Misilyah

Misilyah (), sometimes spelled Mithiliyeh and Misiliyeh, is a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank of the State of Palestine, located 14 kilometers south of the city of Jenin. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 2,252 inhabitants in mid-year 2006 and 2,884 by 2017. The main agricultural crops cultivated in Misilya are olives, grapes, figs, and vegetables. Roman and Islamic ruins have been found in the village.

Geography

Misilyah is situated in a small plain in the foothills of Jabal Faḳu'ah, or Mount Gilboa. The plain, Marj al-Gharaḳ, also spelled Merj el-Ghǔrǔk, which lacks any natural drainage, was described at the beginning of the 20th century as transforming into a large swamp during the rainy season, only to dry up in summer, when the resulting field was cultivated with grain.

History

It's believed that Misilyah was established sometime after the 16th century. It appears in tax records dating back to 1671. The locals of Qabatiya consider Misilyah to be an offshoot of their village, with some residents originating from nearby villages.

C. R. Conder suggested in the 1880s that Misilyah was ancient Bethulia, but Zertal, 2004, found no archeological evidence supporting this.Zertal, 2004, pp
228229
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Pottery sherds from the late Roman, Byzantine, early Muslim and Medieval eras have been found here.

Ottoman era

In 1838, Edward Robinson noted the village when he travelled in the region, as bordering the extremely fertile Marj Sanur. He listed it as part of the District of ''Haritheh'', north of Nablus.

In 1870, Victor Guérin noted it, "sitting on the northern slopes of a hill planted with superb olive trees; at the bottom there is a fertile and well-cultivated plain."

In 1882, the PEF's ''Survey of Western Palestine'' described ''Meselieh'': "A small village, with a detached portion to the north, and placed on a slope, with a hill to the south, and surrounded by good olive-groves, with an open valley called Wady el Melek (' the King's Valley') on the north. The water-supply is from wells, some of which have an ancient appearance. They are mainly supplied with rain-water."

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Meselayyeh'' had a population 190 Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 222 Muslim, in a total of 49 houses.Mills, 1932, p
69
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In the 1945 statistics the population was 330 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
16
with a total of 9,038 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 2,683 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 2,592 dunams were for cereals, while a total of 23 dunams were built-up, urban land.

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreementsian rule.

In 1961, the population of ''Misilya'' was 606.

Post-1967

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Misilyah has been under Israeli occupation.

On 17 January 2016 a 21 year old resident of Masliya was shot dead by Israeli soldiers.Palestinian Shot After Attempting to Stab Israelis in the West Bank
Ha'aretz 17/1/2016

References

Bibliography

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External links

Palestine remembered
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11
IAAWikimedia commons
{{Jenin Governorate

Villages in the West Bank
Jenin Governorate
Municipalities of Palestine