Mas-ha

Mas-ha
Other transcription(s)
 • Arabic مسحة
Mas'ha, seen from Elkana
Mas-ha
Location of Mas-ha within Palestine
Coordinates: 32°06′28″N 35°03′06″E / 32.10778°N 35.05167°E / 32.10778; 35.05167Coordinates: 32°06′28″N 35°03′06″E / 32.10778°N 35.05167°E / 32.10778; 35.05167
Palestine grid 155/168
Governorate Salfit
Government
 • Type Village council
Elevation[1] 281 m (922 ft)
Population (2007)
 • Jurisdiction 2,003
Name meaning "Gravelly soil"[2]

Mas-ha (Arabic: مسحة‎) is a Palestinian village located in the Salfit Governorate in the northern West Bank, 37 kilometers southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it had a population of 2,003 in 2007.[3]

Location

Mas-ha is located 12.5 kilometers (7.8 mi) north-west of Salfit. It is bordered by Biddya to the east, Az Zawiya to the south, Azzun Atma to the west, and Sanniriya and Beit Amin to the north.[1]

History

Potsherds from the Byzantine, Byzantine/Umayyad, Crusader/Ayyubid and Mamluk era have been found here.[4]

Ottoman era

Potsherds from the early Ottoman era have also been found.[4] Masha appeared in 1596 Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal of the Liwa of Nablus. It had a population of five households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, a press for olives or grapes, and occasional revenues and a fixed tax for people of Nablus area; a total of 2,300 akçe.[5]

In 1838, Edward Robinson noted it as a village, Mes-ha, in the Jurat Merda district, south of Nablus.[6]

French explorer Victor Guérin passed by the village in 1870, and estimated it as having about 300-350 inhabitants, and fig-tree lined borders.[7] In 1882 the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Mes-ha as "a good-sized village, with a high central house, but partly ruinous. It is supplied by cisterns, and the houses are of stone."[8]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Mas-ha (called: Masha) had a population of 80, all Muslims,[9] increasing slightly in the 1931 census to 87 Muslims in a total of 20 houses.[10]

In the 1945 statistics the population was 110, all Muslims,[11] while the total land area was 8,263 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[12] Of this, 1,612 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,482 for cereals,[13] while 18 dunams were classified as built-up areas.[14]

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Mas-ha came under Jordanian occupation and then was annexed in 1950.

In 1961, the population was 478.[15]

Post-1967

Israeli soldiers at a gate in Mas-ha

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Mas-ha has been under Israeli occupation.

In the early 2000s, there were several protest against the plans of the building of the Israeli West Bank barrier, which would cut off Mas-ha villagers from much of their land. The protest, which resulted in the shooting of one Israeli citizen in 2003,[16] were ultimately unsuccessful.

Loss of land

Mas-ha has been subjected to numerous Israeli confiscations for the benefit of various Israeli objectives. ARIJ lists the losses as follows:

Israeli Settlements bordering Mas-ha village and land loss
Settlement Date of establishment Pop 2013 Area confiscated from Mas-ha
Elkana 1977 3,719 1,626
Etz Efraim 1985 731 546
Sha'arei Tikva 1982 4,493 8
Bnot Orot Yisrael 1989 -- 176
Total 8,943 2,356
Source: ARIJ 2013[17]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Mas-ha Village Profile, ARIJ, p. 4
  2. ↑ Palmer, 1881, p. 239
  3. ↑ 2007 PCBS Census Archived 2010-12-10 at the Wayback Machine. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p. 112.
  4. 1 2 Finkelstein, 1997, p. 264
  5. ↑ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 131
  6. ↑ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 126
  7. ↑ Guérin, 1875, p. 145 ff
  8. ↑ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 286
  9. ↑ Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p. 26
  10. ↑ Mills, 1932, p. 63
  11. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 19
  12. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 60
  13. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 107
  14. ↑ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 157
  15. ↑ Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 26
  16. ↑ Police Question Israeli Shot by IDF Troops During Fence Protest, Amos Harel, Dec 28, 2003, Haaretz
  17. ↑ Mas-ha Village Profile, ARIJ, 2013, p. 17

Bibliography

  • Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
  • Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
  • Finkelstein, I.; Lederman, Zvi, eds. (1997). Highlands of many cultures. Tel Aviv: Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University Publications Section. ISBN 965-440-007-3.
  • 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. (1875). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). 2: Samarie, pt. 2. 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.
  • Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (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.
  • Reinhart, T. (2006). The Road Map to Nowhere: Israel/Palestine Since 2003. London; New York: Verso. ISBN 1-84467-076-7.
  • Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838. 3. Boston: Crocker & Brewster.
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