Mas-ha
Mas-ha | |
|---|---|
Municipality type D (Village council) | |
| Arabic transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | مسحة |
 Mas'ha, seen from Elkana | |
  Mas-ha Location of Mas-ha within Palestine | |
| Coordinates: 32°06′28″N 35°03′06″E / 32.10778°N 35.05167°ECoordinates: 32°06′28″N 35°03′06″E / 32.10778°N 35.05167°E | |
| Palestine grid | 155/168 |
| State | State of Palestine |
| Governorate | Salfit |
| Government | |
| • Type | Village council |
| Elevation | 281 m (922 ft) |
| Population (2007) | |
| • Total | 2,003 |
| Name meaning | "Gravelly soil"[2] |
Mas-ha (Arabic: مسحة) is a Palestinian village located in the Salfit Governorate in the northern West Bank, 24 kilometers southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it had a population of 2,003 in 2007.[3]
Location[]
Mas-ha is located 12.5 kilometers (7.8 mi) north-west of Salfit. It is bordered by Biddya to the east, Az Zawiya to the south, Azzun Atma to the west, and Sanniriya and Beit Amin to the north.[1]
History[]
Potsherds from the Byzantine, Byzantine/Umayyad, Crusader/Ayyubid and Mamluk era have been found here.[4]
Ottoman era[]
Potsherds from the early Ottoman era have also been found.[4] Masha appeared in 1596 Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal, part of the Sanjak of Nablus. It had a population of five households, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, a press for olives or grapes, and occasional revenues and a fixed tax for people of Nablus area; a total of 2,300 akçe.[5]
In 1838, Edward Robinson noted it as a village, Mes-ha, in the Jurat Merda district, south of Nablus.[6]
French explorer Victor Guérin passed by the village in 1870, and estimated it as having about 300-350 inhabitants, and fig-tree lined borders.[7] In 1882 the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Mes-ha as "a good-sized village, with a high central house, but partly ruinous. It is supplied by cisterns, and the houses are of stone."[8]
British Mandate era[]
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Mas-ha (called: Masha) had a population of 80, all Muslims,[9] increasing slightly in the 1931 census to 87 Muslims in a total of 20 houses.[10]
In the 1945 statistics the population was 110, all Muslims,[11] while the total land area was 8,263 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[12] Of this, 1,612 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,482 for cereals,[13] while 18 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.[14]
Mas-ha 1941 1:20,000
Mas-ha 1945 1:250,000
Jordanian era[]
In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Mas-ha came under Jordanian rule.
In 1961, the population was 478.[15]
Post-1967[]
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, Mas-ha has been under Israeli occupation.
In the early 2000s, there were several protest against the plans of the building of the Israeli West Bank barrier, which would cut off Mas-ha villagers from much of their land. The protest, which resulted in the shooting of one Israeli citizen in 2003,[16] were ultimately unsuccessful.
Loss of land[]
Mas-ha has been subjected to numerous Israeli confiscations for the benefit of various Israeli objectives. ARIJ lists the losses as follows:
| Settlement | Date of establishment | Pop 2013 | Area confiscated from Mas-ha | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elkana | 1977 | 3,719 | 1,626 | |
| Etz Efraim | 1985 | 731 | 546 | |
| Sha'arei Tikva | 1982 | 4,493 | 8 | |
| 1989 | -- | 176 | ||
| Total | 8,943 | 2,356 | ||
| Source: ARIJ 2013[17] | ||||
See also[]
- The Color of Olives, documentary film about the Amer family, in Mas-ha
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b Mas-ha Village Profile, ARIJ, p. 4
- ^ Palmer, 1881, p. 239
- ^ 2007 PCBS Census Archived 2010-12-10 at the Wayback Machine Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p. 112.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Finkelstein, 1997, p. 264
- ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 131
- ^ Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p. 126
- ^ Guérin, 1875, p. 145 ff
- ^ Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 286
- ^ Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p. 26
- ^ Mills, 1932, p. 63
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 19
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 60
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 107
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 157
- ^ Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p. 26
- ^ Police Question Israeli Shot by IDF Troops During Fence Protest, Amos Harel, Dec 28, 2003, Haaretz
- ^ Mas-ha Village Profile, ARIJ, 2013, p. 17
Bibliography[]
- Barron, J.B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
- Conder, C.R.; Kitchener, H.H. (1882). The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology. 2. London: Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Finkelstein, I.; Lederman, Zvi, eds. (1997). Highlands of many cultures. Tel Aviv: Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University Publications Section. ISBN 965-440-007-3.
- Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics (1964). First Census of Population and Housing. Volume I: Final Tables; General Characteristics of the Population (PDF).
- Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945.
- Guérin, V. (1875). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). 2: Samarie, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
- Hadawi, S. (1970). Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine. Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center.
- Hütteroth, Wolf-Dieter; Abdulfattah, Kamal (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. ISBN 3-920405-41-2.
- Mills, E., ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine.
- Palmer, E.H. (1881). The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer. Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
- Reinhart, T. (2006). The Road Map to Nowhere: Israel/Palestine Since 2003. London; New York: Verso. ISBN 1-84467-076-7.
- Robinson, E.; Smith, E. (1841). Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai and Arabia Petraea: A Journal of Travels in the year 1838. 3. Boston: Crocker & Brewster.
External links[]
- Welcome To Mas-ha
- Mas'ha, IWPS
- Mas’ha, Welcome to Palestine
- Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14: IAA, Wikimedia commons
- Mas-ha Village (Fact Sheet), Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem (ARIJ)
- Mas-ha Village Profile, ARIJ
- Mas-ha, aerial photo, ARIJ
- Development Priorities and Needs in Mas-ha, ARIJ
- The people of Mas'ha protest against the wall 27/07/03, Gush Shalom
- Mas-ha: A village robbed by the Segregation Wall 24 March, 2004, POICA
- Difficult olive harvest season in Mas-ha Village 27 November, 2006, POICA
- Israeli Occupation Forces prevent Mas-ha villagers from reaching their lands behind the Isolation Wall, 24 January, 2010, POICA
- Confiscation until further Notice Az Zawiya and Mas-ha- Salfit Governorate 10 January, 2012, POICA
- Mas-ha map
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