Beitin ( ar, بيتين ') is a Palestinian village in the

Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate The Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate ( ar, محافظة رام الله والبيرة ') is one of 16 governorates of Palestine. It covers a large part of the central West Bank, on the northern border of the Jerusalem Governorate. Its district ...

in the central West Bank, located northeast of

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ar, رام الله, , God's Height) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank that serves as the ''de facto'' administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusale ...

along the Ramallah-Nablus road. The Palestinian village of Dura al-Qar' and Ein Yabrud lie to the north, Rammun to the east, Deir Dibwan to the southeast and al-Bireh to the southwest. The

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

Beit El Beit El or Beth El ( he, בֵּית אֵל) is an Israeli settlement and local council located in the Binyamin Region of the West Bank. The Orthodox Jewish town was settled in 1977-78 by the ultranationalist group Gush Emunim. It is located in ...

is northwest of Beitin.

Geography

There are several springs around Beitin, which is known for its olive,

almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...

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 ...

and plum groves.

History

Periods of settlement

The site was first settled during the Chalcolithic period.

Sherd In archaeology, a sherd, or more precisely, potsherd, is commonly a historic or prehistoric fragment of pottery, although the term is occasionally used to refer to fragments of stone and glass vessels, as well. Occasionally, a piece of broken p ...

s from the

Early Early may refer to: History * The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.: ** Early Christianity ** Early modern Europe Places in the United States * Early, Iowa * Early, Texas * Early ...

, Intermediate, Middle and Late Bronze Age, as well as the Iron Age I and II, the Persian,

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

, Roman,Finkelstein and Lederman, 1997, p. 518 the Byzantine and Crusader/

Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...

periods have been found. The village was abandoned after the 1187 defeat of the Crusaders at the hands of Sultan Saladin and the ensuing destruction of Christian sites. At the ruins of the Crusader watchtower (''al-Burj''), residential remains from the

Mamluk period The Mamluk Sultanate ( ar, سلطنة المماليك, translit=Salṭanat al-Mamālīk), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz (western Arabia) from the mid-13th to early 16th ...

were discovered. The village was only reestablished in the 19th century under Ottoman rule.

Chalcolithic period

Human settlement at the site of Beitin dates back to the Chalcolithic period. Archaeological excavations in 1950 uncovered flint tools, pottery and animal bones from that time.

Bronze Age

In the Early Bronze Age (around 3200 BCE) normally nomadic populations settled in the area. Canaanite tombs, houses and olive presses were discovered to the north and southeast of the village. The remains of a Canaanite temple were also excavated by archaeologists. In the

Middle Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

(around 1750 BCE) its status was elevated from a village to a fortified Canaanite town which is believed to be

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 ...

Luz.Luza, also Bethel - (Beitin)
Studium Biblicum Franciscanum - Jerusalem. 2000-12-19. Two city gates dating to this period have been excavated, one in the northeast and the other northwest of the wall. A second temple was built in Luz during this period, but was destroyed as a result of an earthquake.

Iron Age

Biblical reference

Beitin has been identified as the biblical

Bethel Bethel ( he, בֵּית אֵל, translit=Bēṯ 'Ēl, "House of El" or "House of God",Bleeker and Widegren, 1988, p. 257. also transliterated ''Beth El'', ''Beth-El'', ''Beit El''; el, Βαιθήλ; la, Bethel) was an ancient Israelite sanct ...

, the site where Jacob slept and dreamt of the angels coming up and down a ladder (). Some scholars believe that Bethel was located on the site of the ruins surrounding Beitin.Trisdam, 1865, pp
164
166 According to Genesis, Jacob encountered God near Luz and renamed the place ''Bethel'' or "House of God." However, based on the biblical

Book of Joshua The Book of Joshua ( he, סֵפֶר יְהוֹשֻׁעַ‎ ', Tiberian: ''Sēp̄er Yŏhōšūaʿ'') is the sixth book in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament, and is the first book of the Deuteronomistic history, the story of Isra ...

(), which says ''mibBeit-el Luzah'' ("from Bethel to Luz"), Luz and Bethel may have been two different places.

Byzantine period

In Byzantine times, Bethel held annual festivals on October 18. The population was

Eastern Orthodox Christian Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or "canonical") ...

and monks from the Sinai Peninsula, particularly

Zosimas of Palestine Zosimas of Palestine ( el, Ζωσιμᾶς) (Palestinian Arabic: زوسيموس الفلسطيني), is commemorated as a Palestinian saint. His feast day is on the 4 of April. Biography Zosimas was born in the second half of the fifth centu ...

, were known to have visited the town.

Early Muslim period

The church fell into ruin after the

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

ic Rashidun army

conquered Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...

the area.

Crusader & Ayyubid periods

The church was rebuilt by the Crusaders in the 12th century. During the Crusader period, the village was given as fief by

Baldwin V of Jerusalem Baldwin V (1177 or 1178August 1186) was King of Jerusalem who reigned together with his uncle Baldwin IV from 1183 to 1185 and, after his uncle's death, as the sole king from 1185 to his death. Baldwin IV's leprosy meant that he could not have ...

to 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 ...

. After the Crusaders were defeated by the

forces of Saladin in 1187, the church was destroyed and the village was abandoned.

Ottoman period

The region had been part of the Ottoman Empire since 1517 and after Beitin was reestablished, the village came under the administration of the '' Mutasarrif'' ("Governorate") of Jerusalem. In the early 19th century, people from

Transjordan Transjordan may refer to: * Transjordan (region), an area to the east of the Jordan River * Oultrejordain, a Crusader lordship (1118–1187), also called Transjordan * Emirate of Transjordan, British protectorate (1921–1946) * Hashemite Kingdom of ...

and other places migrated to Beitin and built a mosque near the site of the old church. Visit Palestine: Bittin
Visit Palestine. In 1838 Edward Robinson noted ''Beitin'' as a place "in ruins or deserted," located immediately north of Jerusalem.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
122
/ref> In 1863 Victor Guérin found the village to have 400 inhabitants,Guérin, 1869, pp
14
26 while an Ottoman village list from around 1870 showed that Beitin had an adult male population of 140, in a total of 55 houses (thus excluding women and children). In 1882 the PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' described Beitin as a village "built on the side of a flat spur which rises slightly on the north. On the south-east is a flat dell, with good fig and pomegranate gardens, and there are other fig-trees round the village and among the houses. The cottages have a ruinous appearance, with rough stone walls. There is one square white house in two stories, which is visible from a great distance. The ground is very open, and the slopes gentle; the village slopes down gradually south-east. The surrounding ground is quite bare of trees, of white chalk, very barren and stony on the south; of hard limestone cropping up on the north; the fields divided off by low drystone walls. The contrast of the grey rocks, the red ploughland and the dark green figs is very striking. The remains of a good-sized tower exist towards the north, and on the south the walls of a church of

Crusading The First Crusade inspired the crusading movement, which became an important part of late medieval western culture. The movement influenced the Church, politics, the economy, society and created a distinct ideology that described, regulated, a ...

date, once dedicated to

St. Joseph Joseph (; el, Ἰωσήφ, translit=Ioséph) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. The Gospels also name some brothers ...

. The population is stated at 400. The place is supplied from a fine spring on the south, which wells up in a circular basin. The spring is double, and was surrounded with a large reservoir, 314 feet long north-west and south-east, by 217 feet; of massive stones. The eastern and southern walls are standing about 10 feet high. The spring is perennial..."Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, pp
295
296 In 1896 the population of ''Betin'' was estimated to be about 360 persons. In 1907, small gardens and a few old tombs were found in the vicinity, and the Muslim population was known for its strength and fearlessness.

British Mandate 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, ''Baitin'' had a population of 446; 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 ...

s,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramallah, p
16
/ref> increasing at the time of the 1931 census to 566, still all Muslim, in 135 houses.Mills, 1932, p
47
/ref> In the 1945 statistics the population was 690 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
26
/ref> while the total land area was 4,764

dunam 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 ...

s, according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p
64
/ref> Of this, 1,348 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 1,853 for cereals, while 38 dunams were classified as built-up areas.

Jordanian period

In the wake of the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. In 1961, a Jordanian census found the population to be 1,017.

Post-1967

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Beitin has, with the rest of the West Bank, been held under

Israeli occupation Israeli-occupied territories are the lands that were captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. While the term is currently applied to the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, it has also been used to refer to a ...

. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 958, of whom 134 originated from the Israeli territory. After the 1995 accords, 19,1% of the village land is classified as

Area B The Palestinian enclaves are areas in the West Bank designated for Palestinians under a variety of Israeli–Palestinian peace process, U.S. and Israeli-led proposals to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The enclaves are Israel and aparthe ...

, while the remaining 80.9% is defined as Area C land (full Israeli control). Beitin village land has also been taken in order to construct the illegal Israeli outpost

Givat Asaf Giv'at Asaf ( he, גִּבְעַת אָסָף, , Asaf Hill) is an Israeli outpost in the West Bank. Located from the settlement of Beit El, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council. It has about 30 structures and ...

. On 19 December 2011, Israeli settlers were accused of carrying out a second price tag attack in only four days, in which five Palestinian-owned cars were burnt and the walls of several houses were sprayed with graffiti. During the first incident (15 December 2011), the assailants not only vandalized a mosque, but also attacked an

IDF IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces * Irish Defence Forces * Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 * Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations * Israeli Diving Federation * Interac ...

military base in the West Bank, injuring a top Israeli commander. According to witnesses of the second incident, the Israeli army dispersed the settlers without arresting any of them, presumably also those who attacked the Israeli commander, although four days earlier the incident had prompted Israeli Prime-Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to say: "We won't let them attack our soldiers. We won't let them ignite a religious war with our neighbors. We won't let them desecrate mosques. We won't let them harm Jews or Arabs."

Landmarks

Church ruins

The ruins of the Byzantine church are known in Arabic as "al-Muqater" or "Khirbet al-Kenise" ("Ruins of the Church"). According to Röhricht, when the Crusaders arrived, they found a ruined church. They built another and placed it first under the Abbey of St. Joseph of Arimathea, later under the Canons of the

Holy Sepulcher 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 ...

. The ruins of the church were drawn in the 1880s.

Tower ruins ("al-Burj")

Another ruin, called "al-Burj Beitin" ("the Tower of Beitin") or simply ''al-Burj'' is located in the western part of the village. They were also drawn in the 1880s. The ruins of the Burj are about 1 meter tall, and apparently built on the older ruins of a Byzantine monastery. Some have believed that it was constructed on the site where Abraham built an altar. According to biblical scholar Edward Robinson who visited

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

in the 19th century, al-Burj Beitin consisted of dilapidated stones that used to form part of a fortress and a Greek church.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 2, pp
125
130. Al-Burj was used as a watch tower by the Crusaders.

Demographics

In 1997,

Palestinian refugee Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country over the course of the 1947–49 Palestine war ( 1948 Palestinian exodus) and the Six-Day War ( 1967 Palestinian exo ...

s accounted for exactly 30% of the population, which was 1,510 at the time. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ar, الجهاز المركزي للإحصاء الفلسطيني) is the official statistical institution of the State of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures a ...

(PCBS), Beitin had a population of over 3,050 inhabitants in 2006. In 2007, a PCBS census recorded a population of 2,143 (1,128 men and 1,015 women). There were 717 homes in the village and the average household size consisted of 4.9 family members.2007 PCBS Census

. p.114.

References

Bibliography

* * (p
284
* * * * * * * * * (pp
205
206) * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14:
IAA Wikimedia commons

Beitin (fact sheet)
Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ)
Beitin (village profile)
ARIJ
Beitin (aerial photo)
ARIJ {{Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate Bronze Age sites in the State of Palestine Villages in the West Bank Hebrew Bible places Canaanite cities Municipalities of the State of Palestine