Theme Week Palestine – Beit Jala

28 December 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Union for the Mediterranean Reading Time:  9 minutes

Saint Nicholas Church © SalibaQ/cc-by-sa-3.0

Saint Nicholas Church © SalibaQ/cc-by-sa-3.0

Beit Jala is a Palestinian Christian town in the Bethlehem Governorate of the West Bank. Beit Jala is located 10 km south of Jerusalem, on the western side of the Hebron road, opposite Bethlehem, at 825 meters (2,707 ft) altitude. In 2007, Beit Jala had 11,758 inhabitants. About 75% of the population were Christians (mostly Greek Orthodox) and about 25% Muslims. A crypt, dating to the 5th or 6th century C.E. was located under the Church of St. Nicolas. In the Crusader era, the village was called Apezala, and the Church of Saint Nicholas was possibly rebuild during that time. In 1883, the Palestine Exploration Fund‘s Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Beit Jala as: “A large and flourishing village of white well-built stone houses, on the slope of a steep hill. The water supply is artificial, with a well in the valley below. The population is said by Pere Lievin to amount to 3,000, of whom 420 are Catholics, and the rest Orthodox Greeks. There is a Greek and a Latin church in the village. There are remarkably fine groves of olives round and beneath the village, and the hill is covered with vineyards which belong to the place.”   read more…

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