Beit Liqya

Beit Liqya
Other transcription(s)
 • Arabic بيت لقيا
 • Also spelled Beit Liqya (official)
Bayt Liqya (unofficial)
Beit Liqya

Location of Beit Liqya within the Palestinian territories

Coordinates: 31°52′09″N 35°04′01″E / 31.86917°N 35.06694°E / 31.86917; 35.06694Coordinates: 31°52′09″N 35°04′01″E / 31.86917°N 35.06694°E / 31.86917; 35.06694
Governorate Ramallah & al-Bireh
Government
 • Type Municipality
 • Head of Municipality Khaled Badr
Population (2011)
 • Jurisdiction 11,500
Name meaning "The house of Likia"[1]

Beit Liqya (Arabic: بيت لقيا‎‎)is a Palestinian town located in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate in the northern West Bank, 21 kilometers Southwest of Ramallah. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it had a population of approximately 7,710 in 2007, of whom 3,799 were male and 3,911 were female.[2]

History

Ottoman era

Beit Liqya, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in 1557 the revenues of the village were designated for the new waqf of Hasseki Sultan Imaret in Jerusalem, established by Hasseki Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana), the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent.[3]

The French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village in the 1863, and estimated that it had around five hundred inhabitants. He also noted a wali for a Sheikh Abou Ismail.[4] An official Ottoman village list from about 1870, showed that "Bet Lukja" had a total of 109 houses and a population of 347, though the population count included only men.[5] In 1883, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine described Beit Likia as a "small village on a main road at the foot of the hills, supplied by cisterns. There are ancient foundations among the houses."[6]

British Mandate era

In a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Beit Leqia had a population of 739, all Muslim,[7] increasing by the time of 1931 census, when Beit Liqya had 209 occupied houses and a population of 858, still all Muslim.[8]

In 1945 the population was 1,040, all Arabs, while the total land area was 14,358 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[9] Of this, 1,918 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 6,469 for cereals,[10] while 39 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[11]

1948-1967

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Beit Liqya came under Jordanian rule.

Post-1967

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

Jamal 'Asi (15 years old) and U'dai 'Asi (14 years old) were killed by the Israeli Army in 2005 near the separation barrier.[12] UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed Israel's announcement that an involved IDF officer was suspended, and that a full investigation of the incident would take place.[13]

Later the same year, their 15-year-old cousin Mahyoub al-Asi was killed by a civilian security guard, "whom he knew." He was tending the family vineyard. His brother was also killed by a mine explosion near the village several years ago.[12]

On October 16, 2014, Israeli forces shot and killed the 13-year-old Palestinian boy Bahaa Badr in the village near the dividing line with Israel. Bahaa Badr was shot in the chest and died 20 minutes after arriving at the hospital.[14][15][16]

References

  1. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 286
  2. ↑ 2007 PCBS Census. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p.115.
  3. ↑ Singer, 2002, p. 50, citing TSAE-7816/8. (TSAE=Topkapi Saray Arsivi, Evrak) This document reiterate what was transferred on 14 Ramazan 963 AH.
  4. ↑ Guérin, 1868, p. 347
  5. ↑ Socin, 1879, p. 146
  6. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 16
  7. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramallah, p. 16
  8. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 62.
  9. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 64
  10. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 111
  11. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 161
  12. 1 2 Security guard shoots Palestinian teen in family vineyard, Jul.10, 2005, Haaretz
  13. ↑ Secretary-General 'saddened' by killing of two teens near Ramallah
  14. ↑ Palestinian boy killed by Israeli forces in West Bank, Oct.16, 2014, Reuters
  15. ↑ Israeli Troops Are Suspected in Shooting of a Teenager, Jodi Rudoren, Oct. 16, 2014, The New York Times
  16. ↑ Palestinian family says it has proof boy shot by IDF troops posed no threat, By Jack Khoury, 26.10.14, Haaretz

Bibliography

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External links

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