Zawata2

Zawata ( ar, زواتا) is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 6 kilometers Northwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 1,900 inhabitants in mid-year 2006.

Location

Zawata is located 4.4 km north of Nablus. It has Ijnisinya and ‘Asira ash Shamaliya to the east, Ijnisinya and An Naqura to the north, An Naqura and Beit Iba to the west, and Beit Iba and Nablus to the south.

History

Clermont-Ganneau found here tessera, probably from the Ptolemaic period.

Pottery sherds from the late Roman, Byzantine, early Muslim and the Medieval eras have been found here.

Ottoman era

Zawata, like all of Palestine was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517. In the 1596 tax registers, it was part of the '' nahiya'' ("subdistrict") of Jabal Sami, part of the larger Sanjak of Nablus. It had a population of 11 households, all Muslims. The inhabitants paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues and a press for olive oil or grape syrup, and a fixed tax for people of Nablus area; a total of 6,944 akçe.

In 1838, Edward Robinson noted Zawata ‘’on the hill-side,’’ part of the ''Jurat 'Amra'' district, south of Nablus.

In 1870, Victor Guérin noted ''Zaouata'' as "a village on a high hill with white limestone slopes, some used for quarrying. The number of the inhabitants is 300. Below the hill a rich spring, 'Ain Zawata, supplies water to the village and irrigates a small valley. During our visit large herds of sheep were crowding around the spring."

In 1882, the PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' (SWP) described Zawata as: "a village of moderate size, on a hill, with springs in the valley to the north."

British mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Zawata had a population of 214 Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table IX, p
24
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census, to 247 Muslims, in 73 houses.Mills, 1932, p
66
/ref>

In the 1945 statistics the population was 330 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
19
/ref> while the total land area was 3,558 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.
Of this, 13 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 334 for plantations and irrigable land, 1,842 for cereals, while 31 dunams were classified as built-up areas.

Jordanian era

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

In 1961, the population of Zawata was 466.

Post 1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Zawata has been under Israeli occupation, and according to the Israeli census of that year, the population of ''Zawata'' stood at 591, of whom 28 were registered as having come from Israel.

After the 1995 accords, 31% of Zawata land is defined as Area A land, 32% is Area B land, while the remaining 37% is defined as Area C. Part of the village land has been confiscated for the construction of an Israeli military road. This road also cuts off Zawata from its northernmost land.Zawata Village Profile
ARIJ, pp. 15-16

References

Bibliography

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External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11:
IAAWikimedia commons

Zawata Village Profile
Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ)
Zawata, aerial photo
ARIJ
Development Priorities and Needs in Zawata
ARIJ
{{Nablus Governorate

Nablus Governorate
Villages in the West Bank
Municipalities of the State of Palestine