Qarawat Bani Zaid

Qarawat Bani Zeid ( ar, قراوة بني زيد) is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located 22 kilometers northwest of Ramallah in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Qarawat Bani Zeid had a population of 2,915 inhabitants in 2007. Almost all of Qarawat Bani Zeid is under the complete control of the Palestinian National Authority, as it is located within Area A.

Situated close to the village mosque is the remains of a Roman pool, about 60 meters underground.

Etymology

Qarawat Bani Zeid is named after the Arab tribe of Bani Zeid, that settled in the town after the Muslim Ayyubid victory against the Crusaders in 1187.Bani Zeid: Excerpt
Palestinian Association for Culture Exchange The "Qarawat" portion of the name comes from the Arabic word ''Qaran'', which means "central point", originating from the site's location between the major cities of Nablus, Jericho and Jerusalem. There is also speculation that the name comes from ''Qira'', which means "place that respects guests".Qarawat Bani Zeid Village Profile
International Women's Peace Service. April 2004. According to Palmer, the name means "the towns of Ibn Zeid, in the Beni Zeid district."

Location

Qarawat Bani Zeid is located northwest of Ramallah. It is bordered by Bani Zeid ash Sharqiya to the east and to the south, Farkha and Bruqin to the north, and Kafr 'Ein to the west.

History

Potsherds from the IA I-II, IA II, lA II/ Persian, Persian, Hellenistic, Hellenistic/Roman, Roman, Byzantine, Crusader/Ayyubid and Mamluk eras have been found in the village.Finkelstein et al., 1997, p. 443

Ottoman era

In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared as ''Qarawa'', located in the ''nahiye'' of Quds (Jerusalem) in the ''sanjak'' of the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem. The population was 32 households, all Muslim. They paid a tax rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, which included wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards and fruit trees, occasional revenues, goats and beehives; a total of 24,000 Akçe. Potsherds from the early Ottoman era have also been found.

In 1838, it was described as a Muslim village, called Kurawa, in the Beni Zeid district, north of Jerusalem.

In 1869, Victor Guérin found the village to have 300 inhabitants. He also noted a fragment of an ancient pillar.

An official Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that Karawa had a total of 48 houses and a population of 200, though the population count only included men.

In 1882, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described is as "a small village on a knoll, with ancient tombs, and a tank, surrounded with olives."

In 1896 the population of Karawa was estimated to be about 312 persons.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Karawa Beni Zaid'' had a population of 274 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramallah, p
16
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 394, still all Muslims, in a total of 88 houses.Mills, 1932, p
50
/ref>

In the 1945 statistics the population was 500 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
26
/ref> while the total land area was 5,100 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 3,421 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 219 for cereals, while 21 dunams were classified as built-up areas.

Jordanian era

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

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