The village is associated by some scholars with a biblical locality in the Kingdom of Israel, located between the city of Jezreel and the kingdom's capital Samaria.[3] It is mentioned in the Book of Kings as Beth Ekad of the Shepherds (Hebrew: בֵּית-עֵקֶד הָרֹעִים) which can be translated as "meeting place of the shepherds". In this place, Jehu, king of Israel, slaughtered 42 relatives of Ahaziah, king of Judah.[4] The village is also associated with a village mentioned in the Onomasticon (Gazetteer) of the Greek historian Eusebius called Beth Ekamat.[5]
Some intact Roman buildings can be found in the village,[6] and ceramics from the Byzantine era have also been found there.[7]
In the census of 1596, Beit Qad appeared in the nahiya of Jenin in the liwa of Lajjun. It had a population of 20 households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 9,500 akçe.[10] Beit Qad was described by the census as a hamlet.[5]
In 1870 Victor Guérin found the village to have 200 inhabitants.[12] In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Beit Kad as “a small village on a knoll near the plain. It has a large cemented cistern, now broken. The houses are of stone and mud.”[13]
In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the nahiya (sub-district) of Shafa al-Qibly.
In the 1944/5 statistics, the population was 290, all Muslim,[16] with a total of 8,915 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[17] Of this, 608 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 6,976 dunams for cereals,[18] while 10 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[19]
Jordanian era
In 1948 Palestinian refugees from Mount Gilboa were absorbed in the village and stayed there as sharecroppers.[20] The refugees who arrived to Beit Qad had the opportunity to resettle in the village instead of moving to refugee camps.[21] In 1951 they built, with the aid of the Jordanian government, another agriculture-based village, 2 km north of Beit Qad, called Mashru' Beit Qad which means "Project of Beit Qad"[20]
The Jordanian census conducted in 1961 recorded 247 persons in Beit Qad and 197 persons in Mashru' Beit Qad.[22]
In a census conducted by Israel after it occupied it, Beit Qad "south" (respectively "north") were reported to have 223 (respectively 216) residents, including 86 (respectively 53) persons in households whose head was a refugee from Israeli territory.[23]
During the early months of the First Intifada on 27 March 1989 Anjad Hashem Nasser, 4 years old, was shot dead. Press reports said the shooter was an Israeli policeman and that the Israeli army had launched an investigation. Five months later Minister of Defence Yitzhak Rabin sent a letter to MK Yair Tsaban acknowledging that a force of the Israeli Police was in the area and "therefore" the incident was investigated by the police.[24]
Geography
The village is located north of Deir Abu Da'if in the Jezreel Valley (known in Arabic as "Marj Ibn Āmir"). The village is split into two sections: the south and north (which is called Mashru Beit Qad) and is surrounded by fields. The village has an ancient mosque built from ancient building stones and an old Arabic maqam.[6][25]
Demography
Some of the village's residents are Bedouins, others came from the Sharon area.[26]
^Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 348
