Beit Zakariah or Hurbat (Beit) Zakariah is a small Palestinian village in the West Bank. It is located in between the larger Israeli settlements of Alon Shevut and Rosh Tzurim in the Gush Etzion region. Administratively, it is associated with Artas, Bethlehem.
History
The village is the site of the Battle of Beth Zechariah between the Jewish Maccabeans and Selucid Greek forces during the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire, in the year 162 BCE.
In the Byzantine period an important church was located here, which appears on the Madaba map. Since then a mosque, going by the name Nabi-Zakariah, has been built on the site of the church. Some of the ruins of the church are preserved beneath the mosque. In general, houses in the village are built on top of ancient ruins and caves.
The original four communities of Gush Etzion were founded around Beit Zakariah in the 1940s. In late 1947, following the passage of UN resolution 181 calling for partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, tensions in the area rose, and Beit Zakariah was the very first Arab village in all of Palestine to be abandoned by its inhabitants.
On January 14, 1948, Arab forces led by Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni attempted to capture the strategic hill of Beit Zakariah, and thus to split Gush Etzion into two in preparation for its total conquest. However, Jewish forces defeated them in the Battle of 3 Shevat. The defeat had strategic implications for all of Palestine - as a result, Husseini cancelled his plans to attack Jewish communities, and focused on attacks on the roads.
After this, Gush Etzion remained besieged, and in May 1948 it was finally captured, with all its inhabitants killed or taken prisoner. When a cease-fire was reached between Israeli and Jordanian forces in 1949, the area became part of the West Bank. After the Six-Day War in 1967, the Gush Etzion settlements were reestablished. At some point after January 1948, the Arab residents of Beit Zakariah returned to their homes. They now form a small Arab minority within the Gush Etzion bloc.