Bayt 'Itab
Encyclopedia
Bayt ʿIṭāb was a Palestinian
village located in the District of Jerusalem
. The village was captured, depopulated of its residents, and demolished by Israel
during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
.
. Prior to, during, and after its incorporation into Crusader fiefdoms in the 12th century, its population was Arab
. Sheikh
s from the Lahham family clan, who were associated with the Qays faction, ruled the village during Ottoman
times. In the 19th century, this clan controlled 24 villages in the vicinity. The homes were built of stone. The local farmers cultivated cereals, fruit trees and olive groves and some engaged in livestock breeding. After an a military assault on Bayt ʿIṭāb by Israeli forces in October 1948, the village was depopulated and demolished. Many of the villagers fled to refugee camps in the West Bank
less than 20 kilometres (12.4 mi) from the village. In 1950, an Israeli moshav
, Nes Harim
, was established north of the built up portion of Bayt 'Itab, on an adjacent peak.
road ran along a narrow ridge to the south of the village which also passed by Solomon's Pools
. A low cliff to the east of the village was known as Arâk elظJemâl ("the cliff, cavern or buttress of the camels").
Southeast of the village on the main road was the chief village spring known as ''ʿAin Beit ʿAṭāb or ''ʿAin Haud. Below this spring to the northwest, was a pool known as Birket 'Atab with its own spring, ٔAin el-Birkeh. Another spring nearby was known as Ain el Khanzierh ("the spring of the sow"). Connecting the village to the chief spring was a rock tunnel said to be "of great antiquity," the entrance of which was known only to those well acquainted with the site. This cavern or tunnel, known in Arabic as Mgharat Bīr el-Hasuta, ("Cave of the Well of Hasuta") is "evidently artificial," and was hewn into the rock. Some 250 feet long, it runs in a south-south-west direction from the village emerging as a vertical shaft (6 ft x 5 ft x 10 ft deep) about 60 yards away from the spring that supplied the village with water. The average height of the tunnel is about 5 to 8 feet with a width of about 18 feet. There were two entrances to it from the village, one in the west, and the other at the center, the latter being closed at one author's time of writing in the 19th century.
(1884) writes of Bayt 'Itab that it crowned "a remarkable rocky knoll," which he states is, "probably, the Rock Etam
." Noting that an ancient tunnel ran down from the village eastward through the rock to the chief spring, he speculates that this would have made a good hiding place for Samson
when according to biblical
tradition, he "went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam" (Book of Judges
, xv. 8).
John William McGarvey
(1881) writes that it was Lieutenant C. R. Conder, of the Palestine Exploration Fund
(PEF), who first identified Bayt ʿIṭāb as the site of Etam. Garvey quotes Conder on the linguistic evidence: "The substitution of B for M is so common (as in Tibneh for Timnah
) that the name Atab may very properly represent the Hebrew
Etam
(eagle's nest); and there are other indications as to the identity of the site."
In Conder's Survey of Western Palestine (1881), he notes that the name of the "curious cave" at Bayt ʿIṭāb in Arabic is Bir el-Has Utah. Unable to find a meaning for the word in Arabic, he finds it corresponds to the Hebrew word Hasutah, "[...] which is translated 'a place of refuge.' Thus the name seems to indicate that this place has been used from a very early time as a lurking or hiding place, as we gather it to have been in the time of Samson." McGarvey
also relays Conder's belief that the cavern within the rock formation was "the real hiding place" of Samson after his destruction of the Philistine's grains.
towns compiled by Eusebius in the fourth century CE. In the mid-12th century, Bayt ʿIṭāb was a fief of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
. It was acquired by them from Johannes Gothman, a Frankish (Flemish
) knight, whose wife was forced to sell his landholdings after he was taken prisoner by Muslim forces in 1157 in order to raise the money needed for his ransom. An impressive maison forte or hall house in the ancient centre of the modern village is thought to have served as Gothman's residence prior to its sale to the Church. The building had two stories, both vaulted
; the ground floor entrance was protected by a slit-machicolation
and had stairs leading to the basement and upper floor.
The Arabic name of the village appears in Latin transliteration as Bethaatap in a list recording the sale of the land holdings belonging to Gothman in 1161. Its affiliations with the Crusader
era has led some to erroneously characterize the village as "Crusader", when in fact its habitation by Arabs predates, persisted through and extended beyond this period.
visited the village in 1838, and described its stone houses, several of which had two storeys, as solidly built. In the center of the village were the ruins of a castle or tower. Robinson estimates, the village population was six to seven hundred people. He notes that Beit 'Atab, as he transcribes it, was the chief town of the 'Arkub (Arqub) district and the Nazir (warden) of the district lived there. Robinson recounts that he was "a good-looking man" from the Lahaam clan, and that when they arrived in the village, he was sitting conversing with other sheikh
s on a carpet under a fig
tree. Rising to greet them, he invited them to stay for the night, but as they were in a hurry to see more of the country before the setting of the sun, and so declined his offer.
In the mid-19th century, the sheikh of Bayt 'Atab was named 'Utham al-Lahham (Sheikh 'Othman al-Lahaam). He had been exiled in 1846, but had managed to escape and return. A supporter of the Qaisi (Qaysi) faction, Lahham was in conflict with the Yamani faction leaders, especially the sheikh of Abu Ghosh
. In the 1850s the conflict between these two families over the control of the district of Bani Hasan dominated the area. As Meron Benvenisti
writes, al-Lahham waged "a bloody war against Sheik Mustafa Abu Ghosh, whose capital and fortified seat was in the village of Suba." 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 changed side over to the Yamani 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 corpes were terribly mutilated.
In February 1855, the Abu Ghosh-family came to the aid of Atallah, conquered Bayt ʿIṭāb, and imprisoned ʿUtham al-Laḥḥām in his own house. With the help of one of the younger members of the Abu Ghosh-family, James Finn
was able to negotiate a cease-fire between the Atallah and Lahham -factions in Bayt 'Itab. For three years, relative peace reigned in the area; however, the Ottoman
Governor of Jeusalem, Thurayya Pasha, and his policy of consolidating Ottoman control over the local districts, step by step, led to the last rebellion of the sheikhs in 1858-59. By the fall of 1859, when 'Utham al-Lahham was ninety years old, both he and Mohammad Atallah were deported to Cyprus
by Thurayya Pasha. The rest of the Laḥḥām family was resettled in Ramla
.
In the late 19th century, Bayt ʿIṭāb was described as a village built on stone, perched on a rocky knoll that rose 60 to 100 feet above the surrounding hilly ridge. Its population in 1875 was approximately 700, all Muslim
. Olive trees were cultivated on terraces to the north of the village. A large cavern (18 feet wide and 6 feet high) ran beneath the houses.
, Bayt 'Itab had 187 occupied houses and a population of 606 Muslims. It was in the sub-district of Ramle, but due to the rearrangement of district boundaries
it was later in the sub-district of Jerusalem.
The original layout of Bayt ʿIṭāb was circular, but newer construction to the southwest (towards Sufla
), gave the village an arc-shape. Most houses were built of stone. Agriculture was the main source of income. The village owned extensive areas on the coastal plain that were planted with grain. During the British Mandate in Palestine, some of this land was expropriated to make a large, government-owned woodland.
In 1944-45, a total of 1,400 dunums
of village land was used for cereals, while 665 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, of which 116 dunums were planted with olive trees. The villagers also engaged in livestock breeding.
captured the village as part of Operation HaHar. This operation was complementary to Operation Yoav
, a simultaneous offensive on the southern front. Most of the village population fled southwards, towards Bethlehem and Hebron. Many refugees from Bayt 'Itab, and other Palestinian villages clustered together on the western slope of the Judean mountains
, ended up in Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank
, roughly 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from their former homes.
In 1950, the Israeli village of Nes Harim
was established north of the village site on village land. In 1992, Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi
found the site strewn with rubble and the remains of a Crusader fortress. He noted two cemeteries that lay east and west of the village, and the fact that some of the surrounding land was cultivated by Israeli farmers.
In 2002, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority established a 130-dunam national park in the area, known as Horvat 'Itab.Remains at the site include a Crusader fortress, vaults, remnants of a wall and towers, tunnels, a columbarium
and an olive press.
A conservation project was undertaken to stabilize the vaulted building utilizing traditional technology.
Palestinian people
The Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with origins in Palestine. Despite various wars and exoduses, roughly one third of the world's Palestinian population continues to reside in the area encompassing the West Bank, the Gaza...
village located in the District of Jerusalem
District of Jerusalem
The District of Jerusalem was an administrative district, situated in the British Mandate of Palestine around the city of Jerusalem. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the district was integrated into the Jerusalem District....
. The village was captured, depopulated of its residents, and demolished by Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
1948 Arab-Israeli War
The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...
.
Overview
Bayt Itab is believed to have been inhabited since biblical times. An ancient tunnel which led to the village spring is associated with story of SamsonSamson
Samson, Shimshon ; Shamshoun or Sampson is the third to last of the Judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Tanakh ....
. Prior to, during, and after its incorporation into Crusader fiefdoms in the 12th century, its population was Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
. Sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
s from the Lahham family clan, who were associated with the Qays faction, ruled the village during Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
times. In the 19th century, this clan controlled 24 villages in the vicinity. The homes were built of stone. The local farmers cultivated cereals, fruit trees and olive groves and some engaged in livestock breeding. After an a military assault on Bayt ʿIṭāb by Israeli forces in October 1948, the village was depopulated and demolished. Many of the villagers fled to refugee camps in the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
less than 20 kilometres (12.4 mi) from the village. In 1950, an Israeli moshav
Moshav
Moshav is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists during the second aliyah...
, Nes Harim
Nes Harim
Nes Harim is a moshav in Israel, eight kilometers from Jerusalem. Located in the Judean foothills near Beit Shemesh, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council...
, was established north of the built up portion of Bayt 'Itab, on an adjacent peak.
Geography
Bayt ʿIṭāb was located 17.5 kilometres (10.9 mi) south southwest of Jerusalem, on a high mountain 665 metres (2,181.8 ft) above sea level, overlooking some lower mountains peaks below. A RomanRoman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
road ran along a narrow ridge to the south of the village which also passed by Solomon's Pools
Solomon's Pools
Solomon's Pools , are located immediately to the south of al-Khader and about 5 kilometres southwest of Bethlehem. The pools consist of three open cisterns, each pool with a 6 metre drop to the next, fed from an underground spring. With each pool being over 100 metres long, 65 metres wide and 10...
. A low cliff to the east of the village was known as Arâk elظJemâl ("the cliff, cavern or buttress of the camels").
Southeast of the village on the main road was the chief village spring known as ''ʿAin Beit ʿAṭāb or ''ʿAin Haud. Below this spring to the northwest, was a pool known as Birket 'Atab with its own spring, ٔAin el-Birkeh. Another spring nearby was known as Ain el Khanzierh ("the spring of the sow"). Connecting the village to the chief spring was a rock tunnel said to be "of great antiquity," the entrance of which was known only to those well acquainted with the site. This cavern or tunnel, known in Arabic as Mgharat Bīr el-Hasuta, ("Cave of the Well of Hasuta") is "evidently artificial," and was hewn into the rock. Some 250 feet long, it runs in a south-south-west direction from the village emerging as a vertical shaft (6 ft x 5 ft x 10 ft deep) about 60 yards away from the spring that supplied the village with water. The average height of the tunnel is about 5 to 8 feet with a width of about 18 feet. There were two entrances to it from the village, one in the west, and the other at the center, the latter being closed at one author's time of writing in the 19th century.
Biblical identification
Henry B. TristramHenry Baker Tristram
The Reverend Henry Baker Tristram FRS was an English clergyman, Biblical scholar, traveller and ornithologist.Tristram was born at Eglingham vicarage, near Alnwick, Northumberland, and studied at Durham School and Lincoln College, Oxford. In 1846 he was ordained a priest, but he suffered from...
(1884) writes of Bayt 'Itab that it crowned "a remarkable rocky knoll," which he states is, "probably, the Rock Etam
Rock of Etam
Rock of Etam is mentioned as a rock with the cave where Samson hid after smiting the Philistines "hip and thigh with a great slaughter" . It was in Judah but apparently in the low hill country...
." Noting that an ancient tunnel ran down from the village eastward through the rock to the chief spring, he speculates that this would have made a good hiding place for Samson
Samson
Samson, Shimshon ; Shamshoun or Sampson is the third to last of the Judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Tanakh ....
when according to biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
tradition, he "went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam" (Book of Judges
Book of Judges
The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its title describes its contents: it contains the history of Biblical judges, divinely inspired prophets whose direct knowledge of Yahweh allows them to act as decision-makers for the Israelites, as...
, xv. 8).
John William McGarvey
John William McGarvey
John William McGarvey was a minister, author, and religious educator in the American Restoration Movement. He was particularly associated with the College of the Bible in Lexington, Kentucky where he taught for 46 years, serving as president from 1895-1911...
(1881) writes that it was Lieutenant C. R. Conder, of the Palestine Exploration Fund
Palestine Exploration Fund
The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society often simply known as the PEF. It was founded in 1865 and is still functioning today. Its initial object was to carry out surveys of the topography and ethnography of Ottoman Palestine with a remit that fell somewhere between an expeditionary...
(PEF), who first identified Bayt ʿIṭāb as the site of Etam. Garvey quotes Conder on the linguistic evidence: "The substitution of B for M is so common (as in Tibneh for Timnah
Timnah
Timnath or Timnah was a Philistine city in Canaan that is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in . It has been identified with Tel Batash , a tel located in the Sorek Valley, near moshav Tal Shahar, Israel....
) that the name Atab may very properly represent the Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
Etam
Etam
Etam is a proper name in the Bible. Etam means "eyrie", "their bird" or "their covering" in Hebrew. There are five references to the name Etam in the Hebrew Bible:Person* Etam is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4:3 as a descendant of Judah...
(eagle's nest); and there are other indications as to the identity of the site."
In Conder's Survey of Western Palestine (1881), he notes that the name of the "curious cave" at Bayt ʿIṭāb in Arabic is Bir el-Has Utah. Unable to find a meaning for the word in Arabic, he finds it corresponds to the Hebrew word Hasutah, "[...] which is translated 'a place of refuge.' Thus the name seems to indicate that this place has been used from a very early time as a lurking or hiding place, as we gather it to have been in the time of Samson." McGarvey
John William McGarvey
John William McGarvey was a minister, author, and religious educator in the American Restoration Movement. He was particularly associated with the College of the Bible in Lexington, Kentucky where he taught for 46 years, serving as president from 1895-1911...
also relays Conder's belief that the cavern within the rock formation was "the real hiding place" of Samson after his destruction of the Philistine's grains.
Crusader era
Bayt ʿIṭāb is identified with Enadab, a name that appears in a list of Palestiniantowns compiled by Eusebius in the fourth century CE. In the mid-12th century, Bayt ʿIṭāb was a fief of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection by Eastern Christians, is a church within the walled Old City of Jerusalem. It is a few steps away from the Muristan....
. It was acquired by them from Johannes Gothman, a Frankish (Flemish
Flemish
Flemish can refer to anything related to Flanders, and may refer directly to the following articles:*Flemish, an informal, though linguistically incorrect, name of any kind of the Dutch language as spoken in Belgium....
) knight, whose wife was forced to sell his landholdings after he was taken prisoner by Muslim forces in 1157 in order to raise the money needed for his ransom. An impressive maison forte or hall house in the ancient centre of the modern village is thought to have served as Gothman's residence prior to its sale to the Church. The building had two stories, both vaulted
Vault (architecture)
A Vault is an architectural term for an arched form used to provide a space with a ceiling or roof. The parts of a vault exert lateral thrust that require a counter resistance. When vaults are built underground, the ground gives all the resistance required...
; the ground floor entrance was protected by a slit-machicolation
Machicolation
A machicolation is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones, or other objects, could be dropped on attackers at the base of a defensive wall. The design was developed in the Middle Ages when the Norman crusaders returned. A machicolated battlement...
and had stairs leading to the basement and upper floor.
The Arabic name of the village appears in Latin transliteration as Bethaatap in a list recording the sale of the land holdings belonging to Gothman in 1161. Its affiliations with the Crusader
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
era has led some to erroneously characterize the village as "Crusader", when in fact its habitation by Arabs predates, persisted through and extended beyond this period.
Ottoman era
Edward RobinsonEdward Robinson (scholar)
Edward Robinson was an American biblical scholar, known as the “Father of Biblical Geography.” He has been referred to as the “founder of modern Palestinology.” -Biography:...
visited the village in 1838, and described its stone houses, several of which had two storeys, as solidly built. In the center of the village were the ruins of a castle or tower. Robinson estimates, the village population was six to seven hundred people. He notes that Beit 'Atab, as he transcribes it, was the chief town of the 'Arkub (Arqub) district and the Nazir (warden) of the district lived there. Robinson recounts that he was "a good-looking man" from the Lahaam clan, and that when they arrived in the village, he was sitting conversing with other sheikh
Sheikh
Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...
s on a carpet under a fig
Ficus
Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...
tree. Rising to greet them, he invited them to stay for the night, but as they were in a hurry to see more of the country before the setting of the sun, and so declined his offer.
In the mid-19th century, the sheikh of Bayt 'Atab was named 'Utham al-Lahham (Sheikh 'Othman al-Lahaam). He had been exiled in 1846, but had managed to escape and return. A supporter of the Qaisi (Qaysi) faction, Lahham was in conflict with the Yamani faction leaders, especially the sheikh of Abu Ghosh
Abu Ghosh
Abu Ghosh is an Israeli Arab town in Israel, located west of Jerusalem on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway. It is situated 610–720 meters above sea level. In 2010, it set the Guinness World Record for largest dish of hummus...
. In the 1850s the conflict between these two families over the control of the district of Bani Hasan dominated the area. As Meron Benvenisti
Meron Benvenisti
Meron Benvenisti is an Israeli political scientist who was Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem under Teddy Kollek from 1971 to 1978, during which he administered East Jerusalem and served as Jerusalem's Chief Planning Officer. He is a medieval scholar and published books and maps on the Crusader period in...
writes, al-Lahham waged "a bloody war against Sheik Mustafa Abu Ghosh, whose capital and fortified seat was in the village of Suba." In 1855, Mohammad Atallah in Bayt Nattif
Bayt Nattif
Bayt Nattif was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Hebron. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on October 21, 1948 under Operation ha-Har. It was located 21 km northwest of Hebron....
, a cousin of 'Utham al-Lahham, contested his rule over the region. In order to win support from Abu Ghosh
Abu Ghosh
Abu Ghosh is an Israeli Arab town in Israel, located west of Jerusalem on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway. It is situated 610–720 meters above sea level. In 2010, it set the Guinness World Record for largest dish of hummus...
, Mohammad Atallah changed side over to the Yamani faction. This is said to have enraged 'Utham al-Lahham. He raised a fighting force and fell on Bayt Nattif
Bayt Nattif
Bayt Nattif was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Hebron. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on October 21, 1948 under Operation ha-Har. It was located 21 km northwest of Hebron....
on 3 January 1855. The village lost 21 dead. According to an eyewitness description by the horrified British consul, James Finn
James Finn
James Finn was a British Consul in Jerusalem, in the then Ottoman Empire . He arrived in 1845 with his wife Elizabeth Anne Finn. Finn was a devout Christian, who belonged to the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, but who did not engage in missionary work during his years in...
, their corpes were terribly mutilated.
In February 1855, the Abu Ghosh-family came to the aid of Atallah, conquered Bayt ʿIṭāb, and imprisoned ʿUtham al-Laḥḥām in his own house. With the help of one of the younger members of the Abu Ghosh-family, James Finn
James Finn
James Finn was a British Consul in Jerusalem, in the then Ottoman Empire . He arrived in 1845 with his wife Elizabeth Anne Finn. Finn was a devout Christian, who belonged to the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, but who did not engage in missionary work during his years in...
was able to negotiate a cease-fire between the Atallah and Lahham -factions in Bayt 'Itab. For three years, relative peace reigned in the area; however, the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
Governor of Jeusalem, Thurayya Pasha, and his policy of consolidating Ottoman control over the local districts, step by step, led to the last rebellion of the sheikhs in 1858-59. By the fall of 1859, when 'Utham al-Lahham was ninety years old, both he and Mohammad Atallah were deported to Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
by Thurayya Pasha. The rest of the Laḥḥām family was resettled in Ramla
Ramla
Ramla , is a city in central Israel. The city is predominantly Jewish with a significant Arab minority. Ramla was founded circa 705–715 AD by the Umayyad Caliph Suleiman ibn Abed al-Malik after the Arab conquest of the region...
.
In the late 19th century, Bayt ʿIṭāb was described as a village built on stone, perched on a rocky knoll that rose 60 to 100 feet above the surrounding hilly ridge. Its population in 1875 was approximately 700, all Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
. Olive trees were cultivated on terraces to the north of the village. A large cavern (18 feet wide and 6 feet high) ran beneath the houses.
British Mandate
At the time of the 1931 census1931 census of Palestine
The 1931 census of Palestine was the second census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine. It was carried out on 18 November 1931 under the direction of Major E. Mills. The first census had been conducted in 1922...
, Bayt 'Itab had 187 occupied houses and a population of 606 Muslims. It was in the sub-district of Ramle, but due to the rearrangement of district boundaries
Districts of the British Mandate of Palestine
During the period of British rule over Palestine, 1918–1948, the territory of the British Mandate for Palestine was divided into administrative regions known as districts, divisions, or sub-districts. The number of parts and the boundaries between them were adjusted repeatedly...
it was later in the sub-district of Jerusalem.
The original layout of Bayt ʿIṭāb was circular, but newer construction to the southwest (towards Sufla
Sufla
Sufla was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Jerusalem. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on October 19, 1948 by the Sixth Battalion of the Har'el Brigade under Operation ha-Har. It was located 18.5 km west of Jerusalem....
), gave the village an arc-shape. Most houses were built of stone. Agriculture was the main source of income. The village owned extensive areas on the coastal plain that were planted with grain. During the British Mandate in Palestine, some of this land was expropriated to make a large, government-owned woodland.
In 1944-45, a total of 1,400 dunums
Dunam
A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum, dynym, dulum was a non-SI unit of land area used in the Ottoman Empire and representing the amount of land that can be plowed in a day; its value varied from 900–2500 m²...
of village land was used for cereals, while 665 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, of which 116 dunums were planted with olive trees. The villagers also engaged in livestock breeding.
State of Israel
The village was depopulated between 19–24 October 1948, after the Harel BrigadeIsrael Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
captured the village as part of Operation HaHar. This operation was complementary to Operation Yoav
Operation Yoav
Operation Yoav was an Israeli military operation carried out from 15–22 October 1948 in the Negev Desert, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Its goal was to drive a wedge between the Egyptian forces along the coast and the Beersheba–Hebron–Jerusalem road and ultimately to conquer the whole Negev...
, a simultaneous offensive on the southern front. Most of the village population fled southwards, towards Bethlehem and Hebron. Many refugees from Bayt 'Itab, and other Palestinian villages clustered together on the western slope of the Judean mountains
Judean Mountains
The Judaean Mountains, ;, also Judaean Hills and Hebron Hills is a mountain range in Israel and the West Bank where Jerusalem and several other biblical cities are located. The mountains reach a height of 1,000 m.-Geography:...
, ended up in Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
, roughly 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from their former homes.
In 1950, the Israeli village of Nes Harim
Nes Harim
Nes Harim is a moshav in Israel, eight kilometers from Jerusalem. Located in the Judean foothills near Beit Shemesh, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council...
was established north of the village site on village land. In 1992, Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi
Walid Khalidi is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the Palestinian exodus. He is General Secretary and co-founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies, established in Beirut in December 1963 as an independent research and publishing center...
found the site strewn with rubble and the remains of a Crusader fortress. He noted two cemeteries that lay east and west of the village, and the fact that some of the surrounding land was cultivated by Israeli farmers.
In 2002, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority established a 130-dunam national park in the area, known as Horvat 'Itab.Remains at the site include a Crusader fortress, vaults, remnants of a wall and towers, tunnels, a columbarium
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
and an olive press.
A conservation project was undertaken to stabilize the vaulted building utilizing traditional technology.
See also
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
- List of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict
External links
- Welcome To Bayt 'Itab
- Itab from the Khalil Sakakini Cultural CenterKhalil Sakakini Cultural CenterKhalil Sakakini Cultural Center is an organization established in 1996. It is located at 4 Raja Street, Ramallah in the West Bank. The traditional manor that houses the centre was the former family home of Khalil Salem Salah, the mayor of Ramallah between 1947/1951, is now owned by the Palestinian...
- Bayt 'Itab, Palestine Family
- Visiting the village erased from all but a family's memory, National Catholic ReporterNational Catholic ReporterThe National Catholic Reporter is the second largest Catholic newspaper in the United States; its circulation reaches ninety-seven countries on six continents. Based in midtown Kansas City, Missouri, NCR was founded by Robert Hoyt in 1964 as an independent newspaper focusing on the Catholic Church...