Governorate Hebron | ||
Name meaning "House of the occulist" Weather 9°C, Wind SW at 11 km/h, 90% Humidity | ||
Beit Kahil (Arabic: بيت كاحل) is a Palestinian town in the Hebron Governorate in the southern West Bank, located seven kilometers northwest of Hebron.
Contents
Map of Bayt Kahil
History
Victor Guérin noted that the place was apparently ancient, and suggested that Beit Kahil was Biblical Keilah.
Ottoman era
In 1863 Victor Guérin found that it had thirty houses, while an Ottoman village list from about 1870 counted 8 houses and a population of 22, though the population count included men only.
In 1883 the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Beit Kahel as “a small village on a ridge, built of stone, with a well to the south. Apparently an ancient place, with rock-cut tombs.”
British Mandate era
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Beit Kahil had a population of 336 inhabitants, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 452, still entirely Muslim, in 90 inhabited houses. In the latter census it was counted with Kh. Beit Kanun, Kh. Hawala and Kh. Tawas.
In 1945 the population of Beit Khalil was 570 Muslims, and the total land area was 5,795 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 1,359 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 1,785 were for cereals, while 26 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
1948-1967
In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Beit Khalil came under Jordanian rule.
Post-1967
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Beit Khalil has been under Israeli occupation.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Beit Kahil had a population of approximately 6,526 inhabitants in 2007. The population is made up of several clans, including al-Attawna, al-Assafra, al-Zuhoor, al-Judi, Barham and al-Khateeb. The town's total land area is 5,795 dunams.