Beit Ula is located 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) (horizontally) on the highlands north-west of Hebron. It is bordered by Nuba to the north, Umm 'Allas to the west, and Tarqumiyah to the south. The valley of el-Yehudi ("valley of the Jews"), also known in Hebrew as the Nahal haEla ("Ela stream"), lies to the east.
While Beit Ula was mentioned in lists from the early part of the 16th century, there is no evidence of settlement in the second half of the 16th century. However, it was resettled at a later period.[4] Its residents originated in the nearby Beit Nazzib (PAL 150/110) and Beit Kanun (151/111), today part of Um 'Alas, a neighborhood of Beit Ulla). It became a regional center in the 19th century.[5]
In the Ottomancensus of 932 AH/1525-1526 CE, Bayt Awla was noted as mazraa land, that is cultivated land, located in the nahiya of Halil.[6]
In 1838, Edward Robinson noted Beit Ula as a Muslim village, between the mountains and Gaza, but subject to the government of Hebron.[7] It was one of a cluster of villages at the foot of a mountain, together with Kharas and Nuba.[8]
Socin, citing an official Ottoman village list compiled around 1870, noted that Betula, located north east of Tarqumiyah, had 51 houses and a population of 207, though the population count included men, only.[9]Hartmann found that Bet Ula had 80 houses.[10]
In 1883 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Beit Aula as "a small village standing on a spur surrounded with olives. It has a well on the west in the valley, a mile away.”[3]
British Mandate
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Beit Ula had a population of 825 inhabitants, all Muslims,[11] increasing in the 1931 census to 1,045, still entirely Muslim, in 217 inhabited houses.[12] In the latter census it was counted with Kh. Beit Kanun, Kh. Hawala and Kh. Tawas.[12]
In the 1945 statistics the population of Beit Ula was 1,310 Muslims,[13] and the total land area was 24,045 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey.[14] Of this, 1,324 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 8,747 were for cereals,[15] while 71 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[16]
Beit Ula (Beit Aula), British Mandate map, 1:20,000
Beit Ula has a total land area of 22,432 dunams, of which 74.5% is located in Area B (Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is in control of civil affairs and Israel's responsible for security) and 25.5% is located in Area C (complete Israeli control).[19]
^ abBeit Aula may be derived from "Bethul" or "Bethuel" or "Bethel" (not the well-known Bethel of Benjamin) mentioned in several biblical passages. Particularly, Beit Ula could be Bethel of Judah, referenced in Lamentations Rabbah as one of the three stations set up by Hadrian to catch fugitives from Bethar. Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, pp. 302–303
^Grossman, D. "The expansion of the settlement frontier of Hebron's western and southern fringes". Geography Research Forum, 5, 1982, p. 62.
^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. 368
^Toledano, 1984, p. 301, has Bayt Awla at location 31°35′50″N, 35°01′20″E
^Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 117
