Beit Likia

Beit Liqya ( ar, بيت لقيا) is a Palestinian town located in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it had a population of approximately 7,710 in 2007, of whom 3,799 were male and 3,911 were female.

Location

Beit Liqya is located 13.5 km southwest of Ramallah. It is bordered by Beit ‘Anan and Beit ‘Ur al Foqa to the east, Kharbatha al Misbah to the north, Beit Sira and Beit Nuba to the west, and Beit Nuba and Kharayib Umm al Lahim to the south.

History

In 1882, Conder and Kitchener suggested identifying Beit Liqya with the biblical ''Eltekeh'' of .Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP III, p
16
/ref> However, later researchers have suggested Tel Shalaf, north of Ge'alya as the location of ''Eltekeh''.

Medieval period

In the early 1200, the revenues from Beit Liqya were given as a waqf designated for the Al-Haram al-Sharif.

Ottoman era

Beit Liqya, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in 1557 the revenues of the village were designated for the new waqf of Hasseki Sultan Imaret in Jerusalem, established by Hasseki Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana), the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent.

In 1838 ''Beit Lukia'' was noted as a Muslim village, located in the ''Beni Malik'' area, west of Jerusalem.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
124
/ref>

The French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village in the 1863, and estimated that it had around five hundred inhabitants. He also noted a wali for a Sheikh Abou Ismail. An official Ottoman village list from about 1870, showed that "Bet Lukja" had a total of 109 houses and a population of 347, though the population count included only men.

In 1883, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described Beit Likia as a "small village on a main road at the foot of the hills, supplied by cisterns. There are ancient foundations among the houses."

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Beit Leqia'' had a population of 739, all Muslim,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramallah, p
16
/ref> increasing by the time of 1931 census, when ''Beit Liqya'' had 209 occupied houses and a population of 858, still all Muslim.Mills, 1932, p
62

In the 1945 statistics the population was 1,040, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
26
/ref> while the total land area was 14,358 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 1,918 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 6,469 for cereals, while 39 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.

File:Beit Liqya 1944.jpg, Beit Liqya 1944 1:20,000 from 1919 survey
File:Burj 1945.jpg, Beit Liqya 1945 1:250,000 (bottom right quadrant)

Jordanian era

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

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