component goes back to Heb. Ks’, an anthroponym named after the day of the full moon (ks’). In this case it is a calendar (> festival?) name. The residents associate the anthroponym Kisa with the founder of their village.[7]

In the 1870s, locals informed Clermont-Ganneau that the village's alternative name was Umm-el-ela. Beni Zeid settlers from the north who obtained permission for the site gave the village a new name, Beit Iksa.[8] During the Crusader period, the village was known as Jenanara, according to its inhabitants.[9]

History

Beit Iksa lies on one of the historical routes that joined the Mediterranean coastal plain with Jerusalem, and archeological excavations conducted south of the village have yielded remains from the Hellenistic, Early Roman, late Byzantine and Umayyad periods, which the archaeologists believe belonged to an ancient settlement close by on the southwest outskirts of Beit Iksa.[10]

Ottoman era

In 1517, the village was incorporated into the

Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine
.

In 1552, Beit Iksa was an inhabited village.

Hürrem Sultan, the favourite wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, endowed the tax revenues of Beit Iksa to its Haseki Sultan Imaret in Jerusalem. Administratively, Beit Iksa belonged to the District of Jerusalem. During this time, as in later periods, the residents of the village cultivated the lands of Kharruba.[11]

In the 1596

Muslims. The inhabitants paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards, fruit trees, orchard, goats or bee hives, and a press for olives or grapes; a total of 18,000 akçe.[12]

In 1838, Beit Iksa was noted as a Muslim village, part of the

El-Kuds district.[13][14]

In 1841 a local leader (nāzir), Abd al-Qadir al-Khatib, built an Ottoman castle located in the southern part of the village, while one of his brother built a smaller version five years later.[8] In 1863, the French explorer Victor Guérin passed by the village and was told it had 300 inhabitants. He noted that the surroundings were cultivated with vines and olive trees.[15] An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that "Bet Iksa" had 70 houses and a population of 147, though the population count included only men.[16][17] According to Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau, he was informed in 1874 that the inhabitant belonged to the Beni Zeid tribe and that the village earlier had been named Umm el Ela.[8][18]

In 1883, the

well on the north, near which is a tree sacred to an otherwise unknown prophet, Nabī Leimûun. There are a few olives round the village."[8][19]

Around 1896 the population of Beit Iksa was estimated to be about 714 persons.[20]

British Mandate era

In the

Muslims,[21] increasing in the 1931 census to a population of 1003, in 221 houses.[22]

In the 1945 statistics, Beit Iksa had a population of 1,410, all Muslims,[23] with 8,179 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[24] Of this, 1,427 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 2,690 used for cereals,[25] while 43 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[26]

Jordanian era

In April 1948, most of the villagers fled following the fall of Deir Yassin and the Haganah entered the village destroying many buildings.[27] In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Beit Iksa came under Jordanian rule. It was annexed by Jordan in 1950.

In 1961, the population of Beit Iksa was 1,177.[28]

After 1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Beit Iksa has been under Israeli occupation.

After the

West Bank separation barrier.[29][5]
[4]

The majority of the present population came to the village as refugees in the wake of the Six Day War, when its original inhabitants were forced to flee. In November 2014, Israeli authorities delivered a notification to the village, declaring the intention of confiscating 12,852 dunums (3,176 acres) of their land, including the areas of Haraeq al-Arab, Thahr Biddu, Numus, and Khatab. The given reason for the confiscation states that the land is required "for military purposes". Landholders were given until 31 December 2017 to remain on their land.[4]

Ramot, have been built on 1,500 dunums (371 acres) on village land,[4] and according to the village major, the order came through after the Israel government announced plans for a further 244 housing units to be built in Ramot.[4] In addition, Israel has confiscated 15 dunums for the Israeli settlement of Har Samuel, part of the Giv'at Ze'ev settlement.[29]

Population

According to the

Palestinian refugees.[5] By 2014 the population had grown to some 1,700.[4] By 2017, the population was 1,773.[2]

According to the land researcher Sami Hadawi, the population grew to 1,410 in 1945.[24] However, following Israel's occupation after the 1967 Six-Day War, Beit Iksa counted 633 inhabitants, due to the number of residents that fled the village. Most of the village's inhabitants hold Palestinian ID cards and live in Beit Iksa's built-up area of 417 dunams or 5.4% of the village's total land area of 7,734 dunams.[31]

Shrines

In the 1920, Tawfiq Canaan noted several shrines, or maqams here. Es-seh Mbarak/Imbarak had one in the public cemetery,[32] with a niche, for holding oil-lamps, etc, in the northern side of the shrine.[33]

A shrine for Sheik Hasan was badly damaged during

WWI.[34]

A shrine for Sheik Iteyim was also used as a madafeh, or guest room, in addition to being used as a school room.[35]

References

  1. ^ a b Beit Iksa Village Profile, ARIJ, 2012, p. 4
  2. ^ a b Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017 (PDF). Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) (Report). State of Palestine. February 2018. pp. 64–82. Retrieved 2023-10-24.
  3. ^ a b Palmer, 1881, p. 286
  4. ^ a b c d e f 'Israel to confiscate 3,200 acres of Palestinian land near Jerusalem,'Ma'an News Agency 8 November 2014.
  5. ^ a b c Village Profiles: Profile of Beit Iksa, Jerusalem Archived April 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine United Nations Relief and Works Agency. January 2004.
  6. ^ Palmer 1881.
  7. ^ Marom, Roy; Zadok, Ran (2023). "Early-Ottoman Palestinian Toponymy: A Linguistic Analysis of the (Micro-)Toponyms in Haseki Sultan's Endowment Deed (1552)". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. 139 (2).
  8. ^ a b c d Sharon, 1999, pp. 105 -108
  9. ^ Clermont-Ganneau, 1899, vol. 1, p. 479
  10. ^ Aharonovich, 2018, Beit Iksa
  11. ^ Marom, Roy (2022-11-01). "Jindās: A History of Lydda's Rural Hinterland in the 15th to the 20th Centuries CE". Lod, Lydda, Diospolis. 1: 8.
  12. ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 121.
  13. ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 121
  14. ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 2, p. 141
  15. ^ Guérin, 1868, p. 256
  16. El-Kuds
    district, and half an hour NW of the village was an ancient grove.
  17. ^ Hartmann, 1883, p. 127 also noted 70 houses
  18. ^ Clermont-Ganneau, 1896, vol. 2, p. 42
  19. ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 8
  20. ^ Schick, 1896, p. 121
  21. ^ Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p. 14
  22. ^ Mills, 1932, p. 38
  23. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 24
  24. ^ a b Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 56
  25. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 101
  26. ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 151
  27. ^ Morris, 1987, pp.114,158
  28. ^ Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 23
  29. ^ a b Beit Iksa Village Profile, ARIJ, p. 16
  30. ^ Projected Mid -Year Population for Jerusalem Governorate by Locality 2004- 2006 Archived February 7, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS)
  31. ^ Beit Iksa village loses its lands for the Israeli Segregation Wall Archived August 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem
  32. ^ Canaan, 1927, p. 8
  33. ^ Canaan, 1927, p. 27
  34. ^ Canaan, 1927, p. 11
  35. ^ Canaan, 1927, p. 17

Bibliography

External links

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