Beita (, translation: "Home") is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

town in the

Nablus Governorate The Nablus Governorate () is an administrative district of Palestine located in the Central Highlands of the West Bank, 53 km north of Jerusalem. It covers the area around the city of Nablus which serves as the ''muhfaza'' (seat) of the go ...

in the northern Israeli-occupied

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

located southeast of

Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...

. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ) is the official statistical institution of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures at the national and international levels. It is a state institution that provid ...

, the town had a population of 11,682 in 2017. It consists of five clans which branch out to thirty families. There are many houses dating back to the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

era. Beita Municipality: Beita Town
/ref> The current mayor, elected in 2004 is Arab ash-Shurafa. The town contains four

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

s and three clinics. Since 1967, under the

Israeli occupation of the West Bank The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has been under military occupation by Israel since 7 June 1967, when Israeli forces captured the territory, then ruled by Jordan, during the Six-Day War. The status of the West Bank as a militarily oc ...

, more than 77 Beita villagers have been shot dead by Israeli forces, many during protests, 7 were killed between May and September 2021 during the suppression of demonstrations against the establishment of an

Israeli outpost In Israeli law, an outpost (, ''Ma'ahaz'' lit. "a handhold") is an unauthorized or illegal Israeli settlement within the West Bank, constructed without the required authorization from the Israeli government in contravention of Israeli statutes ...

on Beita lands.

Location

Beita (including Za'tara locality) is located – south of

. It is bordered by

Osarin Osarin () is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 16 kilometers southeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 2,053 inhabitants in 2017. ...

and

Aqraba Akraba (variants: Aqrab, Aqraba, Agrab or Aqrabiyah) may refer to: Egypt * Al-Aqrab Prison, a prison in Cairo, Egypt Iraq * Tell Agrab, an ancient settlement in Iraq in Diyala Governorate Palestine * Aqraba, Nablus, a Palestinian town in the Na ...

to the east,

Awarta Awarta () is a Palestinian town located southeast of Nablus, in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 7,054 inhabitants in 2017. Awarta's built-up area consists of and it ...

and

Odala Odala () is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located south of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 1,566 inhabitants in 2017. Location Odala is ...

to the north,

Huwwara Huwara or Howwarah (, ) is a Palestinian town located in the Nablus Governorate of the State of Palestine. Located in the northern Israeli-occupied West Bank, Huwara is on the main road connecting Nablus southwards to Ramallah and Jerusalem, a ...

and

Yasuf Yasuf () is a Palestinian village in the Salfit Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the northern West Bank, northeast of Salfit, southwest of Nablus and adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Kfar Tapuach. According to the Palestinian Centra ...

to the west, and

Yatma Yatma () is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 15 kilometers south of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 3,363 inhabitants in 2017. Locat ...

and

Qabalan Qabalan () is a Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate in the eastern West Bank, located southeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town had a population of 8,195 inhabitants in 2017. Location ...

to the south.

History

There are two historical centres in Beita; Beita el-Fauqa ("The upper Beita") to the North-East and Beita et-Tahta ("The lower Beita") to the South-West.Finkelstein and Lederman, 1997, pp. 703-4 In Beita el-Fauqa, pottery

sherd This page is a glossary of archaeology, the study of the human past from material remains. A B C D E F ...

s from the

Iron Age II The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

Mamluk Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...

era have been found, while at Beita et-Tahta sherds from the Iron Age II, Persian,

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

, and Mamluk era have been found.

Ottoman era

Beita was incorporated into the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

in 1517 with all of

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, and both in Beita el-Fauqa and Beita et-Tatha sherds from the early Ottoman era have been found. In 1596 Beita appeared in the tax registers as being in the ''

Nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' of Jabal Qubal of the '' Liwa'' of

. It had a population of 50 households, all

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. The villagers paid taxes on wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, occasional revenues, goats and/or beehives, and a press for olives or grapes; a total of 8,000

Akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 134 In 1838, Edward Robinson noted Beita as a "large village", located in the ''El-Beitawy'' district, east of Nablus. In 1882, the PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

'' described it as "A large village, with a kind of suburb to the south, near which are ancient

tomb A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...

s. It is supplied by wells, and surrounded by olives. It stands upon the hills east of the ''Mukhnah'' plain, and is the capital of the district named from it."

British Mandate era

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 divis ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Beita had a population of 883, all

s,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p
25
/ref> increasing at the time of the 1931 census to 1,194, still all Muslim, in 286 houses.Mills, 1932, p
60
/ref> In the 1945 statistics Beita had a population of 1,580 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
18
/ref> with 17,542

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 5,666 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 6,916 used for cereals, while 76 dunams were built-up land.

Jordanian era

In the wake of the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,annexed Jordanian rule. At the beginning of 1930s Shaikh Rezeq Abdelrazeq Elyan Open the first school in Beita Al-Tahta and it was names (Beita National School) and the student from beita and around used to come and get education in it. In 1952, Beita opened an elementary school, which served the town and surrounding villages. In 1954, an elementary school for girls only was established and since then, four other schools have been built - including two secondary schools. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 693 inhabitants in ''Beita Tahta'' ("the lower Beita"), while ''Beita Fauqa'' ("the higher Beita") had 1,498 inhabitants; a total of 2,191 inhabitants.

Post-1967

Since the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

in 1967, Beita has been under

Israeli occupation Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian terr ...

. After the 1995 accords, 89% of the village land was classified as Area B, and the remaining 11% as

Area C Area C (; ) is the fully Israeli-controlled territory in the West Bank, defined as the whole area outside the Palestinian enclaves (Areas A and B). Area C constitutes about 61 percent of the West Bank territory, containing most Israeli settle ...

Although the town was considered a

Fatah Fatah ( ; ), formally the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (), is a Palestinian nationalist and Arab socialist political party. It is the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...

stronghold,Lockman and Beinin, 1989, pp
81
/ref> Arab ash-Shurafa, a member of

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

, was elected mayor in 2005. Shurafa was arrested by the IDF, along with

mayor Adly Yaish and Education Minister of the Palestinian National Authority

Nasser al-Shaer Nasser al-Din al-Shaer () (born 9 December 1961) is a Palestinian politician and academic. He served as the Deputy Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority and the Minister of Education and Higher Education as a member of Hamas from ...

in 2006 for their membership in Hamas.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

In January 1988, 20 men from Beita and

Huwara Huwara or Howwarah (, ) is a Palestinian town located in the Nablus Governorate of the State of Palestine. Located in the northern Israeli-occupied West Bank, Huwara is on the main road connecting Nablus southwards to Ramallah and Jerusalem, a ...

, identified by a GSS report after clashes with Israeli troops to have been involved in

stone throwing Stone throwing or rock throwing, when it is directed at another person (called stone pelting in India), is often considered a form of criminal battery. In certain political contexts, stone-throwing is considered a form of civil resistance. H ...

, were assembled, bound, without their resisting, with plastic handcuffs and had their bones broken by soldiers, and then were abandoned at night in a muddy field. The

International Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a aid agency, humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of Law of ...

made a formal complaint, after local press reports had been ignored.

Frankel Frankel is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Benjamin Frankel (1906–1973), British composer * Bethenny Frankel (born 1970), American chef and reality television personality * Charles Frankel (1917–1975), American philoso ...

, 1996, pp
82
83 The army did not prosecute the matter initially. Lieutenant-colonel Yehuda Meir was reprimanded, and forced into retirement, with his officer's rank and pension rights intact. He was prosecuted only after the

Association for Civil Rights in Israel The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) (; ) was created in 1972 as an independent, non-partisan not-for-profit organization with the mission of protecting human rights and civil rights in Israel and the territories under its control. ...

made an issue of the matter by appealing to the Supreme Court which ruled that he had to stand trial, which then took place in April 1991. Meir was the local Nablus district commander overseeing the operation, and testified that he had acted under orders directly coming from

Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; , ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the prime minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–1977, and from 1992 until Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, his ass ...

and that when he had objected to bone-smashing, Rabin had replied: "You do the work, I'll take care of the media." His superiors testified that orders were only to use force in pursuit and arrests. The court believed the latter and found that the orders were legal, but that Meir had deviated from instructions.Conroy, 2000, pp
138
156
191
224. On 10 April 2023, an estimated 15,000Clothilde Mraffko

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

11 April 2023- 20,000 ultranationalist settlers, protected by a full battalion (1,000) of IDF soldiers and joined by the Israeli Security Minister

Itamar Ben-Gvir Itamar Ben-Gvir ( ; born 6 May 1976) is an Israeli far-right politician and lawyer who is serving as the Minister of National Security since 2025. He is the leader of Otzma Yehudit ('Jewish Power'), a Kahanist and anti-Arab party that won ...

Bezalel Smotrich Bezalel Yoel Smotrich (; born 27 February 1980) is an Israeli far-right politician and lawyer who has served as the Minister of Finance since 2022. The leader of the National Religious Party–Religious Zionism, he previously served as a Kn ...

, 7 other ministers, and 20 parliamentarians, staged a march towards Evyatar, reportedly to pressure the new government under

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...

to legalize the outpost. The given reason for their march was to retaliate for the murder of three members of the Dee family, British settlers, three days earlier, on 7 April, at the Hamra junction. Beita villagers protesting the march suffered 191 casualties, in large part from tear-gas intoxication. 17 were injured by rubber bullet shots fired by the army, while two were wounded in the head by gas canisters.

reported that journalists covering the event were also targeted, with one wearing a press vest also injured by a rubber bullet.

Beita Incident

On April 6, 1988, 16-20 teenage hikers from

Elon Moreh Elon Moreh () is an Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Located northeast of the State of Palestine, Palestinian city of Nablus, on the slopes of the Mount Kabir ridge, it falls under the jurisdiction of Shomr ...

, an

Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...

north of Beita, set out for a trek. Nature-hiking among settlers was a symbolic means of demonstrating their control of the land.Frankel, 1996, pp. 94-96 They were accompanied by two guards, both with a reputation for being aggressive Zionists:Joseph C. Harsch
'Fundamentalism and the West Bank's Beita affair,'
''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in Electronic publishing, electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 ...

'' Roman Aldubi, a 26-year-old known extremist and religious militant banned by the IDF from entering Nablus for 6 months, after he had been convicted of obstruction of justice for hiding a gun used by another settler to kill an 11 year old Palestinian child, 'Aysha Bahash, in her father's bakery, during a stone-throwing incident;Lockman and Beinin, 1989, p
84
/ref> and Menahem Ilan (55), the organizer, were crossing village land in a show of strength, "to show them that we are the masters of the country", as one of the hikers later told ABC correspondent Barrie Dunsmore. (Ilan had previously been convicted in 1984 of obstructing justice and destroying evidence in a prior settler killing of a Palestinian girl.Noam Chomsky

Z Magazine ZNetwork, formerly known as Z Communications, is a left-wing activist-oriented media group founded in 1986 by Michael Albert and Lydia Sargent.Max Elbaum''Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che'' London, England, UK; ...

July, 1988) When the settler group sat down to make breakfast near a spring, or a local well, local farmers sowing their spring crops became alarmed at the presence under armed guard, and one of them went to the village, a kilometre away, and the villagers were notified over the mosque's loudspeaker. The village lands were under military closure at the time, and, according to their accounts, they feared, based on other precedents in the area, that the local well might be poisoned. On such walks permission was never asked of villagers, furthermore, to trek through their fields, and Menachem Ilan had not alerted the IDF of his hiking plans in a remote Arab area. Several dozen farmers, among them some teenagers, gathered in proximity of the hikers. What took place was contested at that time. At first, according to one version Aldubi fired warning shots from his

Uzi The Uzi (; ; officially cased as UZI) is a family of Israeli open-bolt, blowback-operated submachine guns and machine pistols first designed by Major Uziel "Uzi" Gal in the late 1940s, shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel. ...

at the farmers, some of whom threw stones. One of these shots is said, in one account, to have killed Mousa Saleh Bani Shamseh.Joel Brinkley
'Beita Journal; Where the Hot Rage of April Is Now Cold Fury,'
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' 23 August 1988.:' Apparently he had an expansive view of what constituted a warning, because one shot killed a farmer working in a nearby field.' In the IDF investigation, it was determined that Aldubi shot Mussa Saleh in the back at a distance of about 10 yards while the latter was fleeing.Stephen Frankli
'Israeli Army Admits Escort Shot Teenager,'

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

28 April 1988. In another version, Ilan reprimanded him, and led the hikers away down a riverbed, where one girl was hit in the thigh by a stone and then Aldubi opened fire with Ilan's M-16 shooting Mousa Saleh in the head, killing him and wounding another farmer.Conroy, 2000, p
217
/ref> Aldubi later said the man had tried to grab his rifle, a claim the IDF investigation later stated was unsubstantiated by any evidence. In one version, the hikers continued on and walked into the village, despite the incident. In the other, the villagers surrounded them, and led them to Beita. When the Israelis entered Beita they were met by a crowd of villagers who had learned of the killing. The villagers were frightened by the sight of guns: the teenagers, in their account, were equally apprehensive on seeing furious villagers reportedly brandishing knives, pickaxes and clubs. The army investigation found that the villagers had no firearms. As the Israelis moved in a tight group through the village, the car carrying Mousa Saleh's corpse arrived, and stones were thrown. At one point, while her husband Taysir was burying his brother-in-law, Munira Daoud, who was also the deceased's sister, hit Aldubi in the head with a rock. Several villagers pushed through the crowd to save the teenagers. According to one report, Aldubi while falling sprayed his Uzi machine gun and killed Hatem Fayez Ahmad Al-Jaber and severely wounded several other villagers. The IDF investigation found that instead Aldubi squeezed off several shots as he turned around after being hit by a rock, and then fired again when one of the villagers tried to wrest his rifle from him. As Aldubi fired, Tirza Porat, a 15-year-old member of his own group, was killed by a shot to the back of the head. He and Menachem were disarmed by the villagers, who smashed his gun. He received a serious head wound, and several others youths were hurt in the clash. One villager, Azzam Bani Shemseh, tried to revive Tirza by heart massage. The same family brought water to the teenagers, and another family gave refuge to three Israeli girls in their home. The villagers called for ambulances and guided the rest to the main road where they flagged down cars. Initially, Israel media reported that Tirza Porat had been killed in an incident by bloodthirsty Arabs throwing stones. The

Gush Emunim Gush Emunim (, lit. "Bloc of the Faithful") was an Israeli ultranationalist religious Zionist Orthodox Jewish right-wing fundamentalist activist movement committed to establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and the Golan ...

teenagers said Porat had been killed by a rooftop sniper. An official statement spoke of the group falling "into the hands of pogromists and murderers".

Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon ( ; also known by his diminutive Arik, ; 26 February 192811 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the prime minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. Born in Kfar Malal in Mandatory Palestin ...

called for the village to be emptied and for more settlements to be built. Israeli prime minister

Yitzhak Shamir Yitzhak Shamir (, ; born Yitzhak Yezernitsky; October 22, 1915 – June 30, 2012) was an Israeli politician and the seventh prime minister of Israel, serving two terms (1983–1984, 1986–1992). Before the establishment of the State of Israel, ...

attended her funeral where cries of revenge were uttered and where Knesset member

Haim Druckman Haim Drukman (; 15 November 1932 – 25 December 2022) was an Israeli Orthodox rabbi and politician. The most senior spiritual leader of the Religious Zionist community at the time of his death, he served as rosh yeshiva (dean) of Yeshivat Or ...

declared that "the village of Beita must be wiped off the face of the earth,"

Thomas L. Friedman Thomas Loren Friedman ( ; born July 20, 1953) is an American political commentator and author. He is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is a weekly columnist for ''The New York Times''. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, global ...

br>'In Separate Gestures, a Mosaic of Intentions,'
''The New York Times'' 17 April 1988 a remark that was met with "amens" from the crowd. The following day the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

revealed that she been shot in the head by an

M16 The M16 (officially Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of assault rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-round magazine. In 1964, th ...

carbine belonging to Aldubi. It was also revealed that "the young settlers, instructed by their elders, had rendered untruthful accounts." Despite knowing from the start who was responsible, the Israeli first bulldozed six homes and then, after the report indicated Porat had not been killed by Palestinians, destroyed another eight in Beita, "giving people ample time to leave".

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

states this was "a total lie", counting double the number of buildings destroyed including all their contents. On his own visit to Beita, 30 houses were either 'totally demolished or virtually destroyed.' They also killed a sixteen-year-old boy, Issam Abdul Halim Mohammad Said, and arrested all male adult residents, six of whom were deported on April 19.

Aftermath and Punishment

As soon as the Israeli army intervened, they shot dead a villager who they said was trying to run away.Robert Ruby
'Resentment Still Smoldering After '88 Clash In West Bank,'
''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publi ...

'', 7 April 1989. Within 48 hours of the incident, Major General

Amram Mitzna Amram Mitzna (; born 20 February 1945) is an Israeli politician and former general in the IDF. He is a former mayor of Haifa (1993–2003) and Yeruham (2005–2010) and led the Labor Party from 2002 to 2003. In 2012 he joined Hatnuah. Youth, e ...

, who had cordoned off the village he said to protect the residents and who declared no reprisals would be taken, interrogated all males between 16 and 60, and made hundreds of the villagers stand handcuffed and blindfolded all night. They said later they had been kicked, beaten and menaced until satisfactory testimonies had been given. IDF bulldozers uprooted dozens of olive trees and an almond grove nearby, which actually belonged to another Palestinian village. The army withheld the autopsy results, showing the girl had been killed by Aldubi's M-16 until the funeral was over. He then ordered the demolition of 14 homes in Beita, one of which had sheltered one of the Israeli hikers, after the army had established that Tirza Porat had not been shot by a Palestinian. The demolitions were ordered while the owners of 13 of the homes had not been charged with any crime. Over 60 members of the village were arrested, and 6 were expelled to Lebanon. Hamad Ben Ishams, whose house had been demolished, was imprisoned for seven months despite repeated evidence by his Israeli employer that Hamad had been at work with him in Israel at the time. The military judge preferred the testimony of one of the hikers Rami Hoffman who identified him as an assailant. The official IDF investigation found that Ilan and Aldubi, the two escorts had 'escalat(ed) the crisis' by lack of caution and "hastiness in pulling the trigger," but the major cause for the incident was Palestinian aggressiveness and "readiness to harm Jewish hikers", and that they had a general plan to lure the hikers in their village. Aldubi was still hospitalized a year later, and confined to a wheelchair. According to Noam Chomsky, who visited the village, the military commander told ''

'' that Aldubi would not be incriminated because "the tragic incidents were already penalty enough."

''Language and Politics ,''
AK Press 2004 pp.679-680 The incident radicalized the village. One local some months later was reported as saying: In May 1989, a

Jaffa Jaffa (, ; , ), also called Japho, Joppa or Joppe in English, is an ancient Levantine Sea, Levantine port city which is part of Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel, located in its southern part. The city sits atop a naturally elevated outcrop on ...

military court handed down stiff sentences to five of the members of the village of Beita suspected of throwing stones at Jewish hikers. The person convicted of the most serious crime got an eight-year sentence, of which 3 were to be served. Two others sentenced to five-year terms were to serve 21 months, a fourth 18 months and the fifth two years. A further 11 Beitans were slated to stand trial later on the same charges. On 14 April 1991 an Elon Moreh settler, Pinhas Assayag (22), murdered a Beita resident, ''Jamil Dweikat'' (50). Arrested on 19 June 1991, he also confessed to killing a 22 year old shepherd, ''Radi a-Ouna'' from the nearby village of '

Azmut ’Azmut () is a Palestinian people, Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in the eastern West Bank, located five kilometers northeast of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a populatio ...

earlier in January of that year. After an investigation, he was committed to an Israeli mental hospital.

May–September 2021 series of protester killings

Beita's remaining lands were the object of a further attempt at illegal Israeli settlement early in 2020, when an attempt was made to seize an area called ''Jabal Orma''. That venture was eventually abandoned in the wake of local demonstrations, in which two protesting villagers were shot dead. In May, 2021, in the period of the 2021 demonstrations, Israeli settlers in caravans seized the top of Jabel Sbeih, a site which Beita residents insist is privately owned Palestinian land. Jabel Sbeih lies on the village's outskirts. The new illegal outpost, named Evyatar was reportedly designed to split up and fragment Palestinian areas to its north, south, east and west. Over the following months, in response to repeated demonstrations against the establishment of Evyatar, Israeli forces shot dead, on different occasions, seven residents of Beita, and another Palestinian youth from nearby

. Over this period an estimated 1,000 have been injured in clashes with the Israeli army, while the Israeli government reportedly assisted the development of the site with paved roads, water lines, and electricity.Yumna Patel
'Beita is undefeatable': Inside the struggle to save this Palestinian village from Israeli settlers,,'

Mondoweiss ''Mondoweiss'' is a news website that began as a general-interest blog written by Philip Weiss on ''The New York Observer'' website. It subsequently developed into a broader collaborative venture after fellow journalist Adam Horowitz joined it ...

7 July 2021. In June, 2021, Israel destroyed $100,000 worth of vegetables in Beita by firing teargas at a vegetable storage unit. In the same month the new government of Naphtali Bennett reached an agreement with the settlers to evacuate in exchange for a promise to maintain the infrastructure and convert the outpost into a

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

. The deal foresees the return of the settlers if Israel declares the area state land in the future. Beita and nearby villages have petitioned the

Israeli Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Israel (, Hebrew acronym Bagatz; ) is the Supreme court, highest court in Israel. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all other courts, and in some cases original jurisdiction. The Supreme Court consists of 15 jud ...

to revoke the terms of the agreement.Hagar Sheza
'Palestinians Claiming Land at Illegal Outpost Take Israel's Deal With Settlers to Court,'

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

8 July 2021 On August 14, 2021, Beita protesters erected a wooden

star of David The Star of David (, , ) is a symbol generally recognized as representing both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the Seal of Solomon was used for decora ...

in the center of which was a swastika, set fire to the structure and highlighted the event with a video on social media.Emanuel Fabian
'With flaming Star of David and swastika, Palestinians protest illegal outpost,'

Times of Israel ''The Times of Israel'' (ToI) is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012 and has since become the largest English-language Jewish and Israeli news source by audience size. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist Dav ...

15 August 2021 File:Beita protest 1.jpg, Protest in Beita against Evyatar outpost. 3 Sept 2021 File:ירי גז מדמיע ביתא יולי.jpg, tear gas shut on protesters in Beita, July 2021 File:ילד פגוע מגז מדמיע ביתא 2 יולי 2021.jpg, Child hurt from tear gas during protest against Evyatar outpost, July 2021 File:Discharge of tear gas from a drone.jpg, Tear gas from drone on protesters, Beita September 2021 File:Road destruction Beita 2.jpg, A road destroyed by an Israeli army bulldozer to prevent protesters from approaching Evyatar outpost. Beita, January 2022 Those killed are *On 14 May, Dr. ''Issa Barham'', a legal scholar, expert in international law, who worked for the prosecutor's office in

Salfit Salfit () is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Salfit Governorate. It is located adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Ariel. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Salfit had a populati ...

, was shot dead after he responded to a call from the mosque for volunteers to help evacuate those wounded by Israeli army fire during a Friday demonstration. Ambulances couldn't cope, and he drove his Hyundai Tucson SUV to the scene. According to Palestinians present, as he was walking over to a group of wounded, an Israeli sniper knelt down, aimed and a single shot rang out. Barham died of a gunshot wound to the stomach.

Amira Hass Amira Hass (; born 28 June 1956) is an Israeli journalist and author, mostly known for her columns in the daily newspaper ''Haaretz'' covering Palestinian affairs in Gaza and the West Bank, where she has lived for almost thirty years. Biogra ...

'Reality of a West Bank Outpost: Four Dead Palestinians and a Drone Spraying Tear Gas ,'

1 June 2021 * Zakaria Hamayel (26) a schoolteacher of Arabic, was shot dead while looking for a place to say his afternoon prayers in a break from a demonstration against the illegal settlement. A medic wearing the characteristic phosphorescent vest was shot in the thigh as he tried to assist Hamayel. *11 June. ''Mohammed Hamayel'' (16), high school student was shot in the centre of the chest at a distance of a few dozen metres by one of 4 soldiers spread out on the ground. His cousin was wounded *''Ahmad Bani Shamseh'' (17) was shot dead. The IDF account said he was killed for throwing an 'explosive device'. *On 27 July, ''Shadi Shurafi'', Beita's village plumber, was shot dead by a soldier from the Israeli

Kfir Brigade The 900th "Kfir" Brigade (, ''lit.'' "Lion Cub Brigade"), is the youngest and largest infantry brigade of the Israel Defense Forces. It is subordinate to the 99th "Flash" Infantry Division (''Reserve'') of Israel's Central Regional Command. T ...

as he stood, according to the Palestinian account, with a monkey wrench in his hand by the broken main of the village water supply. His body, according to

Gideon Levy Gideon Levy (, ; born 2 June 1953) is an Israeli journalist and author. Levy writes opinion pieces and a weekly column for the newspaper ''Haaretz'' that often focus on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. Levy has won prizes ...

, was one of 300 Israel had yet to hand back to mourning families, apparently as exchange material for the return of the remains of two soldiers killed in battle inside the Gaza Strip. After some weeks, Israel returned it for burial. Israeli spokesmen stated that he was shot after ignoring warning shots as he charged the soldiers with a wrench in his hand.

Alex Levac Alex Levac (; born 1944, Tel Aviv) is an Israeli photojournalist and street photographer. He was awarded the Israel Prize for photography in 2005.Haaretz photographer Alex Levac wins Israel Prize By Smadar Sheffi and Yulie Khromchenko, Ha'aretz ...

'What the Israeli army does to soldiers who shoot Palestinians,'

19 November 2021 *On 6 August, ''Imad Duikat'' (38), a father of five, was shot dead with a .22 bullet to the chest while reportedly sipping water from a disposable cup near an ambulance at the protest site. On the same afternoon, 6 other Beita residents were hit by live fire and over 100 were injured by tear gas and rubber-tipped metal bullets. The IDF said stones were thrown and tires burnt in what they termed a 'violent demonstration'.

,
'They Choose One Person to Kill, and Then the Protest Is Over'

12 August 2021 *On 24 September ''Muhammad Ali Khabisa''(28) became the 7th victim to be shot dead, reportedly while sitting under an olive tree, during a further Friday protest over the Evyatar settlement. A sniper bullet smashed his skull.Jack Khoury, Hagar Shezaf,
' Palestinian Killed by Israeli Gunfire in the West Bank

24 September 2021

'If the Israeli Sniper Could See the Devastation He Caused, He Wouldn't Shoot Again ,'

1 October 2021. On 6 September 2024, with a shot to the head, Israel troops killed an American-Turkish woman,

Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi Ayşenur is a Turkish feminine given name, and may refer to: * Ayşenur Alpaslan (born 1953), Turkish diplomat and former ambassador * Ayşenur Duman (born 1999), Turkish Olympian cross-country skier * Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi (1998–2024), Turkish-b ...

(26), who had gone to Beita as a volunteer for an International Solidarity Group. Another American volunteer had been shot in the leg in the preceding August. Eygi's death brought the number of protesters shot dead by Israeli forces in Beita since 2021 to 10.'American-Turkish woman shot dead at anti-settler protest in West Bank,'

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

6 September 2024

Demography

Local origins

Some of the Beita's residents are

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

s from

Gaza Gaza may refer to: Places Palestine * Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea ** Gaza City, a city in the Gaza Strip ** Gaza Governorate, a governorate in the Gaza Strip Mandatory Palestine * Gaza Sub ...

and

Hebron Hebron (; , or ; , ) is a Palestinian city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Hebron is capital of the Hebron Governorate, the largest Governorates of Palestine, governorate in the West Bank. With a population of 201,063 in ...

.Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 355

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Beita
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14:
IAAWikimedia commons

Beita Town Profile (including Za'tara Locality)

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research projects in the fields of management of natural resources, water m ...

(ARIJ)
Beita, aerial photo
ARIJ
Development Priorities and Needs in Beita
ARIJ

* ttps://www.instagram.com/p/CQUmzcVlTUu/ Instagram{{Nablus Governorate Towns in the West Bank Throne villages Municipalities of West Bank