This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Beitunia (Arabic: بيتونيا), also Bitunya, is a Palestinian city located 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) west of Ramallah and 14 kilometers (8.7 mi) north of Jerusalem, in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate of Palestine, in the central West Bank.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the city had a population of 26,604 in 2017,[1] making it the third largest locality in its governorate after al-Bireh and Ramallah.
The Mandatory DOA documented a medieval structure in ruins, characterized by vaults, alongside a white mosaic floor, a damaged pillar, a winepress, a rock-cut reservoir, and burial caves.
[3] A large vaulted building in the town, named Badd al Balad ("oil press of the village") has been dated to the Crusader era.
They paid a fixed tax rated of 33,3% on wheat, barley, olives, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and/or beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 23,000 akçe.
"[11] The American scholar Edward Robinson noted it in 1838,[12] as a Muslim village, part of the El-Kuds district.
[17] In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Beitunia as "A good-sized village of stone, surrounded by olives, standing high on a flat rocky ridge, with a plain to the east.
[29][30] According to the Oslo Accords, the IDF is prevented from entering areas A (an area under full Palestinian Authority control), but Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 abolished this distinction when the IDF searched that year in Beitunia for a suspect who wanted to make himself a "martyr.
[citation needed] Fadel Abu Zahira (9 years old) was shot and killed on 18 April 2002 in his own home in Beitunia.