Yutta D'Arcy

Yatta (), also known as Yattah or Yutta, is a Palestinian city located in the Hebron Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the West Bank, approximately 8 km south of the city of Hebron.

Perched atop a hill with a history dating back to ancient times, Yatta is identified with the biblical town of Juttah. In the 4th century it was described as a large Jewish village, a description supported by archaeological discoveries, including a second-century Jewish tomb, reliefs featuring menorahs, and evidence suggesting the presence of a synagogue. The Makhamra clan, which constitutes around half of the town’s population, is known for its traditions of Jewish ancestry. Yatta's cultural heritage also includes traditional costumes and various religious shrines.

During the early Ottoman period, Yatta was a small village. By the advent of the late 19th century, it transformed into a larger village marked by agricultural and pastoral economy, including sheep herding. The succession of governance over Yatta during the 20th century—spanning British, Jordanian, and Israeli control—saw a demographic expansion. Since 1995, the town has been governed by the PNA as part of Area A of the West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it had a population of 63,511 in 2017.

History

Antiquity

Located on a large, ancient hilltop,Dauphin, 1998, p. 966 Yatta has been identified with the site of the Biblical town of Juttah (). In 1931, a Jewish burial complex dating to the 2nd century CE was found in the town. In the 4th century CE, Eusebius wrote that Yatta was "a very large village of Jews eighteen miles south of Beit Gubrin."Eusebius, ''Onomasticon - The Place Names of Divine Scripture'', (ed.) R. Steven Notley & Ze'ev Safrai, Brill: Leiden 2005, p. 104 (§545)

It is possible that the local Makhamra clan, who claim Jewish ancestry, may have origins in this ancient Jewish population. However, their oral tradition traces their origins to the Jews of Khaybar, who were expelled from the Arabian Peninsula and settled in the area at a later time.

In the late 1980s, researchers Zvi Ilan and David Amit discovered here a lintel adorned with menorah reliefs and a rosette. Excavations in the 1990s uncovered a significant structure dating to Roman-Byzantine times with frescoes and another menorah relief, possibly a synagogue.

Also discovered in Yatta is a Greek inscription, featuring a biblical verse and a Maltese cross on a lintel. Locals said it originated from the nearby ruins of al-Karmil, the ancient Carmel.

Also within the borders of modern Yatta is ''Khirbet el-Uzeiz'' (157/093), a ruin identified with the ancient Jewish village of Kefar Aziz (), hometown of Rabbi Ishmael. Remains of a synagogue has been discovered at the site.

Ottoman era

Yatta, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1596 the village appeared to be in the ''Nahiya'' of Khalil of the '' Liwa'' of Quds. It had a population of 127 families, all Muslim, and paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives, goats and bee-hives; a total of 9,872 akçe. 5/6 of the revenue went to a Waqf.

In 1838, Edward Robinson and noted ''Yutta'' as a Muslim village, located southwest of el-Khulil.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p
116
/ref> He further noted that it had the "appearance of a large modern Mohammedan town, on low eminence, with trees around."

In July 1863 Victor Guérin visited ''Youttha''. He described it as a village of 2,000 inhabitants, but at least half were living in tents, scattered in the all over, partly to finish the harvest, partly to avoid the military recruiters active in the area. An Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that ''Jatta'' had a population of 226, in 66 houses, though the population count only included men.Socin, 1879, p
155
It was noted in the Hebron district

In 1883, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described Yatta as being a "large village standing high on a ridge. It is largely built of stone. The water supply is from cisterns. On the south there are rock-cut tombs, and rock wine-presses are found all round the village. The neighborhood is extremely stony; south of the village are scattered olives, which are conspicuous objects; on the west, a little lower under a cliff, is a small olive yard in which the camp of the Survey party was pitched in 1874; to the south-west of camp were a few figs. The inhabitants are very rich in flocks; the village owned, it was said, 17,000 sheep, beside goats, cows, camels, horses, and donkeys. The Sheikh alone had 250 sheep." South of the village are several tombs; one has a shallow semicircular arch cut above a small square entrance. West of the village and of ''el Muturrif'' is a very fine rock-cut wine-press. A second occurs north of the village."

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Yatta had a population 3,179 inhabitants, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Hebron, p
10
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 4,034, in 767 inhabited houses, still all Muslims.

In the 1945 statistics the population of Yatta was 5,260, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
23
/ref> and the land area was 174,172 dunams according to an official land and population survey. 3,254 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 67,498 used for cereals, while 216 dunams 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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