Yatta, Hebron
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Yatta ( ar, يطّا), also known as Yattah or Yutta, is a
Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
city located in the
Hebron Governorate The Hebron Governorate ( ar, محافظة الخليل, Muḥāfaẓat al-Ḫalīl) is an administrative district of Palestine in the southern West Bank. The governorate's land area is and its population according to the Palestinian Central Bur ...
of the
State of Palestine Palestine ( ar, فلسطين, Filasṭīn), Legal status of the State of Palestine, officially the State of Palestine ( ar, دولة فلسطين, Dawlat Filasṭīn, label=none), is a state (polity), state located in Western Asia. Officiall ...
, in the
West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
, approximately 8 km south of the city of
Hebron Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after East J ...
. According to the
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ar, الجهاز المركزي للإحصاء الفلسطيني) is the official statistical institution of the State of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures a ...
, it had a population of 64,277 in 2016.


History


Antiquity

Located on a large, ancient hilltop, Yatta has been identified with the site of the Biblical town of
Juttah Juttah ( he, יוטה) was a biblical town in ancient Judah. According to the Hebrew Bible, the town was made a priestly city. It is identified with modern-day Yattah, which is located on a hill about 10 km south of Hebron Hebron ( ar, ...
. In 1931, a Jewish burial complex dating to the 2nd century CE was found in the town. In the 4th century CE,
Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian ...
wrote that Yatta was "a very large village of Jews eighteen miles south of Beit Gubrin." Some Palestinian residents of the town believe they originate from the Jewish kingdom of
Khaybar KhaybarOther standardized Arabic transliterations: / . Anglicized pronunciation: , . ( ar, خَيْبَر, ) is an oasis situated some north of the city of Medina in the Medina Province of Saudi Arabia. Prior to the rise of Islam in the 7t ...
in the south-western Arabian peninsula and are descended from the
Jewish tribes of Arabia The Jewish tribes of Arabia were ethnic groups professing the Jewish faith that inhabited the Arabian Peninsula before and during the advent of Islam. In Islamic tradition, the Jewish tribes of the Hejaz were seen as the offspring of the ancient ...
. Research by
Yitzhak Ben Zvi Yitzhak Ben-Zvi ( he, יִצְחָק בֶּן־צְבִי‎ ''Yitshak Ben-Tsvi''; 24 November 188423 April 1963) was a historian, Labor Zionist leader and the longest-serving President of Israel. Biography Born in Poltava in the Russian Empire ...
in 1928 also suggested that three out of the six hamulas (or extended families) in Yatta belonged to the Makhamra extended family which possibly descended from a Jewish Arab tribe. In 1938, Arab families from Yatta were reported to observe the Jewish holiday of
Hanukkah or English translation: 'Establishing' or 'Dedication' (of the Temple in Jerusalem) , nickname = , observedby = Jews , begins = 25 Kislev , ends = 2 Tevet or 3 Tevet , celebrations = Lighting candles each night. ...
, lighting candles purchased from the Jewish community in Hebron.


Ottoman era

Yatta, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
in 1517, and in the
census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
of 1596 the village appeared to be in the ''
Nahiya A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also 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 division w ...
'' of Khalil of the '' Liwa'' of Quds. It had a population of 127 families, all
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
, and paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives, goats and bee-hives; a total of 9,872
akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...
. 5/6 of the revenue went to a
Waqf A waqf ( ar, وَقْف; ), also known as hubous () or '' mortmain'' property is an inalienable charitable endowment under Islamic law. It typically involves donating a building, plot of land or other assets for Muslim religious or charitabl ...
. In 1838, Edward Robinson and noted ''Yutta'' as a Muslim village, located southwest of
el-Khulil Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after East J ...
.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 Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Mino ...
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 The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the Survey of Western Palestine and in 1880 for the Survey of Eastern Palestine. The survey was carried out after the ...
'' described Yatta as being a "large village standing high on a ridge. It is largely built of stone. The water supply is from
cistern A cistern (Middle English ', from Latin ', from ', "box", from Greek ', "basket") is a waterproof receptacle for holding liquids, usually water. Cisterns are often built to catch and store rainwater. Cisterns are distinguished from wells by t ...
s. 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 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 divisi ...
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
dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...
s 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 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...
, and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 6,326 inhabitants in Yatta.


Post-1967

Since the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, Yatta, like the rest of the West Bank has been occupied by
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
; since 1995, it has been governed by the PNA as part of Area A of the West Bank. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities several months after the
Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 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, S ...
was 7,281. On 17 September 2001, a Jewish terrorist group, the
Bat Ayin Bat Ayin ( he, בַּת עַיִן, lit., "daughter of the eye" or "apple of the eye", i. e., pupil, ar, بات عاين) is an Israeli settlement in Gush Etzion in the West Bank, between Jerusalem and Hebron. It was founded in 1989 by Rabbi Yi ...
Underground, planted two bombs in the schoolyard at Yatta: One was timed to explode during the recess, and a second bomb several minutes later, in the expectation that teachers and students would be drawn to examine the damage. A malfunction caused the first bomb to explode earlier, and Israeli sappers managed to defuse the second bomb in time. At least seven Palestinians were killed in Yatta during the
Second Intifada The Second Intifada ( ar, الانتفاضة الثانية, ; he, האינתיפאדה השנייה, ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada ( ar, انتفاضة الأقصى, label=none, '), was a major Palestinian uprising against Israel. ...
in different incidents from 2002 to 2004. On March 8, 2012 Israeli soldiers shot dead 20-year-old Zakariya Abu Eram and injured two others during a raid in the town with the intent of arresting Abu Eram's uncle, Khaled Mahamra.Palestinian shot dead in West Bank
Al Jazeera English Al Jazeera English (AJE; ar, الجزيرة‎, translit=al-jazīrah, , literally "The Peninsula", referring to the Qatar Peninsula) is an international 24-hour English-language news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network, which is own ...
. 2012-03-08.
Khaled Mahamra is a
Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
member responsible for the June 2016 Tel Aviv shooting, who was sentenced to life in prison and released as part of the exchange deal to free captive IDF soldier Gilad Schalit. The Israelis stated they fired at the men only after one of them stabbed a soldier during the arrest attempt. In June 2016, two assailants from Yatta were apprehended after firing upon Israelis dining in a Tel-Aviv café, after which they were charged with killing four people and injuring 16 others. In June 2019, the mayor of Yatta announced that he decided to change the name of Bahrain Street in his municipality to
Marzouq al-Ghanim Marzouq Ali Mohammed Al-Ghanim ( ar, مرزوق علي محمد ثنيان الغانم, Marzūq ʿAlī Muḥammad Ṯunayān al-Ghānim, born 3 November 1968, Abdullah Al-Salem, Kuwait) is a former speaker of the Kuwaiti National Assembly, re ...
Street as an act of protest against Bahrain's hosting of a US-led economic workshop.


Culture

A ''Jillayeh'' dress from Yatta from around 1910 is part of the
Museum of International Folk Art The Museum of International Folk Art is a state-run institution in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States. It is one of many cultural institutions operated by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. History The museum was founded by Floren ...
(MOIFA) at Museum of New Mexico at Santa Fe.Stillman, 1979, pp. 59 - 60


See also

* Masafer Yatta, collection of 19 hamlets within Yatta's municipal boundary *
Shabab Yatta Shabab Yatta is a professional football club based in the town of Yatta, within the Hebron Governorate in the Palestinian West Bank. The club currently compete in the West Bank Premier League. The club plays out of Dora International Stadium Do ...
, local football club


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * (p
193
* * *


External links


yatta-munc.org

Yatta
Welcome to Palestine *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 21
IAAWikimedia commons

Yatta Town (Fact Sheet)
Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ar, معهد الابحاث التطبيقية - القدس) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research project ...
(ARIJ)
Yatta Town Profile
ARIJ
Yatta Town aerial photo
ARIJ
The priorities and needs for development in Yatta city based on the community and local authorities' assessment
ARIJ {{Authority control Cities in the West Bank Ancient Jewish settlements of Judaea 13 Kohanic cities Municipalities of the State of Palestine