Beit Sahour

Etymology

The name Beit Sahour has been translated variously as "House of the Magicians" by Palmer (1881), and more recently on Palestinian websites as "House of Vigilance" or literally as "House of the Night Watch".

Modern Beit Sahour is also known as Beit Sahur an-Nasara ("Beit Sahur of the Christians"). Another, former village near Jerusalem, known as Beit Sahur al-Atiqah ("ancient Beit Sahur") or Beit Sahour al-Wadi ("Beit Sahur of the Valley"), is fully distinct from the town of Beit Sahour in the Bethlehem Governorate.

History

Origins and early demographics

According to local tradition, Beit Sahour was uninhabited until the 14th century when a number of Muslim and Christian families from Wadi Musa near Petra (today in Jordan) settled in caves on the site of the modern village. Another Christian family of Wadi Musa, from the remnants of the Ghassanids, arrived in the 17th century. Further immigration in the 18th century from Rashda in Upper Egypt, Shobak in Transjordan and Al-Kukaliya in Syria cemented the Christian character of the village.

In spite of the influx of Christian families, they remained in the minority all until 1839, when Muslims from Palestine fought in the armies led by Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt in his war against the Turkish Sultan. Huge losses, due mainly to heat and dehydration rather than battle, meant that three quarters of the male Muslims of Beit Sahour perished, leaving the Christians in the majority.

Ottoman period

Beit Sahour, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the census of 1525/26 (AH 932), Beit Sahur an-Nasara ('Christian Beit Sahur') had 5 Christian and 7 Muslim households, increasing in 1538/39 (AH 945) to 8 Christian and 8 Muslim households. By 1553/34 (AH 961), 13 Christian and 21 Muslim households were noted, and in 1562/63 (AH 970), 9 Christian and 17 Muslim households were counted.

The Franciscans ceased holding religious services at the shrine by Shepherd's Field around 1820. In 1864 a new Roman Catholic church and school were completed.

An Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed that Beit Sahour el-foka ("upper Beit Sahour") had a population of 37 "Latins" (Catholics) in 11 houses, and 187 "Greeks" (Eastern Orthodox) in 48 houses, bringing the total population of both villages, Beit Sahour el-foka and Beit Sahour et-tahta ("lower Beit Sahour"), to 190 (men only) in 76 houses.

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Beit Sahur as:

In 1896 the population of Beit Sahour was estimated to be about 861 persons. A construction text, dating to 1897, engraved in the lintel of a door on Municipality Street has been examined, and was found to be a poem in 19th century Christian naskhi script.

British Mandate

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bait Sahur had a population 1,519; 285 Muslims and 1,234 Christians, increasing in the 1931 census to 1,942; 395 Muslims and 1,547 Christians, in a total of 454 houses.

In the 1945 statistics the population of Beit Sahour was 2,770; 370 Muslims and 2,400 Christians, who owned 6,946 (rural) and 138 (urban) dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. 1,031 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,641 for cereals, while 100 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Jordanian annexation

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Beit Sahur was annexed by Jordan along with the rest of the West Bank.

In 1961, the population of Beit Sahur was 5,316.

Israeli occupation

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Beit Sahour has been under Israeli occupation. The population in the 1967 census was 5,380.

According to ARIJ, 52.8% of the village land is classified as being in Area A, while the remaining 47.2% is in Area C. From 1997 and onwards, Israel has confiscated hundred of dunams of village land for the construction of the Israeli settlement of Har Homa. 'Ush Ghurab, a hill occupied by a military base until 2006, became the site of a development project. A restaurant, a climbing tower, a football field and a park were built on the hillside. The municipality of Beit Sahour also had plans for a hospital and a sports center. The mainly Christian Palestinian inhabitants are being pressured by encroaching Israeli settlements, with one housing development being ruled as illegal by an Israeli court in the early 2000s and, as of 2013, standing under threat of demolition.

Economy

The town's economy is largely based on tourism and related industries, such as the manufacture of olive-wood carvings. Agriculture and work in Israel also play a significant role. The town had a prominent role in the Palestinian national "Bethlehem 2000" project, as extensive renovations of tourist sites, hotels and businesses, and historic sites were carried out prior to the millennium celebrations.

During the First Intifada, residents in the town had attempted to develop their own dairy industry—a move resisted by Israeli authorities. These efforts were documented in 2014 film The Wanted 18, co-directed by Palestinian filmmaker Amer Shomali and Canadian Paul Cowan.

Social and economic development were disrupted by the Second Intifada.

Political activism

Beit Sahour is a center of Palestinian political activism. The town played a key role in the First and Second Intifadas, with local activists pioneering nonviolent resistance techniques. During the First Intifada and the Second Intifada, the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between Peoples (PCR) based in Beit Sahour encouraged non-violent activism under the aegis of the International Solidarity Movement. George Rishmawi is director of PCR. During the First Intifada, the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between Peoples issued an invitation to Israelis of goodwill to come and spend a weekend (Shabbat) in Palestinian homes using the slogan "Break Bread, Not Bones".

The Alternative Information Center is also partly based in the town. Elias Rishmawi, a member of the Beit Sahour council, is co-founder, together with Ghassan Andoni, Majed Nassar, Rifat Odeh Kassis and Jamal Salameh, of the Alternative Tourism Group (ATG), a non-governmental organisation specializing in tours of the Palestinian territories, where the olive harvest is used as a backdrop for showing the effects of the Israeli occupation and land confiscation on the Palestinian population.

Tax resistance

Main article: Beit Sahour tax strike

In 1989, during the First Intifada, the Palestinian resistance (Unified National Leadership of the Uprising, UNLU) and Ghassan Andoni and Kamel Danoun, urged people to stop paying taxes to Israel, which inherited and modified the previous Jordanian tax-collection regime in the West Bank.*Local Government in the West Bank and Gaza (says parenthetically that the property tax "rate and base" were "unchanged since 1963")

• Baxendale, Sidney J. "Taxation of Income in Israel and the West Bank: A Comparative Study" Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Spring, 1989), pp. 134-141 "it retained the Jordanian tax law" "No taxation without representation," said a statement from the organizers. "The military authorities do not represent us, and we did not invite them to come to our land. Must we pay for the bullets that kill our children or for the expenses of the occupying army?" The people of Beit Sahour responded to this call with an organized citywide tax strike that included refusal to pay and file tax returns.

Israeli defense minister Yitzhak Rabin responded: "We will teach them there is a price for refusing the laws of Israel." The Israeli military authorities placed the town under curfew for 42 days, blocked food shipments into the town, cut telephone lines to the town, tried to bar reporters from the town, imprisoned ten residents (among them Fuad Kokaly and Rifat Odeh Kassis) and seized in house-to-house raids millions of dollars in money and property belonging to 350 families.

• Grace, Anne "The Tax Resistance at Bayt Sahur" Journal of Palestine Studies 1990
• New York Times Lewis, Anthony "It Can Happen There" 29 October 1989, p. E23
• Curtius, Mary "Palestinian Villagers are Defiant After Israeli Troops End Tax Siege" Boston Globe 2 November 1989, p. 2
• Williams, Daniel "Israeli troops withdraw after failing to stop tax revolt" Austin American Statesman. 1 November 1989, p. A6
• "Israel abandons attempt to crush town's tax revolt" The Ottawa Citizen 1 November 1989, p. A10
• "Food to West Bank Town Blocked" The Washington Post 28 October 1989, p. A18
• "Israelis stop bishops from helping besieged town" The Ottawa Citizen 28 October 1989, p. A10
• Sela, Michal "Elias Rashmawi's 'Tea Party'" Jerusalem Post 29 September 1989, p. 9
• Williams, Daniel "Anti-Israel Boycott: Tax Man Cometh, but an Arab Town Resists" Los Angeles Times 9 October 1989, p. 10 The Israeli military stopped the consuls-general of Belgium, Britain, France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden when they attempted to go to Beit Sahour and investigate the conditions there during the tax strike.
• "Envoys turned back on road to Beit Sahour" The [Toronto] Globe and Mail 7 October 1989, p. A9
• "Israeli Troops Bar Western Envoys" Los Angeles Times 6 October 1989, p. 1

Israel's military occupation had the authority to create and enforce taxes beyond the baseline Jordanian code enacted in 1963 in areas formerly administered by that country, including Beit Sahour.

The United Nations Security Council considered a resolution demanding that Israel return the property it confiscated during the Beit Sahour tax resistance. The United States vetoed the resolution, which was supported by the other eleven council members.

Municipal government

The municipal council of Beit Sahour was established by the British Mandate on April 16, 1926, but was formally implemented in 1929. Prior to that date, the first village council was established in 1925 at the initiative of the citizens of Beit Sahour. The village council developed into a municipal council in 1955 under the chairmanship of Nicola Abu Eita.

In the 2005 municipal election, two lists gained seats in the municipal council. Eight seats went to 'United Beit Sahour' and five to 'Sons of Beit Sahour'. The most popular vote was for Hani Naji Atallah Abdel Masieh of United Beit Sahour with 2,690 votes, followed by Elen Michael Saliba Qsais of Sons of Bethlehem with 2,280 votes.

Demography

According to the 1984 census, there were 8,900 Beit Sahouris. 67% were Greek Orthodox, 17% were Sunni Muslim, 8% were Latin Catholic, 6% were Greek Catholic and 2% were Lutheran.

"Shepherds' Field" pilgrimage churches

The old core of Beit Sahour is reputed to be close to the place where, according to the New Testament, an angel announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds—the "Annunciation to the shepherds". The eastern part of Beit Sahour is home to two sites alleged to be the biblical "Shepherds' Field".

Greek Orthodox monastery

Kenisat er-Ruwat is the name of the site where, according to tradition, St. Helena built a convent, which is today known as the shepherd's cave. The Franciscans acquired a shrine there in 1347.

The Status Quo, a 250-year old understanding between religious communities, applies in principle to the site, although no concrete regulations could be found.

The new Greek Orthodox monastery, which includes on its grounds the ancient church, was established through the efforts of Archimandrite Serapheim Savvaitis as a metochion of the Lavra of St. Sabbas between 1971 and 1989.

Catholic monastery

The Catholic site belongs to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land and includes the Chapel of the Shepherds' Field, along with two cave chapels and the ruins of a Byzantine monastery known in Arabic as Khirbet Siyar el-Ghanem

Archaeology

Khirbet Umm-Toba

Within the environs of Beit Sahour is the ruin Khirbet Umm Toba. An archaeological survey-excavation was conducted at the site in 2010, 2013 and 2016 by Zubair Adawi on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which yielded pottery from the Byzantine era. Some had surmised that the site may have been the Caphartobas of Josephus.

Khirbet Beit Bassa

In the southern outskirts of the village is the ruin Khirbet Beit Bassa, which is identified with Bethbassi, a fortress in the toparchy of Herodium in which Hasmonean leader Jonathan Appus was besieged by Seleucid general Bacchides.

International relations

Twin towns and sister cities

Beit Sahour is twinned with many cities and communes across the world.

Notable people

• Ghassan Andoni (b. 1956), physics professor and non-violent resistance activist
• Laila al-Atrash (1948–2021), writer and journalist
• Israa Ghrayeb, 2019 "honour killing" victim
• Munther Isaac (b. 1979), pastor, author, and theologian
• Rifat Odeh Kassis, human rights and community activist active since the 1990s
• Fuad Kokaly (b. 1962), former mayor, politician and diplomat
• Qustandi Shomali (b. 1946), professor of history
• Mazin B. Qumsiyeh (b. 1957), scientist, national and human rights activist

Beit Sahur al-Atiqah near Jerusalem

Beit Saḥur al-Atiqah ('ancient Beit Sahur') or Beit Sahour al-Wadi ('Beit Sahur of the valley'), Palestine grid 171/123, is geographically distinct from Beit Sahour and lies very close to the Old City of Jerusalem, upon a lofty hill across the valley of Kidron, not far from En-Rogel. It surrounded the tomb of Sheikh Ahmad al-Sahuri, a local saint to whom the local Arab tribe of al-Sawahreh Mujir al-Din mentions this place in a biography of a Muslim scholar Sha'ban bin Salim bin Sha'ban, who died in Beit Sahur al-Atiqah in 1483 at the age of 105.

In 1596, Beit Sahour al-Wadi appeared in Ottoman tax registers as a village in the nahiyah of Quds of the Liwa of Quds. Beit Sahour al-Wadi had a population of 40 Muslim households. The villagers paid taxes on wheat, barley, vines or fruit trees, and goats or beehives; a total of 4,500 akçe. All of the revenue went to waqfs; half of which was to the madrasah Muzhiriyya in Jerusalem.

The place was noted by French geographer Guerin in 1863 as being 40 minutes south-east of Jerusalem, a short distance south of the Kidron Valley.

An Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed that Beit Sahour et-Tahta ("the lower Beit Sahour") [mislabelled?] had a population of 66 (whereby only men were counted), with a total of 17 houses.

In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described the place as: "Ruins of a village with wells and a mukam." Clermont-Ganneau found here several old tombs in the 1890s.

References

Bibliography

• 29; 29, 85 (Beit Sahur al-Atiqah)
• (pp. 157, 159, 171)

References

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14. In 1596, Beit Sahur an-Nasara was registered as a village in the ''[[nahiyah]]'' of Quds (Jerusalem) of the ''[[Sanjak. Liwa]]'' of Quds, with a total population of 24 households; 15 Muslim and 9 Christian. The villages paid taxes on the same products as the villagers of Beit Sahur al-Atiqah.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah (1977), p. 115.
15. Conder and Kitchener (1883), SWP III, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp03conduoft#page/29/mode/1up 29]; partially cited in Sharon (1999), p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=EPFDU8POrXIC&pg=PA154 154]
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34. During the Intifada, they used that authority to impose taxes on Palestinians as collective punishment measures to discourage the Intifada, for instance "the glass tax (for broken windows), the stones tax (for damage done by stones), the missile tax (for Gulf War damage), and a general ''intifada'' tax, among others.""A Matter of Justice: Tax Resistance in Beit Sahour" ''Nonviolent Sanctions'' Albert Einstein Institution, Spring/Summer 1992
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51. ''The ancient Beit Sahur'', also called ''Beit Sahur of the valley'', according to Palmer (1881), p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/287/mode/1up 287]
52. Sharon (1999), p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=EPFDU8POrXIC&pg=PA155 155]
53. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah (1977), p. 119
54. Burgoyne (1987), p. 579
55. Guérin (1868), p. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongog01gu#page/207/mode/1up 207]; partially cited in Sharon (1999), p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=EPFDU8POrXIC&pg=PA154 154]
56. Socin (1879), p. [https://archive.org/stream/zeitschriftdesde01deut#page/147/mode/1up 147]
57. Hartmann (1883), p. [https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_BZobAQAAIAAJ#page/n932/mode/1up 124] noted 76 houses
58. Conder and Kitchener (1883), SWP III, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp03conduoft#page/85/mode/1up 85]-86; cited in Sharon (1999), p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=EPFDU8POrXIC&pg=PA155 155]
59. Clermont-Ganneau (1899), vol 1, p. [https://archive.org/stream/archaeologicalre01cler#page/435/mode/1up 435]