Deir Ibzi

Deir Ibzi ( ar, دير إبزيع) is a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located west of Ramallah in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 2,069 inhabitants in 2007.

Location

Deir Ibzi is located (horizontally) west of Ramallah. It is bordered by Ein 'Arik to the south and east, Ein Qiniya to the east and north, Al-Janiya to the north, Kafr Ni'ma and Saffa to the west, and Beit Ur al-Tahta, Beit Ur al-Fauqa and Beitunia to the south.

History

It has been suggested that this was the place mentioned in Crusader sources as ''Zibi'', but this is not supported by archeological evidence.Finkelstein et al, 1998, p. 312

Ottoman era

In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine and in the 1596 tax-records it was in the ''Nahiya'' of Jabal Quds of the ''Liwa'' of Al-Quds. The population was 25 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, which included wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and beehives in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 3,290 akçe. Sherds from the early Ottoman era have been found here.

In 1838 it was noted as ''Deir Bezi'a'', a Muslim village, located in the ''Beni Harith'' region, north of Jerusalem.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p
124
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In 1870, Victor Guérin described the village, which he called ''Deir Ebzieh'', as being: "situated on a summit of very difficult access and contains four hundred inhabitants, all Moslems; some houses are large and fairly well built. I notice with the ''medhafeh'' (guest house) a fragment of carved stone which carries the debris of a mutilated rosette." An Ottoman village list of about the same year, 1870, showed that ''der bezei'' had 239 inhabitants with 51 houses, though the population count included only the men. It further noted that the village was north of Bethoron, that is, north of Beit Ur al-Fauqa and Beit Ur al-Tahta.

In 1882, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described ''Deir Ibzia'' as: "a village of moderate size on a ridge, with a well to the west, and surrounded by olives".

In 1896 the population of ''Der bezei'' was estimated to be about 279 persons.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate of Palestine authorities, the village, named ''Dair Ibzie'', had a population of 262, all Muslim, increasing in the 1931 census to 360, still all Muslim, in 90 inhabited houses.Mills, 1932, p
48
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In the 1945 statistics, the population of Deir Ibzi was 410 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
26
/ref> with of land under their jurisdiction, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 6,418 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 2,670 were for cereals, while were built-up (urban) land.

Jordanian era

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

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