Located just outside the Jerusalem municipal border to the west, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council.

Nearby is a dam, built to collect winter flood waters[2] and create the Beit Zayit Reservoir, meant to slow down the flow of the Soreq Stream and allow water to seep into the Western Mountain Aquifer, a task it seems not to fulfill properly (look here for the Hebrew article).

[2] Beit Zayit was established after the 1947-49 Arab-Israeli war on land that had belonged to the depopulated Palestinian village of 'Ayn Karim.

[2] With the expansion of the moshav in the late 1990s, including the purchase of land by newcomers and renovation of old homes, Beit Zayit became a trendy alternative to living in Jerusalem.

[4] In 1962, dinosaur footprints were discovered in the garden of one of Beit Zayit's residents, and are on display at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.