It has been suggested that this was the place named Dagon, inhabited by Samaritans in the 7th century CE.[5]
According to Tsvi Misinai, male circumcision is performed on the seventh day of birth, following the Jewish and Samaritan traditions, rather than the Muslim custom.[6]
In 1517, Beit Dajan was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with the rest of Palestine. In 1596, it appeared in Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal, part of the Sanjak of Nablus. It had a population of 53 households, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 33,3 % on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, and goats or beehives, and for a press for olives or grapes; a total of 10,292 akçe. All of the revenue went to a waqf.[7] Pottery sherds from the early Ottoman era have also been found here.[4]
In 1838, Beit Dejan was noted in the El-Beitawy district, east of Nablus.[8][9]
In 1850-51 it was called a "considerable" village,[10] while in 1870, Victor Guérin found it to have 400 inhabitants. Guérin also noted a small and ancient mosque, and a number of cisterns hollowed out of rock, which still served the needs of the villagers.[11]
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Beit Dajan as: "A small village, evidently an ancient site, with rock-cut tombs and wells to the east. It stands at the eastern end of the plain which runs below Salim. This place, like Azmut, is surrounded with olive-trees."[12] They further noted: "The ruin on the east is a watch-tower, apparently ancient; near the village are cisterns and heaps of stones, and rock-cut tombs."[13]
In the 1945 statistics, the population (including Beit Dajan Jiflik and Khirbat Furush) was 750, all Muslims,[16] with a total of 44,076 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[17] Of this, 6 dunams were for citrus and bananas, 2,789 for plantations or irrigated land, 17,625 for cereals,[18] while 48 dunams were built-up land.[19]
Protest against illegal settlement on Beit Dajan land, June 2022Beit Dajan view from north
In March, 2021, a local imam, Atef Hanaisheh, was shot in the head and killed by the Israeli military. The killing occurred during a protest in the village against a nearby Israeli unauthorized settler outpost.[22]
Demography
Local origins
Local accounts suggest that the majority of the population originated from Jurish, with others hailing from Hauran and Transjordan. The village was already established prior to their arrival. They used to be nomadic shepherds who roamed the fringes of the desert.[23]
^They further noted: "it is, perhaps, the Dagon of the ' Samaritan Chronicle,' inhabited in the seventh century by the Samaritans." Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 229
^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. 355
