Qibya () is a Palestinian village in the West Bank, located northwest of Ramallah and exactly north of the large city of Modi'in. It is part of the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, and according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it had a population of approximately 6,090 in 2017.
The village is known for being the site of the 1953 Qibya massacre.
Etymology
The name Qibyā is
Aramaic, and means “The cistern”.
Location
Qibya is located (horizontally) northwest of
Ramallah. It is bordered by Ni'lin to the east,
Shuqba to the north, the Green line to the west, and
Budrus and Ni'lin to the south.
[ Qibya Village Profile, ARIJ, p. 4]
History
A Bar Kokhba Revolt coin dated to between 134 and 136 was found in a
Karst cave near this village, suggesting that
Jews who rebelled against the
Roman Empire had found refuge in this cave.
[ A Rare Bar Kochva Coin Was Discovered North to Modi'in] from the
Roman Empire/Byzantine,
Byzantine Empire,
Mamluk and early Ottoman period have been found in the village.
[Finkelstein et al, 1997, p. 174]
A building, possibly dating to the Crusader era have been found here.[Pringle, 1997, p. 115]
Ottoman period
Qibya, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire in 1517, and in the
daftar of 1596, the village was located in the
Nahiya of
Ramla of the
Liwa of Gaza. It had an entirely
Muslim population of 29 households. They paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on
wheat,
barley, summer crops,
, fruit trees, lintels, goats and/or beehives, in addition of taxes for a press for olives or grapes; a total of 6,000 akçe.
[Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 153]
According to Marom, in the 18th or early 19th centuries, residents of Qibya affiliated with the Yamani camp during the Qays and Yaman conflicts, alongside residents of Dayr Tarif and part of the residents of Bayt Nabala. They fought several skirmishes against rivals from Deir Abu Mash'al and Jayyous.
In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described the village (then named Kibbiah), as "a very small hamlet with olive-trees, on high ground".[Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 297]
British Mandate period
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, the village, (named
Kibbia), had a population of 694 inhabitants, all Muslims.
[Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Ramleh, p. 22] In the 1931 census the population of Qibya was 909, still all Muslim, in 204 inhabited houses.
[Mills, 1932, p. 22]
In the 1945 statistics, the population of Qibya was 1,250, all Muslims,[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 30] who owned 16,504 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. 68] 4,788 dunams were used for cereals,[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 116] while 32 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 166]
Jordanian era
In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Qibya came under
rule.
Massacre
In October 1953 Qibya was the target of an Israeli raid known as the
Qibya massacre by Unit 101 commanded by a young
Ariel Sharon which resulted in the death of 67 or 69 unarmed civilians and large-scale destruction of the village. On October 18, 1953, the U.S. State Department issued a bulletin expressing its "deepest sympathy for the families of those who lost their lives" in Qibya as well as the conviction that those responsible "should be brought to account and that effective measures should be taken to prevent such incidents in the future."
[ The Department of State issued a statement on Oct. 18, 1953 (Department of State Bulletin, Oct. 26, 1953, p. 552).] The United States temporarily suspended economic aid to Israel.
The census of 1961 found 1,635 inhabitants in Qibya.[Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 24]
Post-1967
Since the
Six-Day War in 1967, Qibya has been under Israeli occupation.
After the 1995 accords, 21.5% of Qibya land was classified as Area B, the remaining 78.5% as Area C. Israel has confiscated land from Qibya in order to construct the Israeli West Bank barrier.[ Qibya Village Profile, ARIJ, pp. 16-18]
Qibya received media coverage again in the run-up to the 2001 Israeli general election when it was correctly forecast that Sharon would become the next Israeli Prime Minister.[ Guardian From butcher to 'Lion' to Prime Minister of Israel by Jason Burke 4 February 2001]
Bibliography
External links
-
Welcome To Qibya
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Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14: IAA, Wikimedia commons
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Qibya Village (Fact Sheet), Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ)
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Qibya Village Profile, (ARIJ)
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Qibya aerial photo, (ARIJ)
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Locality Development Priorities and Needs in Qibya Village, (ARIJ)
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Israel illegally Re delineate the boundaries of the Palestinian Villages! The case of Qibya and Budrus villages 17, October, 2005
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Halt-of-Construction orders hit Palestinian structures in the village of Qibya in Ramallah Governorate 23, December, 2010
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UN
