Beit Ula
| Beit Ulla | |
|---|---|
| Other transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | بيت أولا |
| • Also spelled | Beit Ulla (official) Bayt Aula (unofficial) |
 Beit Ulla
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| Coordinates: 31°35′46″N 35°01′44″E / 31.59611°N 35.02889°ECoordinates: 31°35′46″N 35°01′44″E / 31.59611°N 35.02889°E | |
| Palestine grid | 152/111 |
| Governorate | Hebron |
| Government | |
| • Type | Municipality |
| Area | |
| • Jurisdiction | 22,432 dunams (22.4 km2 or 8.6 sq mi) |
| Population (2007) | |
| • Jurisdiction | 10,885 |
| Name meaning | The house of Aula |
Beit Ula, Beit Aula, (Arabic: بيت أولا) is a Palestinian town in the Hebron Governorate, located ten kilometers northwest of Hebron, in the southern West Bank.
The Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) suggested Beit Aula as a place for the Biblical Bethel.
Socin, citing an official Ottoman village list compiled around 1870, noted that Betula, located not east of Tarqumiyah, had 51 houses and a population of 206, though the population count included men, only.Hartmann examining the same list, found that Bet Ula had 80 houses.
In 1883 the Palestine Exploration Fund's "Survey of Western Palestine", described Beit Aula as "a small village standing on a spur surrounded with olives. It has a well on the west in the valley, a mile away.”
In the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bait Ula had a population of 825 inhabitants, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 1,045, still entirely Muslim, in 217 inhabited houses. In the latter census it was counted with Kh. Beit Kanun, Kh. Hawala and Kh. Tawas.
In 1945 the population of Beit Ula was 1,310 Muslims, and the total land area was 24,045 dunams of land according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 1,324 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 8,747 were for cereals, while 71 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Beit Ula came under Jordanian rule from 1948 until 1967.
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