Beit Sira
Beit Sira | |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | بيت سيرا |
| • Latin | Bayt Sira (official) |
 Beit Sira | |
  Beit Sira Location of Beit Sira within Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 31°53′15″N 35°02′39″E / 31.88750°N 35.04417°E | |
| Palestine grid | 154/143 |
| State | State of Palestine |
| Governorate | Ramallah and al-Bireh |
| Government | |
| • Type | Village council |
| Area | |
• Total | 3,120 dunams (3.1 km2 or 1.2 sq mi) |
| Population (2017)[1] | |
• Total | 3,343 |
| • Density | 1,100/km2 (2,800/sq mi) |
| Name meaning | The house of the fold[2] |
Beit Sira (Arabic: بيت سيرا) is a Palestinian village in the central West Bank, located 22 kilometers west of Ramallah and is a part of the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate. The village is situated along the Green Line. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, around 4,000 dunams of its land became a part of the "No-Man's Land" strip between the north-central West Bank and Israel. Currently Beit Sira's jurisdiction is 3,120 dunams, of which 441 dunams are built-up areas and the remainder is open spaces for future construction or agricultural land.[3]
Etymology
[edit]Bayt Sīrā /Bēt Sīra/ is an ancient toponymic survival, meaning House of Sira. The second part of the name may originate from the Biblical female name Š’rh (< *ši’r-at).[4]
Clermont-Ganneau suggested that Beit Sira, along with its shrine Neby Sira, believed by locals to be a son of Jacob, corresponds to the biblical town "Uzzen Sheera," which according to the Books of Chronicles, was built by a daughter of Ephraim.[5] In the same biblical narrative, Sheera is also said to be the builder of Lower and Upper Bethoron,[6] today identified with the nearby towns of Beit 'Ur al-Tahta and Beit 'Ur al-Fauqa, respectively.[7]
Location
[edit]Beit Sira is located 14.9 kilometers (9.3 mi) (horizontally) west of Ramallah. It is bordered by Kharbatha al-Misbah, Beit Liqya, and Beit Ur al-Tahta to the east, Saffa to the north, the Green Line (the Armistice Line 1949) to the west, and Bayt Nuba to the south.[8]
History
[edit]Ottoman Era
[edit]In the 1596 tax records, Beit Sira was a part of the nahiya ("subdistrict") of Ramla, part of Gaza Sanjak, in the Ottoman Empire, with a population of 17 Muslim household. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 4,500 akçe. All of the revenue went to a Waqf.[9]
In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village in the Ibn Humar District, part of the er-Ramleh area.[10]
In 1863 Victor Guérin noted Beit Sira as a considerable village on the summit of a rocky hill. A saint, revered under the name of Neby Sira, had a sanctuary there with his tomb.[11] Socin, citing an official Ottoman village list compiled around 1870, noted that Bet Sira had 39 houses and a population of 125, though the population count included only men.[12] Hartmann found that Bet Sira had 29 houses.[13]
In 1873, Clermont-Ganneau was told that Beit Sira supposedly housed the tomb of Neby Sira, a son of Jacob and brother to Neby Ma'in (possibly Benjamin), the founder of Bir Ma'in.[14]
In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it: "A small village on a swell in the low hills. A main road passes through it. The water supply is artificial."[15]
British Mandate era
[edit]In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Beit Sira had a population of 381 Muslims,[16] increasing in the 1931 census to 460 Muslims in 113 houses.[17]
In the 1945 statistics the population was 540, all Muslims,[18] while the total land area was 4,687 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[19] Of this, 205 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 1,924 for cereals,[20] while 23 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.[21]
-
Beit Sira 1944 1:20,000 from 1919 survey -
Beit Sira 1945 1:250,000
Jordanian era
[edit]In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Beit Sira came under Jordanian rule.
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 746 inhabitants in Beit Sira.[22]
Israeli occupation
[edit]Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Beit Sira has been under Israeli occupation.
After the 1995 accords, 9.3% of Beit Sira land was classified as Area B, the remaining 90.7% as Area C.[23] In 2012, approximately 78% of the village population worked in the Israel labor market.[24] Israel has confiscated 1,499 dunams of land from Beit Sira for the construction of the Israeli settlement of Maccabim, presently part of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut.[25]
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Beit Sira had a population of 2,840 inhabitants in 2006.[26] In the 2007 PCBS census, there were 2,749 people living in the town.[27] By 2017, the population was 3,343.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017 (PDF). Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) (Report). State of Palestine. February 2018. pp. 64–82. Retrieved 2023-10-24.
- ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 287
- ^ Beit Sira: A Palestinian Village on the verge of diminishing Archived November 19, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem. 5 July 2004.
- ^ Marom, Roy; Zadok, Ran (2023). "Early-Ottoman Palestinian Toponymy: A Linguistic Analysis of the (Micro-)Toponyms in Haseki Sultan's Endowment Deed (1552)". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. 139 (2).
- ^ Clermont-Ganneau, 1896, vol 2, p. 79
- ^ 1 Chronicles, 7, 22-24
- ^ John Gray (January 1949). "The Canaanite God Horon". Journal of Near Eastern Studies. 8 (1): 27–34. doi:10.1086/370902. JSTOR 542437.
- ^ Beit Sira Village Profile, ARIJ, p. 4
- ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 156
- ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 120
- ^ Guérin, 1868, pp. 337-338
- ^ Socin, 1879, p. 147. Socin placed it in the Beni Malik district
- ^ Hartmann, 1883, p. 118
- ^ Clermont-Ganneau, 1896, vol 2, pp. 78 ff.
- ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 16
- ^ Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramallah, p. 16
- ^ Mills, 1932, p. 47
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 26
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 64
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 111
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 161
- ^ Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 24
- ^ Beit Sira Village Profile, ARIJ, p. 16
- ^ Beit Sira Village Profile, ARIJ, p. 9
- ^ Beit Sira Village Profile, ARIJ, p. 17
- ^ Projected Mid -Year Population for Ramallah & Al Bireh Governorate by Locality 2004- 2006 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
- ^ 2007 PCBS Census. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p.114.
Bibliography
[edit]- Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1883). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. Vol. 3. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics (1964). First Census of Population and Housing. Volume I: Final Tables; General Characteristics of the Population (PDF).
- Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945.
- Guérin, V. (1868). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). Vol. 1: Judee, pt. 1. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
- Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
- Hartmann, M. (1883). "Die Ortschaftenliste des Liwa Jerusalem in dem türkischen Staatskalender für Syrien auf das Jahr 1288 der Flucht (1871)". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. 6: 102–149.
- Hütteroth, W.-D.; Abdulfattah, K. (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Palmer, E.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838. Vol. 3. Boston: Crocker & Brewster.
- Socin, A. (1879). "Alphabetisches Verzeichniss von Ortschaften des Paschalik Jerusalem". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins. 2: 135–163.
External links
[edit]- Welcome To Bayt Sira
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17: IAA, Wikimedia commons
- Beit Sira Village (Fact Sheet), Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ)
- Beit Sira Village Profile, ARIJ
- Beit Sira, aerial photo, ARIJ
- Locality Development Priorities and Needs in Beit Sira Village, ARIJ
- The Israeli aggressive measures continue in Beit Sira village, POICA
