Bayt ʿIṭāb ( ar, بيت عطاب) was a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

village located in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. The village is believed to have been inhabited since biblical times. An ancient tunnel which led to the village spring is associated with story of

Samson Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...

. Both during and after its incorporation into Crusader fiefdoms in the 12th century, its population was

Sheikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

s from the Lahham family clan, who were associated with the Qays tribo-political faction, ruled the village during Ottoman era. In the 19th century, this clan controlled 24 villages in the vicinity. The homes were built of stone. The local farmers cultivated cereals, fruit trees and olive groves and some engaged in livestock breeding. After a military assault on Bayt ʿIṭāb by Israeli forces in October 1948, the village was depopulated and demolished. Many of the villagers had fled to

refugee camps A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for internally displaced peo ...

in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

less than from the village. In 1950, an Israeli

moshav A moshav ( he, מוֹשָׁב, plural ', lit. ''settlement, village'') is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 an ...

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian ...

' ''

Onomasticon Onomasticon may refer to: *Onomasticon (Eusebius) *Onomasticon of Amenope *Onomasticon of Joan Coromines *Onomasticon of Julius Pollux *Onomasticon of Johann Glandorp *''Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum Onomasticon may refer to: *Onomasticon (Eusebius ...

'', written in the fourth century CE.

Crusader era

In the mid-12th century, Bayt ʿIṭāb hosted an impressive ''maison forte'', or hall house, in the ancient centre of the modern village, that is thought to have served as the residence of Johannes Gothman, a

Frankish Frankish may refer to: * Franks, a Germanic tribe and their culture ** Frankish language or its modern descendants, Franconian languages * Francia, a post-Roman state in France and Germany * East Francia, the successor state to Francia in Germany ...

crusader knight. The building had two stories, both

vaulted In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...

; the ground floor entrance was protected by a slit-

machicolation A machicolation (french: mâchicoulis) is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones or other material, such as boiling water, hot sand, quicklime or boiling cooking oil, could be dropped on attackers at t ...

and had stairs leading to the basement and upper floor.CHRAM, 1994
p. 342
/ref> Nonetheless, his wife was forced to sell his landholdings after he was taken prisoner by Islamic forces in 1161, in order to raise the money needed for his ransom.Riley-Smith, 2001
p. 171
/ref>Pringle, 1997
p.26
/ref> It was then acquired by and made a

fief A fief (; la, feudum) was a central element in medieval contracts based on feudal law. It consisted of a form of property holding or other rights granted by an Lord, overlord to a vassal, who held it in fealty or "in fee" in return for a for ...

of the

Church of the Holy Sepulchre The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, hy, Սուրբ Հարության տաճար, la, Ecclesia Sancti Sepulchri, am, የቅዱስ መቃብር ቤተክርስቲያን, he, כנסיית הקבר, ar, كنيسة القيامة is a church i ...

, possibly organised by the

Order of the Holy Sepulchre The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Equestris Sancti Sepulcri Hierosolymitani, links=yes, OESSH), also called Order of the Holy Sepulchre or Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, is a Catholic Church, Catholic order of ...

.Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p
23
/ref> The Arabic name of the village appears in Latin transliteration as ''Bethaatap'' in a list recording the sale of the land holdings belonging to Gothman in 1161.Levy, 1998
p. 505
/ref> Its affiliations with the Crusader era has led some to erroneously characterize the village as "Crusader", when in fact its habitation by Arabs predates, persisted through and extended beyond this period.Benvenisti, 2002, in a chapter named "The Convenience of the Crusades"
p. 301
/ref>

Ottoman era

Edward Robinson visited the village in 1838, and described its stone houses, several of which had two storeys, as solidly built. In the center of the village were the ruins of a castle or tower. Robinson estimates, the village population was six to seven hundred people. He notes that ''Beit 'Atab'', as he transcribes it, was the chief town of the 'Arkub (Arqub) district and the Nazir (warden) of the district lived there. Robinson recounts that he was "a good-looking man" from the Lahaam clan, and that when they arrived in the village, he was sitting conversing with other

sheikh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...

s on a carpet under a

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

tree. Rising to greet them, he invited them to stay for the night, but as they were in a hurry to see more of the country before the setting of the sun, and so declined his offer.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, p
338
Cited in Khalidi, 1992, p. 274 In the mid-19th century, the sheikh of Bayt 'Itab was named 'Utham al-Lahham (Sheikh 'Othman al-Lahaam). He had been exiled in 1846, but had managed to escape and return. A supporter of the Qays faction, Lahham was in conflict with the Yamani faction leaders, especially the sheikh of

Abu Ghosh Abu Ghosh ( ar, أبو غوش; he, אבו גוש) is an Arab-Israeli local council in Israel, located west of Jerusalem on the Tel Aviv–Jerusalem highway. It is situated 610–720 meters above sea level. It takes its current name from the d ...

.Schölch, 1993, p. 231 In the 1850s the conflict between these two families over the control of the district of Bani Hasan dominated the area. As

Meron Benvenisti Meron Benvenisti ( he, מירון בנבנשתי, 21 April 193420 September 2020) was an Israeli political scientist who was deputy mayor of Jerusalem under Teddy Kollek from 1971 to 1978, during which he administered East Jerusalem and served as ...

writes, al-Lahham waged "a bloody war against Sheik Mustafa Abu Ghosh, whose capital and fortified seat was in the village of

Suba Suba may refer to: Groups of people *Suba people (Kenya), a people of Kenya **Suba language *Suba people (Tanzania), a people of Tanzania * Subha (writers), alternatively spelt Suba, Indian writer duo Individual people *Suba (musician), Serbian- ...

." In 1855, Mohammad Atallah in

Bayt Nattif Bayt Nattif or Beit Nattif ( ar, بيت نتّيف, and alternatively) was a Palestinian Arab village, located some 20 kilometers (straight line distance) southwest of Jerusalem, midway on the ancient Roman road between Beit Guvrin and Jerusal ...

, a cousin of 'Utham al-Lahham, contested his rule over the region. In order to win support from

, Mohammad Atallah changed side over to the Yamani faction. This is said to have enraged 'Utham al-Lahham. He raised a fighting force and fell on

on 3 January 1855. The village lost 21 dead. According to an eyewitness description by the horrified British consul,

James Finn James Finn (1806–1872) was a British Consul in Jerusalem, in the then Ottoman Empire (1846–1863). He arrived in 1845 with his wife Elizabeth Anne Finn. Finn was a devout Christian, who belonged to the London Society for Promoting Christia ...

, their corpses were terribly mutilated.Schölch, 1993, p. 232

notes that, "The long history of Beit ʿIṭāb and the tale of the wars of the Quays and Yaman have been recounted at length in many books, and British consul James Finn (mid-nineteenth century) left a particularly vivid description of this village and its houses, both ancient and new. But there is no mention of any of this in Israeli guidebooks, save for the routine remark, "destroyed in the War for Independence." By contrast, the guidebook makes sure to inform its readers that "it is almost certain that its Arab name, Beit ʿIṭāb, is a corruption of its Latin name, Atap, meaning a small fortress," and at the site there are "remains of ancient structures, apparently from a Crusader farm."" In February 1855, the Abu Ghosh-family came to the aid of Atallah, conquered Bayt ʿIṭāb, and imprisoned ʿUtham al-Laḥḥām in his own house. With the help of one of the younger members of the Abu Ghosh-family,

was able to negotiate a cease-fire between the Atallah and Lahham -factions in Bayt 'Itab. For three years, relative peace reigned in the area; however, the Ottoman Governor of Jerusalem, Thurayya Pasha, and his policy of consolidating Ottoman control over the local districts, step by step, led to the last rebellion of the sheikhs in 1858–59. By the fall of 1859, when 'Utham al-Lahham was ninety years old, both he and Mohammad Atallah were deported to

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

by Thurayya Pasha. The rest of the Laḥḥām family was resettled in

Ramla Ramla or Ramle ( he, רַמְלָה, ''Ramlā''; ar, الرملة, ''ar-Ramleh'') is a city in the Central District of Israel. Today, Ramle is one of Israel's mixed cities, with both a significant Jewish and Arab populations. The city was f ...

.Schölch, 1993, pp.232-3, party based on Finn,
p.193
ff. When French explorer

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Mino ...

visited the village in 1863, "he found that the Sheikh's house, with the adjoining houses, is built upon the site of an old fort, some vaults of which remain, and seemed to him older than the Crusades. The people say that there is a subterranean passage from the castle to the spring at the bottom of the hill. They also told him that the village of '' Eshua'' (4 miles to the north-west) was formerly called Ashtual, and that between the villages of Sur'ah and Eshua is a waly consecrated to the ''Sheikh Gherib'', and known also as the Kabr Shamshun, Tomb of Samson."

Socin Sozzini, Sozini, Socini or Socin is an Italian noble family originally from Siena in Tuscany, where the family were noted as bankers and merchants, jurists and humanist scholars. The family has been described as "the most famous legal dynasty of t ...

found from an official Ottoman village list from about 1870 that Bayt 'Itab had a population of 241, with a total of 89 houses, though the population count included men, only. Hartmann found that Bayt 'Itab had 100 houses. In the late 19th century, Bayt ʿIṭāb was described as a village built on stone, perched on a rocky knoll that rose 60 to 100 feet above the surrounding hilly ridge. Its population in 1875 was approximately 700, all

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. Olive trees were cultivated on terraces to the north of the village. A large cavern (18 feet wide and 6 feet high) ran beneath the houses. Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, pp
22
24. Also quoted in Khalidi, 1992, p. 275 In 1896 the population of ''Bet 'atab'' was estimated to be about 543 persons.

British Mandatory period

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divisi ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bayt 'Itab had a population of 504 residents; all

s,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramleh, p
21
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 606, still all Muslims, in a total of 187 houses.Mills, 1932, p
19
/ref> It was in the sub-district of Ramle, but due to the rearrangement of district boundaries it was later in the sub-district of Jerusalem.Kark and Oren-Nordheim, 2001
p. 192
/ref> The original layout of Bayt ʿIṭāb was circular, but newer construction to the southwest (towards

Sufla Sufla ( ar, سفلى) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on October 19, 1948, by the Sixth Battalion of the Harel Brigade under Operation Ha-Har. It was located 18. ...

), gave the village an arc-shape. Most houses were built of stone. Agriculture was the main source of income. The village owned extensive areas on the coastal plain that were planted with grain. During the British Mandate in Palestine, some of this land was expropriated to make a large, government-owned woodland. In the 1945 statistics, it had a population of 540 Muslims, with 5,447

dunums A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...

of land. Of this, a total of 1,400 dunams were used for

cereals A cereal is any grass cultivated for the edible components of its grain (botanically, a type of fruit called a caryopsis), composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran. Cereal grain crops are grown in greater quantities and provide more food en ...

, 665 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, while 14 dunams were built-up (urban) Arab land. 116 dunums were planted with olive trees, and the villagers also engaged in livestock breeding. File:Ras Abu Ammar 1945.jpg, Bayt 'Itab, Mandate survey, 1:20,000 File:Allar 1945.jpg, Bayt 'Itab, 1945, 1:20,000

1948 War and aftermath

The village was depopulated between 19 and 24 October 1948, after the

Harel Brigade Harel Brigade (, ''Hativat Harel'') is a reserve brigade of the Israel Defense Forces, today part of the Southern Command. It played a critical role in the 1948 Palestine war, also known as "Israel's War of Independence." It is one of the former ...

captured the village as part of

Operation Ha-Har Operation Ha-Har ( he, ההר, ''The Mountain''), or Operation El Ha-Har, was an Israeli Defence Forces campaign against villages southwest of Jerusalem launched at the end of October 1948. The operation lasted from 19 to 24 October and was carr ...

. This operation was complementary to

Operation Yoav Operation Yoav (also called ''Operation Ten Plagues'' or ''Operation Yo'av'') was an Israeli military operation carried out from 15–22 October 1948 in the Negev Desert, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Its goal was to drive a wedge between th ...

, a simultaneous offensive on the southern front. Most of the village population fled southwards, towards Bethlehem and Hebron.Morris, 2004, p.
466
/ref> Many

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

from Bayt 'Itab, and other Palestinian villages clustered together on the western slope of the

Judean mountains The Judaean Mountains, or Judaean Hills ( he, הרי יהודה, translit=Harei Yehuda) or the Hebron Mountains ( ar, تلال الخليل, translit=Tilal al-Khalīl, links=, lit=Hebron Mountains), is a mountain range in Palestine and Israel wh ...

, ended up in Dheisheh refugee camp in the

, roughly from their former homes.Rosenfeld, 2004
p. 322
/ref> One IDF account says that when the

approached the village at night, they already found the village deserted, but proceeded to destroy its houses. In 1950, the Israeli village of

Nes Harim Nes Harim ( he, נֵס הָרִים, ''lit.'' Banner of the Mountains) is a moshav in central Israel. Located in the Judean foothills near Beit Shemesh and eight kilometers west of Jerusalem,Walid Khalidi Walid Khalidi ( ar, وليد خالدي, born 1925 in Jerusalem) is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian people, Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the 1948 Palestinian exodus, Palestinian exodus. He is a co-founder of the ...

found the site strewn with rubble and the remains of a Crusader fortress. He noted two cemeteries that lay east and west of the village, and the fact that some of the surrounding land was cultivated by Israeli farmers. In 2002, the

Israel Nature and Parks Authority The Israel Nature and Parks Authority ( he, רשות הטבע והגנים ''Rashut Hateva Vehaganim''; ar, سلطة الطبيعة والحدائق) is an Israeli government organization that manages nature reserves and national parks in Israel, ...

established a 130-dunam national park in the area, known as Horvat 'Itab. Remains at the site include a Crusader fortress, vaults, remnants of a wall and towers, tunnels, a

columbarium A columbarium (; pl. columbaria) is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns, holding cremated remains of the deceased. The term can also mean the nesting boxes of pigeons. The term comes from the Latin "'' colu ...

and an olive press. A conservation project was undertaken to stabilize the vaulted building utilizing traditional technology.

Geography

Bayt ʿIṭāb was located south southwest of Jerusalem, on a high mountain above sea level, overlooking some lower mountains peaks below.Khalidi, 1992, p. 274 A

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

road ran along a narrow ridge to the south of the village which also passed by

Solomon's Pools Solomon's Pools ( ar, برك سليمان, ''Burak Suleīmān'', Solomon's Pools, or in short ''el-Burak'', the pools; he, בריכות שלמה, ''Breichot Shlomo'') are three ancient reservoirs located in the south-central West Bank, immediate ...

.Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p
38
/ref> A low cliff to the east of the village was known as Arâk el-Jemâl'' ("the cliff, cavern or buttress of the camels").Palmer, 1881, p
284
/ref> Southeast of the village on the main road was the chief village spring known as ''ʿAin Beit ʿAṭāb'' ( ar, عين بيت عطاب) or ''ʿAin Haud''.Palmer, 1881, p
278
/ref> Below this spring to the northwest, was a pool known as ''Birket 'Atab'' with its own spring, ''`Ain el-Birkeh''.Palmer, 1881, p
279
/ref> Another spring nearby was known as Ain el Khanzierh'' ("the spring of the sow").Palmer, 1881, p
280
/ref> Connecting the village to the chief spring was a rock tunnel said to be "of great antiquity," the entrance of which was known only to those well acquainted with the site.Lias, 2009
pp. 165-166
/ref> This cavern or tunnel, known in Arabic as ''Mgharat Bīr el-Hasuta'', ("Cave of the Well of Hasuta") is "evidently artificial," and was hewn into the rock.Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p
137
/ref> Some 250 feet long, it runs in a south-south-west direction from the village emerging as a vertical shaft (6 ft x 5 ft x 10 ft deep) about 60 yards away from the spring that supplied the village with water. The average height of the tunnel is about 5 to 8 feet with a width of about 18 feet. There were two entrances to it from the village, one in the west, and the other at the center, the latter being closed at one author's time of writing in the 19th century.

Biblical identification

In 1879, Lieutenant C. R. Conder, of the

Palestine Exploration Fund The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society based in London. It was founded in 1865, shortly after the completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem, and is the oldest known organization in the world created specifically for the study ...

(PEF), thought that the place Bayt ʿIṭāb should be identified with the biblical site known as "Rock of Etam"
Judges 15:11
, by way of a corruption of its name, and which, according to Conder, was not a town at all, but "a strong rock."Conder, 1878, p
117
/ref>

John William McGarvey John William (J. W.) McGarvey (March 1, 1829 – October 6, 1911) was a minister, author, and religious educator in the American Restoration Movement. He was particularly associated with the College of the Bible in Lexington, Kentucky (today Lex ...

(1881) quotes Conder on the linguistic evidence: "The substitution of B for M is so common (as in Tibneh for

Timnah Timnath or Timnah was a Philistine city in Canaan that is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in and in connection with Samson. Modern archaeologists identify the ancient site with a tell lying on a flat, alluvial plain, located in the Sorek Valley c ...

) that the name Atab may very properly represent the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Etam (''eagle's nest''); and there are other indications as to the identity of the site."McGarvey, 2002, pp
246-247
/ref> ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (1883), notes that the name of the "curious cave" at Bayt ʿIṭāb in Arabic is ''Bir el-Has Utah''. Unable to find a meaning for the word in Arabic, they find it corresponds to the Hebrew word ''Hasutah'', " ..which is translated 'a place of refuge.' Thus the name seems to indicate that this place has been used from a very early time as a lurking or hiding place, as we gather it to have been in the time of Samson." McGarvey also relays Conder's belief that the cavern within the rock formation was "the real hiding place" of Samson after his destruction of the

Philistine The Philistines ( he, פְּלִשְׁתִּים, Pəlīštīm; Koine Greek (LXX): Φυλιστιείμ, romanized: ''Phulistieím'') were an ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan from the 12th century BC until 604 BC, when ...

's grains. Henry B. Tristram (1897) writes of Bayt 'Itab that it crowned "a remarkable rocky knoll," which he states is, "probably, '' the Rock Etam''." Noting that an ancient tunnel ran down from the village eastward through the rock to the chief spring, he speculates that this would have made a good hiding place for

when according to

biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

tradition, he "went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam" (

Book of Judges The Book of Judges (, ') is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom i ...

, xv. 8).Tristram, 1897, pp
66-67
/ref>

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * (Unhman al-Latham description
p230
*(Bayt 'Itab
p.193
ff.) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ( pp
326

338
340) * * * (p
266
Beitatap(?), p
279
Betatap) * *Schölch, Alexander (1986): ''Palästina im Umbruch 1856-1882.'' Wiesbaden and Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. * * *

External links

Bayt 'Itab

Zochrot Zochrot ( he, זוכרות; "Remembering"; ar, ذاكرات; "Memories") is an Israeli nonprofit organization founded in 2002. Based in Tel Aviv, its aim is to promote awareness of the Palestinian ''Nakba'' ("Catastrophe"), including the 1948 Pa ...

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17
IAA

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Bayt 'Itab in Antiquity
Archaeological Survey of Israel

from the

Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center () is a leading Palestinian arts and culture organization that aims to create a pluralistic, critical liberating culture through research, query, and participation, and that provides an open space for the community ...

Bayt 'Itab
Palestine Family
Visiting the village erased from all but a family's memory

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{{Crusader Sites in Israel 1948 Arab–Israeli War District of Jerusalem Arab villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Throne villages Order of the Holy Sepulchre