Beitunia

Beitunia ( ar, بيتونيا), also Bitunya, is a Palestinian city located west of Ramallah and north of Jerusalem. The city is in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the central West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the city had a population of 19,761 in 2007, making it the third largest locality in its governorate after al-Bireh and Ramallah.

History

Potsherds from the Byzantine, Mamluk and early Ottoman period have been found.Finkelstein et al, 1997, pp. 346-7

In 1883, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' suggested that Beitunia was the Crusader village ''Uniet'', which was one of 21 villages given by King Godfrey as a fief to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p
11
/ref> However, in 1887, Röhricht identified Beitunia with ''Beitiumen'', another fief given by the King to the Holy Sepulchre. Conder found this to be "evidently correct" and hence "very doubtful" that Beitunia was ''Uniet''. Abel, writing in 1931, suggested that Beitunia was ''Beit Uniet'', mentioned in an early 12th-century text.

A large vaulted building in the town, named ''Badd al Balad'' ("oil press of the village") has been dated to the Crusader era.Pringle, 1997, p
29
/ref>

Ottoman era

Beitunia, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1596, the village was located in the ''Nahiya'' of Quds of the '' Liwa'' of Quds. The population was 75 households and 5 bachelors, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rated of 33,3% on wheat, barley, olives, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and/or beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 23,000 akçe.

In 1738 Richard Pococke called it "a place called Bethany to the north."

The American scholar Edward Robinson noted it in 1838, as a Muslim village, part of the ''El-Kuds'' district.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
121
/ref>

In 1870 the French explorer Victor Guérin found that Beitunia contained six hundred inhabitants. Socin found from an official Ottoman village list from about the same year (1870) that Beitunia had a total of 147 houses and a population of 481, though the population count included men, only.

Several inscriptions, dating to 1873-74 and forwards, have been described from the house of the village Mukhtar.

In 1883, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described Beitunia as "A good-sized village of stone, surrounded by olives, standing high on a flat rocky ridge, with a plain to the east. To the east are cisterns, wine-presses, and a pond (el Baliia), which contains water in winter. On the north and east are rock-cut tombs with well-cut entrances, but blocked up."

In 1896 the population of ''Betunja'' was estimated to be about 1,056 persons.

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Beitunia had a population of 948 Muslim,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramallah, p.
16
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 1,213, still all Muslim, in 277 houses.Mills, 1932, p
48

Due to a lack of economic opportunities in the early 20th century, many people emigrated. Some went to the Chicago area, and were involved in the startup of the Bridgeview Mosque.

In the 1945 statistics the population was 1,490, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
26
/ref> while the total land area was 23,366 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 7,854 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 8,381 for cereals, while 77 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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