Beit Kahil

Beit Kahil (Arabic: بيت كاحل‎) is a Palestinian town in the Hebron Governorate in the southern West Bank, located seven kilometers northwest of Hebron.

Beit Kahil
Municipality type C
Arabic transcription(s)
 • Arabicبيت كاحل
 • LatinBayt Kahil (official)
Beit Kaheel (unofficial)
Beit Kahil
Location of Beit Kahil within Palestine
Coordinates: 31°34′11″N 35°03′58″E
Palestine grid156/108
StateState of Palestine
GovernorateHebron
Government
 • TypeMunicipality
Area
 • Total5,795 dunams (5.8 km2 or 2.2 sq mi)
Population
 (2007)
 • Total6,526
 • Density1,100/km2 (2,900/sq mi)
Name meaning"House of the occulist"[1]

History

Victor Guérin noted that the place was apparently ancient, and suggested that Beit Kahil was to be recognized with the Latin Cela (Greek: Κηλά), described by Eusebius in his Onomasticon, rather than with the Biblical Keilah (Greek: Κεειλά), which was already a ruin in Guérin's time.[2][3]

Ottoman era

In the Ottoman census no. 289, (961 AH/1553-1554 CE) p. 209; Bayt Khalil was located in the nahiya of Halil, and noted as Mazra’a (cultivated) land.[4]

In 1863 Victor Guérin found that it had thirty houses,[3] while an Ottoman village list from about 1870 counted 8 houses and a population of 22, though the population count included men only.[5][6]

In 1883 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Beit Kahel as “a small village on a ridge, built of stone, with a well to the south. Apparently an ancient place, with rock-cut tombs.”[7]

British Mandate era

In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Beit Kahil had a population of 336 inhabitants, all Muslims,[8] increasing in the 1931 census to 452, still entirely Muslim, in 90 inhabited houses.[9] In the latter census it was counted with Kh. Beit Kanun, Kh. Hawala and Kh. Tawas.[9]

In the 1945 statistics the population of Beit Kahil was 570 Muslims,[10] and the total land area was 5,795 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[11] Of this, 1,359 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 1,785 were for cereals,[12] while 26 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[13]

  • Beit Kahil, British Mandate map, 1:20,000
  • Beit Kahil 1945 1:250,000

1948-1967

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

The Jordanian census of 1961 found 704 inhabitants in Beit Kahil.[14]

Post-1967

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

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Beit Kahil had a population of approximately 6,526 inhabitants in 2007.[15] The population is made up of several clans, including al-Attawna, al-Assafra, al-Zuhoor, al-Judi, Barham and al-Khateeb. The town's total land area is 5,795 dunams.[16]

In September, 2019, the Israelis detained several people from Beit Kahil, including the deputy mayor and his son, together with two others also from Beit Kahil.[17]

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 388
  2. In the words of Guérin, 1869, pp. 342-343: “Je décrirai bientôt une autre localité, appellee Beit-Kahel, nom dans lequel on pourrait être tenté de reconnaître pareillement celui de Ke'ilah. Mais Beit-Kahel se trouve dans le district montagneux de Juda, et est, par conséquent, distinct de Ke'ilah, qui, bien que sur une colline, faisait néanmoins partie de la Chéphélah. [...] Quant au village de Κηλά, qu’Eusèbe place à dix-sept milles d’Éleuthéropolis, sur la route d’Hébron, et saint Jérôme à huit milles, il répond à l’emplacement de Beit-Kahel.”
    Translation:
    “I shall soon describe another locality called Beit-Kahil, in which one might be tempted to recognize the name of Ke'ilah. But Beit-Kahil is in the mountainous district of Judah, and is therefore distinct from Ke'ilah, which, though on a hill, was nevertheless part of the shefelah (the lowlands).[...] As to the village of Κηλά, which Eusebius places at seventeen miles from Eleutheropolis (Beit Gubrin), on the road to Hebron, and St. Jerome at eight miles, it answers to the site of Beit-Kahil.”
  3. Guérin, 1869, pp. 350-351
  4. Toledano, 1984, pp. 303-304, has Bayt Khalil at location 35°03′45″E 31°34′15″N.
  5. Socin, 1879, p. 146
  6. Hartmann, 1883, p. 142
  7. Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, p. 303
  8. Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Hebron, p. 10
  9. Mills, 1932, p. 28
  10. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 23
  11. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 50
  12. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 93
  13. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 143
  14. Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 22
  15. 2007 PCBS Census Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p.118.
  16. Demolition Warnings for Palestinian Houses in Beit Kahil Village Archived July 14, 2009, at the Wayback Machine 1 June 2008.
  17. Israeli forces detain 19 Palestinians from the West Bank, 2019/09/16, Wafa

Bibliography
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