Jit, Qalqilya

Location

Jit is located 19.7 km (horizontally) north-east of Qalqilya. It is bordered by Sarra and Beit Iba to the east, Fara'ata and Immatain to the south, Kafr Qaddum to the west, and Qusin to the north.

History

No Byzantine remains have been found here, leading scholars to suggest that the early Muslim inhabitants came there as a result of migration rather than conversion. However, in 2011, two reliefs of menorahs dating from the Byzantine period, probably of Samaritan origin, were discovered in Jit.ארליך 2013 ארליך, ז"ח, 2013 .ארבע מנורות שומרוניות בג'ית ובקדום שבשומרון. בתוך: י' רוזנסון וי' שפנייר (עורכים), מנחת ספיר – אסופת מאמרים: מנחות ידידות והוקרה לכבוד יצחק ספיר. אלקנה ורחובות, עמ' 391–402.

[Four Samaritan menorahs in Jit and Qaddum in Samaria] [Hebrew]

Islamic scholar Diya al-Din (1173–1245) mentions the presence of Muslims in Jit during his lifetime, and also says that followers of Ibn Qudamah lived there.

Ottoman era

In 1517, the village was included in the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine, and in the 1596 tax records it appeared as Jit Jammal, located in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal of the Liwa of Nablus. The population was 50 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, a press for olive oil or grape syrup, in addition to occasional revenues and a fixed tax for people of Nablus area; a total of 20,000 akçe.

A map from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin named it Qarihagi, (Quryet Jitt) as a village by the road from Jaffa to Nablus.

In 1838, Kuryet Jit was noted as a village located in the District of Jurat 'Amra, south of Nablus.

In 1870, Victor Guérin noted between seven hundred and fifty and eight hundred people in the village. Also, "here Guérin observed among the houses a certain number of cut stones of apparent antiquity. Many of the houses are in a ruinous condition, others are completely destroyed. On the north-west side of the hill he found a great well, into which one descends by fifteen steps, now fallen to pieces. It gives a supply of water which never fails. The place is probably the old Gitta mentioned by Justin Martyr and Eusebius as the birthplace of Simon the Magician."

In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Jamma'in al-Thani, subordinate to Nablus.

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Kuryet Jit as: "A well-built stone village with a high house in it, standing on a knoll by the main road, surrounded with olives; it has a well to the west; the inhabitants are remarkable for their courtesy, this part of the country and all the district west of it being little visited by tourists."

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Qariyet Jit had a population of 285 Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 289 Muslims, in 70 houses.

In the 1945 statistics the population of Jit was 440 (all Muslim), while the total land area was 6,461 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 816 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 3,915 for cereals, while 61 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Jit came under Jordanian rule. It was annexed by Jordan in 1950.

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 660 inhabitants.

Post-1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Jit has been under Israeli occupation.

After the 1995 accords, 14% of village land was classified as Area B, the remaining 86% as Area C. Israel has confiscated village land for the Israeli settlements of Giv'at HaMerkaziz and Mitzpe Yishai, both part of the Kedumim settlement. According to the Israeli plans of 2013, 1,150 dunums (18.1% of the village's total area) will be isolated from the village behind the Israeli barrier wall.

Reports have been made about Israeli settlers from Kedumim stealing the olive harvest from the farmers of Jit.

2024 pogrom

On 15 August 2024, towards dusk, a group of dozens of masked Israeli settlers, armed with Kalashnikovs, M16s, and stones attacked the village. Local Palestinian estimates put the figure of rampaging settlers at over 100. A call from the local mosque asked youths to rally and defend the village. The settlers fired guns, threw rocks, and hurled Molotov cocktails at civilians, and torched the villagers' houses and cars. One Palestinian civilian who responded to the call to defend the village, Rasheed Seda (23), was killed when a settler shot him in the chest, and another was critically wounded. The IDF stated that it had arrived within a half an hour and had removed Israeli citizens from Jit after firing shots in the air. According to the Palestinians, the IDF had shown up an hour after the rampage began. The IDF detained one Israeli - later released as uninvolved in the attack - for interference. Overall, four homes and six private vehicles were torched. Local eyewitnesses stated that the attackers came from the settlement of Eli. The attack was one of 1,250 on Palestinians conducted by Israeli settlers Palestinians since 7 October 2023, according to OCHA.

The attack was condemned by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Isaac Herzog described it a "pogrom". A US National Security Council spokesperson stated, "Attacks by violent settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank are unacceptable and must stop". The UN human rights office called the killing "horrific" and stated it "was not an isolated attack".

Demography

During the Ottoman and British Mandate period, some of Jit's residents relocated to the villages of Shuweika, Qaqun, Bal'a, Anabta, Umm al-Fahm and Zeita.

Footnotes

Bibliography

References

1. [http://vprofile.arij.org/qalqiliya/pdfs/vprofile/jit_vp_en.pdf Jit village profile], ARIJ, p. 4
2. (February 2018). "Preliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017". [[State of Palestine]].
3. Palmer, 1881, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/187/mode/1up 187]
4. Levy, Gideon. (2013-07-12). "A Palestinian Village Reaches the End of the Road".
5. "West Bank roads on which Israel forbids Palestinian vehicles".
6. Ellenblum, 2003, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=riHMZiH_Te4C&pg=PA263 263]
7. Ellenblum, 2003, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=riHMZiH_Te4C&pg=PA244 244]
8. Drory, 1988, pp. 97, 110
9. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 133
10. Karmon, 1960, p. [http://www.jchp.ucla.edu/Bibliography/Karmon,Y_1960_Jacotin_Map(IEJ_10).pdf 156] {{Webarchive. link. (22 December 2019)
11. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearch03robiuoft#page/127/mode/1up 127]
12. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, p. [https://archive.org/stream/biblicalresearch03robiuoft#page/n161/mode/1up 144] Also noted it as old ''Gitta'', later repeated by Guérin etc.
13. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp02conduoft#page/163/mode/1up 163]
14. Guérin, 1875, p. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr04gugoog#page/n206/mode/1up 181]
15. Guérin, 1875, pp. [https://archive.org/stream/descriptiongogr04gugoog#page/n205/mode/1up 180] -181; as given in Conder and Kitchener, 1882, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp02conduoft#page/201/mode/1up 201]
16. Grossman, David. (2004). "Arab Demography and Early Jewish Settlement in Palestine". Magnes Press.
17. Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n26/mode/1up 24]
18. Mills, 1931, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 62]
19. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. [http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p18.jpg 18]
20. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Nablus/Page-060.jpg 60]
21. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20II/Nablus/Page-106.jpg 106].
22. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April 1945.'' Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20III/Nablus/Page-156.jpg 156].
23. Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. [http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/JordanCensusPages/JordanCensus1961-p25.pdf 25]
24. [http://vprofile.arij.org/qalqiliya/pdfs/vprofile/jit_vp_en.pdf Jit village profile], ARIJ, 2013, pp. 15-16
25. [https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2017/10/30/israeli-settlers-poison-steal-palestinian-olive-harvests Israeli settlers 'poison, steal' Palestinian olive harvests], 30 October 2017, [[Al-Araby Al-Jadeed]]
26. Abdulrahim, Raja. (18 August 2024). "A Family Flees and a Mother Mourns After Israeli Settlers Attack a Palestinian Village". [[The New York Times]].
27. McKernan, Bethan. (15 August 2024). "One Palestinian killed as Israeli settlers attack West Bank village". [[The Guardian]].
28. (25 August 2024). "Israeli settlers torch Palestinian village in West Bank".
29. [https://www.timesofisrael.com/well-come-back-and-kill-you-palestinians-recall-horror-of-deadly-settler-riot/ '‘We’ll come back and kill you’: Palestinians recall horror of deadly settler riot,'][[Times of Israel]] 16 August 2024
30. "'Pure terrorism': World reacts to Israeli settler attack in West Bank".
31. "UN rights office calls for accountability for latest 'horrific' West Bank killing".
32. Grossman, D.. "1986". Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House.