Beit Iksa

Beit Iksa
Other transcription(s)
• Arabic	بيت إكسا
• Also spelled	Beit Exa (official) Bayt Iksa (unofficial)
View of Beit Iksa, 2011
Beit Iksa Location of Beit Iksa within the Palestinian territories
Coordinates: 31°49′05″N 35°10′50″E / 31.81806°N 35.18056°E / 31.81806; 35.18056Coordinates: 31°49′05″N 35°10′50″E / 31.81806°N 35.18056°E / 31.81806; 35.18056
Palestine grid	167/136
Governorate	Jerusalem
Government
• Type	Village council
• Head of Municipality	Bajes Abud
Area
• Jurisdiction	7,734 dunams (7.7 km2 or 3.0 sq mi)
Population (2006)
• Jurisdiction	1,600
Name meaning	"The house of Iksa"
Website	www.beitexa.com

Beit Iksa (Arabic: بيت إكسا‎‎;) is a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Governorate, located 6 kilometers northwest of Jerusalem in the West Bank. It lies 775–800 metres above sea-level. Beit Iksa, a village of 1,700 inhabitants, was classified as "Area B" as a result of the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1995. Since then, civil affairs have been under the control of the Palestinian National Authority, while security matters are handled by the Israel Defense Forces. The village is surrounded on all sides by the Israeli West Bank barrier, and outside Palestinians are denied access through the one Israeli checkpoint leading to it. In 2014 Israeli military authorities announced they would confiscate a further 3,167 acress of Beit Iksa lands, leaving the township, according to the village head, Saada al-Khatib, as a 2,500-dunum prison.

Beit Iksa contains two primary schools run by the Palestinian National Authority. Students attending secondary school travel to Jerusalem or nearby towns for education.

Beit Iksa lies on one of the historical routes that joined the Mediterranean coastal plain with Jerusalem, and its existence is attested as early as the 5th century CE. An alternative name for the site was Umm el-'Ela During the Crusader period, the village was known as Jenanara, according to its inhabitants.

In 1517, the village was incorporated into the Ottoman empire with the rest of Ottoman Syria, and in the 1596 tax-records it appeared under the name of Bayt Kisa, located in the Nahiye of Jerusalem in the Sanjak of the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem. It had a population of 79 households, all Muslim, and paid taxes on wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards, fruit trees, orchard, goats or bee hives, and a press for olives or grapes.