Beit Sahour or Beit Sahur (; Palestine grid 170/123) is a Palestinian town east of Bethlehem, in the Bethlehem Governorate of the West Bank in the State of Palestine. The city is under the administration of the Palestinian National Authority. The population was 13,281 in 2017,2017 PCBS Census Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. consisting of approximately 80% Christians (most of them Greek Orthodox) and 20% Muslims.History, Economy, and Tourism Beit Sahour Municipality.
Christian tradition holds Beit Sahour to be the site of the Annunciation to the Shepherds. Accessed 5 May 2022 via pressreader.com here and here. There are two enclosures in the eastern part of Beit Sahour that are claimed by different Christian denominations to be the actual 'Shepherds Field': one belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church, and the other, the Catholic site, belonging to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land.
The mainly Christian Palestinian inhabitants are being pressured by encroaching Israeli settlements, with one housing development threatened with demolition.
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"Beit Sahour City Profile (ARIJ 2010) or literally as "House of the Night Watch".VisitPalestine.ps, 22 Oct. 2016
Modern Beit Sahour is also known as Beit Sahur an-Nasara ("Beit Sahur of the Christians").Sharon (1999), p. 154 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.Toledano (1984), p. 312 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. In 1596, Beit Sahur an-Nasara was registered as a village in the nahiyah of Quds (Jerusalem) of the 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.
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:
This village is a sort of suburb of Bethlehem, situated on the same ridge, with the broad plateau east of it known as the 'Shepherd's Field' ... [with] the small Greek Church of the Grotto of the Shephard, a subterranean chapel reached by 20 steps, containing pictures and mosaic. Above the vault are ruins with a Latin altar. Bait Sahur contains a well-built modern house belonging to the Latin curé, and is surrounded with olives and vines.Conder and Kitchener (1883), SWP III, p. 29; partially cited in Sharon (1999), p. 154
In 1896 the population of Beit Sahour was estimated to be about 861 persons.Conrad Schick (1896), p. 121 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,Barron (1923), Table VII, Sub-district of Bethlehem, p. 18. increasing in the 1931 census to 1,942; 395 Muslims and 1,547 Christians, in a total of 454 houses.Mills (1932), p. 35
In the 1945 statistics the population of Beit Sahour was 2,770; 370 Muslims and 2,400 Christians,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics (1945), p. 24 who owned 6,946 (rural) and 138 (urban) dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi (1970), p. 56 1,031 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 3,641 for cereals,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi (1970), p. 101 while 100 dunams were built-up (urban) land.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi (1970), p. 151
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.Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics (1964), p. 7
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.Beit Sahour City Profile (ARIJ 2010), p. 26. 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.PCR annual report 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,Beit Sahour municipality council members biographical details where the olive harvest is used as a backdrop for showing the effects of the Israeli occupation and land confiscation on the Palestinian population.Joint Advocacy Initiative Alternative Tourism group Olive Picking Program 2008
Tax resistance
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?"Gradstein, Linda (8 October 1989). "Palestinians Claim Tax is Unjust, Many Don't Pay", [Ft. Lauderdale] Sun-Sentinel, p. 12A. 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."Sosebee, Stephen J. "The Passing of Yitzhak Rabin, Whose 'Iron Fist' Fueled the Intifada" The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. 31 October 1990. Vol. IX #5, pg. 9 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