Beit Surik | |
|---|---|
| Arabic transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | بيت سوريك |
| • Latin | Beit Surik (official) Beit Sourik (unofficial) |
 Beit Surik and its fields | |
| Coordinates:31°49′28″N35°08′55″E / 31.82444°N 35.14861°E /31.82444; 35.14861 | |
| Palestine grid | 164/136 |
| State | State of Palestine |
| Governorate | Jerusalem |
| Government | |
| • Type | Village council |
| Population (2017)[1] | |
• Total | 4,025 |
| Name meaning | "The house of Surik"[2] |
Beit Surik (Arabic:بيت سوريك) is aPalestinian village in theJerusalem Governorate, located 12 kilometers Northwest ofJerusalem in the northernWest Bank. According to thePalestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 4,025 in 2017.[1]
Beit Surik is located 9.3 kilometers (5.8 mi) (horizontally) north-west ofJerusalem. It is bordered byBeit Iksa to the east,Biddu to the north,Qatanna to the west, andQalunya to the south.[3]
Beit Surik is situated on an ancient site on top of a hill. Fragments ofCorinthiancolumns have been found, and amosaic floor, with dedicatory inscription in Greek andtabula ansata was excavated in part by LH Vincent in 1901.[4]
The village was known asBeit Surie in theCrusader era. It was one of 21 villages given by KingGodfrey as afief to thecanons of theHoly Sepulchre.[5][6] The village was also mentioned in Crusader sources in the years 1152[7] and later.[8]By 1169, "Latin" (that is, Christian) settlers seems to have been established there.[9][10] As typical Arab-names also appear in the Crusader sources about Beit Surik, it has been suggested that Crusaders settled in a Muslim village.[11]
The village was incorporated into theOttoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in thetax registers as being in the located in theNahiye of Jerusalem in theSanjak of theMutasarrifate of Jerusalem. It had a population of 21 households, allMuslim. The inhabitants of the village paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on wheat, barley,olive trees, vineyards, fruit trees, grape syrup, molasse, and goats and/or beehives, a total of 2,000Akçe.[12][13]
In 1738Richard Pococke noted the village,Bethsurick, as he passed betweenBiddu (Bedou) and Beit Surik.[14]
In 1838 Beit Surik was noted as a Muslim village, located in theBeni Malik district, west of Jerusalem.[15][16]
In 1863, the French explorerVictor Guérin noticed there a "beautiful piece of antique wall", with several layers, formed of large stones.[17]
An official Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that "Bet Surik" had a total of 32 houses and a population of 125, though the population count included only the men.[18][19]
In 1883, thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine described Beit Surik as a "small stone village on a hill-top. To the east in a flat valley is a spring with lemon and other trees. The place appears to be ancient, having rock-cut tombs near the spring."[20]
In 1896 the population ofBet Surik was estimated to be about 264 persons.[21]
By the beginning of the 20th century, residents from Beit Surik settledBeit Shanna nearal-Ramla, establishing it as a dependency – or satellite village – of their home village.[22]
Ashrine forSheikh 'Abd el-'Aziz near Beit Surik was damaged during the fighting inWWI.[23]
In the1922 census of Palestine conducted by theBritish Mandate authorities, Bait Suriq had a total population of 352; all Muslims,[24] increasing in the1931 census to 432 Muslims, with 87 houses.[25]
In the1945 statistics the population was 480 Muslims,[26] while the total land area was 6,879dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[27] Of this, 581 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 1,827 for cereals,[28] while 33 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.[29]
Many women and children were moved fromQastal to Beit Surik at the end of March, 1948.[30]On 15 April 1948,Nahshon HQ issued a series of specific orders: Battalion 2 was ordered ‘to attack with the aim of annihilation and destruction and arson [litkof bimegamat hashmada veheres vehatzata]’ the village of Beit Suriq.[31]
On the night of 19 April 1948 the village was attacked by thePalmach.[32] The attacking force was commanded byYosef Tabenkin, based inJerusalem. They were later to become theHarel Brigade of theIsraeli army. The village was surrounded by five companies with ambushes being set on the roads toRamallah,Nabi Samuel andBiddu. A group consisting of armoured cars, aDavidka, reserves and the operation's HQ approached fromJerusalem. The company approaching fromCastel encountered a group of around 30 armed men leaving Beit Surik heading east but did not engage them. A short mortar barrage was launched on the village from the east. When one of the ambush groups was fired on they attacked and took the school building. The village was taken soon afterwards with the attackers only encountering sparse rifle fire. Three platoons went through the village clearing enemy positions while a detachment ofsappers began demolishing buildings. Some of the brigade then went on to capture Biddu before daybreak.[33]They left Beit Surik largely or partly destroyed.[34][35] Before withdrawing from Beit Surik, a special unit contaminated the village wells with abiological warfare agent consisting oftyphus anddiphtheria bacteria, to hinder attempts by villagers to return to their homes.[36]
In the wake of the1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the1949 Armistice Agreements, Beit Surik came underJordanian rule.
The Jordanian census of 1961 found 954 inhabitants in Beit Surik.[37]
SinceSix-Day War in 1967, Beit Surik has been under Israeli occupation.
In 1986 theIsraeli settlement ofHar Adar was built. 456dunums of land was confiscated from Beit Surik by the Israeli government for that purpose.[38]
After the1995 accords, 10.3% of the village land was classified asArea B, while the remaining 89.7% was classified asArea C.[39]
On the morning of 26 September 2017, a Palestinian gunman from Beit Surikopened fire, shot Israeli security guards at a checkpoint in Har Adar, killing three and wounding one.[40]
Beit Surik along withBiddu,Beit Duqqu,Beit 'Anan,Qatanna,al Qubeida,Beit Ijza,Kharayib Umm al Lahimand andat Tira form the "Biddu enclave". The enclave will be linked to Ramallah by underpasses and a road that is fenced on both sides. From the "Biddu enclave" Palestinians will travel along a fenced road that passes under a bypass road toBir Nabala enclave, then on a second underpass under Bypass Road 443 toRamallah.[41][42][43][44][45] A week before theInternational Court of Justice gave its Advisory Opinion, the High Court of Israel gave a ruling on a 40-kilometre strip of the Wall in which it held that, while Israel as the Occupying Power had the right to construct the Wall to ensure security and that substantial sections of the Wall imposed undue hardships on Palestinians and had to be re-routed. From"The Beit Sourik Case (HCJ 2056/04)" of 30 June 2004 the standards of proportionality between Israeli security and the injury to the Palestinian residents was set by the judgement of theSupreme Court of Israel.[46] The "Barrier" that Israel is presently constructing within the Palestinian territory was held by the International court to be contrary to international law by the International Court of Justice on 9 July 2004. The International Court held that Israel is under an obligation to discontinue building the Wall and to dismantle it forthwith. In its Advisory Opinion, the Court dismissed a number of legal arguments raised by Israel relating to the applicability of humanitarian law and human rights law. In particular the International court held that Israeli settlements were unlawful.[47] The Israeli Government then announced that it will not comply with the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice. The Israeli Government has indicated that it will abide by the ruling of its own High Court in respect of sections of the Wall still to be built but not in respect of completed sections of the Wall. Protesting villagers have said: "The wall of death kills our daily life. It separates us from our villages and farms".[48]
Tawfiq Canaan related in 1927 the story ofTelah, a localwali.[49]
On the village's eastern edge stands thetomb-shrine ofash-Sheikh Derwish. Local tradition suggest that ash-Sheikh Derwish posthumously opposed the idea of a dome over his grave. Repeated attempts by villagers to construct a dome were met with unexplained failure; structures erected were found dismantled by the following day, resulting in a site consistently left in disrepair. This series of events eventually led to the abandonment of the dome project, in a collective decision that respected what was perceived as the saint's wishes.[50]
| Subdistrict | Jerusalem J1(Territories ofEast Jerusalem unilaterally annexed byIsrael in itsJerusalem Municipality) |   |
|---|---|---|
| Cities | ||
| Municipalities | ||
| Villages | ||
| Refugee camps | ||
