Beit Iba () is a
Palestinian village in the
Nablus Governorate in the North central
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 7 kilometers northwest of
Nablus. According to the
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a population of 4,079 inhabitants in 2017.
Location
Beit Iba is located west of
Nablus. It is bordered by Nablus and
Beit Wazan to the east,
An-Naqura and
Zawata to the north,
Deir Sharaf and
Qusin to the west, and
Sarra and
Beit Wazan to the south.
History
Ceramics from the
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 ...
era have been found here.
Ottoman era
In 1517, the village 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 ...
with the rest 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 in 1596, Beit Iba appeared in Ottoman
tax registers as being in ''
nahiya'' (subdistrict) of Jabal Qubal under the ''
liwa''' (district) of
Nablus. It had a population of 20 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 ...
s. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on
wheat
Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...
,
barley
Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...
, summer crops, olive trees, goats and/or beehives, in addition to occasional revenues and a tax on people in the Nablus district; a total of 9,000
akçe. Half to the revenue went to a
Waqf.
In 1838, in the
Biblical Researches in Palestine
''Biblical researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea'' (1841 edition), also ''Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions'' (1856 edition), was a Travelogues of Ottoman Palestine, travelogue of 19th-century Palestine a ...
, ''Beit Iba'' was located in the District of ''Jurat 'Amra'', south of Nablus.
[Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.]
127
/ref>
In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village with a population of 64 households in the '' nahiya'' (sub-district) of Jamma'in al-Awwal, subordinate to Nablus.
In 1882, the PEF's '' Survey of Western Palestine'' described Beit Iba as: "A village of moderate size in low ground, with olives; it is of mud and stone, with a good spring ('Aines Subian); to the north. The olive groves in the valley are very fine and ancient; here and there is a small mill, and in spring a stream of water.
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Beit Iba had a population of 456; all Muslims,[Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p]
24
/ref> increasing slightly in the 1931 census to 470 Muslims, in a total of 121 houses.
In the 1945 statistics, the population was 630, all Muslims,[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p]
18
with 5,063 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, 762 dunams were for plantations or irrigated land, 3,368 for cereals, while 41 dunams were built-up land.
Jordanian era
In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Beit Iba came under Jordanian rule.
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 1,069 inhabitants in Beit Iba.
1967 and aftermath
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, Beit Iba has been under Israeli occupation.
After the 1995 accords, 45% of the village land is defined as being in Area A, 34% is Area B, while the remaining 21% Area C.Beit Iba Village Profile
ARIJ, p. 15
References
Bibliography
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External links
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11:
IAAWikimedia commonsBeit Iba Village profile
Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem, ARIJ
Beit Iba, aerial photo
ARIJ
Development Priorities and Needs in Beit Iba
ARIJ
{{Authority control
Nablus Governorate
Villages in the West Bank
Municipalities of Palestine