Bayt Nattif

Bayt Nattif or Beit Nattif ( ar, بيت نتّيف, and alternatively) was a Palestinian Arab village, located some 20 kilometers (straight line distance) southwest of Jerusalem, midway on the ancient Roman road between Beit Guvrin and Jerusalem, and 21 km northwest of Hebron.
The village lay nestled on a hilltop, surrounded by olive groves and almonds, with woodlands of oak and carobs overlooking ''Wadi es-Sunt'' (the Elah Valley) to its south. It contained several shrines, including a notable one dedicated to al-Shaykh Ibrahim. Roughly a dozen khirbas (deserted, ruined settlements) lay in the vicinity.

During the British Mandate it was part of the Hebron Subdistrict. Bayt Nattif was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on October 21, 1948 under Operation Ha-Har.Khalidi, 1992, pp. 211-212.

Name history

In Roman times the town was known as Bethletepha or Betholetepha, and commonly known by its Greek equivalent, Bethletephon.Tsafrir, Di Segni and Green, 1994, p. 84

The original Arabic version of the name was Bayt Lettif, which was eventually phonetically simplified to Bayt Nattif.

History

Roman and Byzantine periods (63 BCE – 6th century CE)

Bayt Nattif stood on the much-travelled ancient road connecting Eleutheropolis (Beth Guvrin, later Bayt Jibrin) with Jerusalem, about midway between the two towns.

In the Roman province of Judaea (6–135 CE), the town became the capital of one of the eleven toparchies or prefectures of the province, receiving certain administrative responsibilities, and is known from some classical sources by the name Betholetepha, probably identical with Pella, another name sometimes mentioned in the same geographical context and widely assumed to indicate the same toparchy and town.

According to Josephus Flavius, the city was sacked under Vespasian and Titus, during the first Jewish uprising against Rome (66-73). During the 12th year of the reign of Nero, when the Roman army had suffered a great defeat under Cestius Gallus, with more than five thousand foot soldiers killed, the people of the surrounding countryside feared reprisals from the Roman army and made haste to appoint generals and to fortify their settlements. Generals were at that time appointed for Idumea, namely, over the entire region immediately south and south-west of Jerusalem, and which incorporated within it the towns of Bethletephon, Betaris (corrected to read '' Begabris''), Kefar Tobah, Adurim, and Maresha. This region was called Idumea by the Romans on account of it being inhabited largely by the descendants of Esau ( Edom) who were converted to Judaism during the time of John Hyrcanus.

The writings of Josephus, supported by archaeological discoveries, make researchers agree that the town and the surrounding region had a predominantly Jewish population until the unsuccessful Bar-Kokhba revolt of 132–135 CE, but so far they couldn't unequivocally prove exactly to what degree the Jews suffered extermination and expulsion as a result of the revolt. Archaeological findings indicate that after the revolt, during the Late Roman period, the town has been resettled with pagan Roman citizens and army veterans, as part of the Romanisation process of the rural area surrounding Aelia Capitolina and reaching downhill towards Eleutheropolis. At this time the town was still an important site.

A rectangular structure with a decorated floor mosaic was interpreted in 1934 to be the remains of a fifth- or sixth-century Byzantine church.

Ottoman period (1517–1917)

In 1596, Bayt Nattif was listed among villages belonging to the ''nahiya'' '' Quds'', in the administrative district '' Liwā`'' of Jerusalem, in a tax ledger of the "countries of Syria" (''wilāyat aš-Šām'') and which lands were then under Ottoman rule. During that year, Bayt Nattif was inhabited by 94 households and 10 bachelors, all Muslim. The Ottoman authority levied a 33.3% taxation on agricultural products produced by the villagers (primarily on wheat, barley, olives, sesame seeds and grapes, among other fruits), besides a marriage tax and supplement tax on goats and beehives. Total revenues accruing from the village of Bayt Nattif for that year amounted to 12,000 '' akçe''.

In 1838 Edward Robinson visited, and remarks that their party was very well received by the villagers. He further noted that the villagers belonged to the "Keis" faction. By the mid-19th century, a rift had divided families in the region over control of the district ''Bani Hasan'', until at length it broke out into actual fighting between the Keis (Qays) faction, on the one side, and the Yaman faction, on the other. Meron Benvenisti, writing of this period, says that Sheikh 'Utham al-Lahham waged "a bloody war against Sheikh Mustafa Abu Ghosh, whose capital and fortified seat was in the village of Suba."Schölch, 1993, p. 231 In 1855, Mohammad Atallah in ''Bayt Nattif'', a cousin of 'Utham al-Lahham, contested his rule over the region. In order to win support from Abu Ghosh, Mohammad Atallah gave his allegiance to the Yaman faction. This is said to have enraged 'Utham al-Lahham. He raised a fighting force and fell on ''Bayt Nattif'' on 3 January 1855. The village lost 21 dead. According to an eyewitness description by the horrified British consul, James Finn, their corpses were terribly mutilated.Schölch, 1993, p. 232

In 1863 Victor Guérin visited twice. The first time he visited he estimated that the village contained about one thousand inhabitants. He further noted that the houses were crudely built, one of them, which was assigned to the reception of foreigners, the ''al-Medhafeh'', was a square tower. Above the entrance of the ''al-Medhafeh'' was a large block for lintel, featuring elegant mouldings, Guérin assumed it came from an ancient destroyed monument. Many other ancient stones were embedded here and there in private homes. Two wells, several cisterns and a number of silos and stores carved in the rock, and in continued use, were also ancient.

Socin, citing an official Ottoman village list compiled around 1870, noted that Bayt Nattif had 66 houses and a population of 231, though the population count included men only. Hartmann found that ''Bayt Nattif'' had 120 houses.

In 1883, the PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' described Bayt Nattif as being "a village of fair size, standing high on a flat-topped ridge between two broad valleys. On the south, about 400 feet below, is a spring (''`Ain el Kezbeh''), and on the north a rock-cut tomb was found. There are fine olive-groves round the place, and the open valleys are very fertile in corn."

Around 1896 the population of ''Bayt Nattif'' was estimated to be about 672 persons.

British Mandate (1920–1948)

For all practical purposes, the British inherited from their Turkish counterparts the existing laws in regard to land tenures as defined in the Ottoman Land Code, to which laws there was later added subsidiary legislation. At the time of the British occupation the land tax was collected at the rate of 12.5% of the gross yield of the land. Crops were assessed on the threshing floor or in the field and the tithe was collected from the cultivators. In 1925, additional legislation provided that taxation on crops and other produce not exceed 10%. In 1928, as a measure of reform, the Mandate Government of Palestine began to apply an Ordinance for the "Commutation of Tithes," this tax in effect bei