Al-Mazraa Al-Sharqiya

al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya ( ar, المزرعه الشرقيّه) is a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located northeast of Ramallah in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of approximately 4,495 inhabitants in 2007.

Geographic location

The village is one of the towns in the Ramallah and Al-Bireh area, located to the northeast of Ramallah. It sits at about 937 meters above sea level. To the north is Sinjil and Turmus Ayya, to the east is Khirbet Abu Falah and Kafr Malik, to the south is Deir Jarir, to the south and west is Silwad, and to the west is Jilijliya.

History

Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya has been identified as the Crusader village named ''Mezera'', and the possible site of a Crusader church. In 1112, Arnulf, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem granted the tithes of ''Mezera'' to the abbey of St Mary. In 1154 ''Mezera'' was mentioned in Crusader texts together with '' Tarphin''. In 1183 Patriarch Heraclius of Jerusalem settled a dispute regarding the tithes of the village.

Ottoman era

In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared as ''Mazra'at Abu Tasa'', located in the ''Nahiya'' of Jabal Quds of the '' Liwa'' of Al-Quds. The population was 29 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, which included wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards and fruit trees, occasional revenues, goats and beehives; a total of 3,500 akçe.

In 1838 ''el-Mezra'ah'' was noted as a Muslim village, part of ''Beni Murrah'' district, located north of Jerusalem.

An Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that “el-Mezraa” had 177 houses and a population of 641, though the population count included men, only. It also noted that it is located south of Turmus Ayya.

In 1882, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described Al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya as: "A large village on a hill-top, the hill-sides covered with vineyards; there are also olives and figs. The houses are of stone and adobe."

In 1896 the population of ''Mezraa'', located in the ''Beni Murra'' region, was estimated to be about 801 persons.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, al-Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya had a population of 824 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramallah, p
17
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 1,191, still all Muslims, in a total of 247 houses.Mills, 1932, p
50

In the 1945 statistics the population was 1,400 Muslim, while the total land area was 16,333 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 7,082 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 3,831 for cereals, while 91 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements

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