Silat al-Harithiya

Silat al-Harithiya (Arabic: سيلة الحارثية‎) is a Palestinian village in the Jenin Governorate, located 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) northwest of Jenin in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics census, the town had a population of 9,422 in 2007.[2]

Silat al-Harithiya
Municipality type C
Arabic transcription(s)
 • Arabicسيلة الحارثية
 • LatinSeilet el-Harthiya (unofficial)
View of Silat al-Harithiya from the air
Silat al-Harithiya
Location of Silat al-Harithiya within Palestine
Coordinates: 32°30′29″N 35°13′39″E
Palestine grid171/212
StateState of Palestine
GovernorateJenin
Government
 • TypeMunicipality
 • Head of MunicipalityAdnan Tahayana
Population
 (2007)
 • Total9,422
Name meaningSily, from personal name[1]

History

Pottery remains from the Roman, Byzantine, early Muslim and the Middle Ages have been found here.[3]

Ottoman era

In 1799, in the Ottoman era, men from Silat al-Harithiya fought Napoleon's invading forces in the Jezreel Valley plain.[4] In 1838 Edward Robinson noted it among many other villages on the plain; Lajjun, Umm al-Fahm, Ti'inik, Kafr Dan, Al-Yamun and el Barid.[5]

In 1870 Victor Guérin noted that Sileh was a large village of 1,000 inhabitants; it was surrounded by gardens planted with fig trees, pomegranates and some vines. In the valley that separated the two areas of which it was composed, there was a oualy dedicated to Sheikh Hasan, with three palm trees in front.[6]

In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described it as "a good-sized village, well built of stone, with a spring and cisterns. There are rock-cut wine-presses on the west, and olives and figs round".[7]

British Mandate period

Palestine, including Silat al-Harithiya, was captured by British forces during World War I and the country subsequently came under a British Mandate. In the 1922 census of Palestine, Selet al-Hartiyeh had a population of 1,041, all Muslims,[8] increasing in the 1931 census to 1,259 inhabitants, still all Muslims, living in 295 houses.[9]

In the 1945 statistics the population of Silat al-Harithiya was 1,860, all Muslims,[10] with 8,931 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[11] 2,534 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 1,140 dunams for cereals,[12] while 80 dunams were built-up (urban) land and 3,179 dunams were classified as "non-cultivable".[13]

Jordanian era

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, the whole Jenin-area came under Jordanian rule, together with the rest of the West Bank.[14]

In 1961, the population of Silet Harithiya was 2,566.[15]

Post 1967

Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Silat al-Harithiya has been under Israeli occupation. The Israeli occupation led Abdullah Yusuf Azzam to leave his home in the village, and "never again set foot in Palestine." He was later cofounder of al-Qaeda.[16]

Notable residents

References
  1. Palmer, 1881, p. 153
  2. 2007 Locality Population Statistics. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). p. 106.
  3. Zertal, 2016, pp. 179-180
  4. Hegghammer, 2013, p. 359
  5. Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, p. 161
  6. Guérin, 1875, pp. 225–226
  7. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 45
  8. Barron, 1923, p. 30.
  9. Mills, 1932, p. 71
  10. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 17
  11. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 55
  12. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 99
  13. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 149
  14. Bornstein, 2002, p. 48
  15. Government of Jordan, 1964, p. 14
  16. Hegghammer, 2013, pp. 366–367
  17. Swedenberg 2003, p. 132

Bibliography
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