The name Beit Liqya /Bēt liqya/ might be, in its current form, of Aramaic extraction.[4]
In 1882, Conder and Kitchener suggested identifying Beit Liqya with the biblical Eltekeh of Joshua 19:44.[5] However, later researchers have suggested Tel Shalaf, north of Ge'alya as the location of Eltekeh.[6][7]
In the early 1200, the revenues from Beit Liqya were given as a waqf designated for the Al-Haram al-Sharif.[10]
Ottoman era
Beit Liqya, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517. Administratively, Beit Liqya, and its two agricultural dependencies : Mazra'at Beyt Nushif and Mazra'at Rakubis, belonged to the Sub-district of Ramla in the District of Gaza. Jerusalem.[11] In 1552, the revenues of the village were designated for the new waqf of Hasseki Sultan Imaret in Jerusalem, established by Hasseki Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana), the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent.[12][13]
The ottoman endowment deed of Hasseki Sultan's imaret in Jerusalem (1552) records the place name Manzalat al-ʽrmwy’t /Manzilit il-ʽUrmawiyāt/, “the camping ground of the ‘Urmawis (residents of 'Urma)", near Beit Liqya. The place-name possibly carries the name of people originally from Khirbet el-'Ormeh[14]
In 1838 Beit Lukia was noted as a Muslim village, located in the Beni Malik area, west of Jerusalem.[15]
The French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village in the 1863, and estimated that it had around five hundred inhabitants. He also noted a wali for a Sheikh Abou Ismail.[16] An official Ottoman village list from about 1870, showed that "Bet Lukja" had a total of 109 houses and a population of 347, though the population count included only men.[17][18]
In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Beit Likia as a "small village on a main road at the foot of the hills, supplied by cisterns. There are ancient foundations among the houses."[5]
In the 1945 statistics the population was 1,040, all Muslims,[21] while the total land area was 14,358 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.[22] Of this, 1,918 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 6,469 for cereals,[23] while 39 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.[24]
In the early 1950s, some people from Beit Liqya moved to Jerusalem after hearing about empty homes in the then-depopulated Jewish Quarter of the Old City, joining Palestinian refugees. As a result, although Beit Liqya itself was not occupied or depopulated in 1948, some of its residents now live in the Shu'fat Refugee Camp.[25]
In 1961, the population of Beit Liqya was 1,727.[26]
After the 1995 accords, 10.4% of the land of Beit Liqya was classified as Area B, the remaining 89.6% as Area C.[27]
Jamal 'Asi (15 years old) and U'dai 'Asi (14 years old) were killed by the Israeli Army in 2005 near the Israeli West Bank barrier.[28]UN Secretary-GeneralKofi Annan welcomed Israel's announcement that an involved IDF officer was suspended, and that a full investigation of the incident would take place.[29]
Later the same year, their 15-year-old cousin Mahyoub al-Asi was killed by a civilian security guard, "whom he knew." He was tending the family vineyard. His brother was also killed by a mine explosion near the village several years ago.[28]
On October 16, 2014, Israeli forces shot and killed the 13-year-old Palestinian boy Bahaa Badr in the village near the dividing line with Israel. Bahaa Badr was shot in the chest and died 20 minutes after arriving at the hospital.[30][31][32]
^W. R. Gallagher (1999). Sennacherib's Campaign to Judah. Leifen: Brill. pp. 123–124.
^Carta's Official Guide to Israel and Complete Gazetteer to all Sites in the Holy Land. (3rd edition 1993) Jerusalem, Carta, p.163-164, ISBN965-220-186-3 (English)
^Mor, Menachem (2006). מרד בר כוכבא — עוצמתו והיקפו [The Bar Kokhba Revolt - Its Intensity and Scope] (in Hebrew) (2nd ed.). ירושלים: יד יצחק בן-צבי. p. 107. ISBN965-217-079-8.
^Klein, E, 2009, "Jewish Settlement in the Toparchy of Acraba during the Second Temple Period - The Archaeological Evidence", in: Y. Eshel (ed.), Judea and Samaria Research Studies, Volume 18, Ariel, pp. 177-200 (Hebrew).
