Beit Sakariya

Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah (variants: Beit Iskâria, Khirbet Zakariah, Beit Skâria) is a small Palestinian village in the West Bank, perched on a hill that rises about above sea level. It is located in between the larger Israeli settlements of Alon Shevut and Rosh Tzurim in the Gush Etzion region. Administratively, it is associated with Artas, Bethlehem.

Location

Khirbet Beit Zakariyyah is located (horizontal distance) south of Bethlehem. It is bordered by Wadi an Nis to the east, Nahhalin to the north, Al Jab’a to the west, and Beit ‘Ummar and Surif to the south.

History

The village may be the site of the Battle of Beth Zechariah between the Jewish Maccabeans and Selucid Greek forces during the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire, in the year 162 BCE.

Three rock-cut burial caves, dating to the 1st century BCE have been excavated, and pottery fragments from the 1st century BCE were found.Peleg and Feller, 2004,
Rosh Zurim
/ref> Potsherds from the Roman and Byzantine era have also been found here.

In the Byzantine period an important church was located here, which appears on the Madaba map. Since then a mosque, going by the name ''Nabi-Zakariah'', has been built on the site of the church.Ben-Yosef (n.d.), p. 179 Some of the ruins of the church are preserved in the courtyard and roof of the mosque. In general, some of the houses in the village are built on top of ancient ruins and caves (among which is a columbarium).

During the Crusader era, ''Casale Zacharie'', like nearby al-Khidr, probably was a Christian village, and it was granted with al-Khidr to the church of Bethlehem between c. 1155 and c. 1186.

Pottery fragments from the Mamluk era have also been found.

Ottoman era

In the Ottoman census of 1538-1539, ''Bayt Dhakariyya'' was located in the ''nahiya'' of Halil, while in 1557, it was noted that the village revenues went to an Imperial imaret in Jerusalem.

In 1852, Edward Robinson noted Beit Sakarieh “on an almost isolated promontory or Tell, jutting out northwest between two deep valleys; and connected with the high ground south by a low neck between the heads of those two valleys."

An Ottoman list from about 1870 notes a Muslim wali, dedicated to a Sheikh ''Zakarja'', located under a large tree. Several cisterns were also noted, and that the old Roman road to Jerusalem passed by.

The PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' visited in 1873 and noted: "From the main Roman road on the south a path leads to this ruin, situate on the brow, overlooking deep valleys on the east and north. Beside the path is a square foundation about 50 feet side, of roughly-dressed stones. The remains on the hill-brow are those of a large modern village, with more ancient foundations. One wall consists of stones 4 1/2 feet long, 2 feet high, roughly dressed. There is also a mosque, with a portico on the west, sunk below the surface. On the north side of this portico a pillar is placed with a capital of basket-work (see illustration), like the eighth century Byzantine capitals. The shaft is 2 feet diameter. The mosque door was shut ; perhaps it may represent the site of the church which once stood at this place. .Drafted stones with a rough boss were also found, and another capital, apparently Byzantine. To the west of the site are rock-cut tombs, now blocked. A tree grows over the Mukam, or mosque."Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p
108
/ref>

French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village and described the ruins he saw around the village mosque:

A small mosque contains, they say, a tomb, which is no longer visible, buried as it is under rubble; it is believed to contain the venerated remains of Abu Zakaria. At the entrance of this sanctuary, I notice two columns which seem to come from a Byzantine church; the capitals, in fact, represent a sort of basket of rushes intertwined like the meshes of a net.

Gush Etzion settlement bloc

Between 1943 and 1948, four Jewish outpost settlements were built on the village land; the area became known as Gush Etzion (the "Etzion Bloc").

1948

On January 14, 1948, Arab forces led by Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni attempted to capture the strategic hill of Beit Zakariah, and thus to split Gush Etzion into two in preparation for its total conquest. However, Jewish forces defeated them in the Battle of 3 Shevat. The defeat had strategic implications for all of Palestine - as a result, Husseini cancelled his plans to attack Jewish communities, and focused on attacks on the roads.

Jordanian era

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

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