Beit Surik () is a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Governorate, located 12 kilometers Northwest of Jerusalem in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 4,025 in 2017.
Location
Beit Surik is located (horizontally) north-west of Jerusalem. It is bordered by Beit Iksa to the east, Biddu to the north, Qatanna to the west, and Qalunya to the south.
History
Beit Surik is situated on an ancient site on top of a hill. Fragments of Corinthian columns have been found, and a mosaic floor, with dedicatory inscription in Greek and tabula ansata was excavated in part by LH Vincent in 1901.
The village was known as Beit Surie in the Crusader era. It was one of 21 villages given by King Godfrey as a fief to the canons of the Holy Sepulchre. The village was also mentioned in Crusader sources in the years 1152 and later.
By 1169, "Latin" (that is, Christian) settlers seems to have been established there. As typical Arab-names also appear in the Crusader sources about Beit Surik, it has been suggested that Crusaders settled in a Muslim village.
Ottoman era
The village was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being in the located in the Nahiye of Jerusalem in the Sanjak of the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem. It had a population of 21 households, all Muslim. The inhabitants of the village paid a fixed tax-rate of 33.3% on wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards, fruit trees, grape syrup, molasse, and goats and/or beehives, a total of 2,000 Akçe.
In 1738 Richard Pococke noted the village, Bethsurick, as he passed between Biddu (Bedou) and Beit Surik.
In 1838 Beit Surik was noted as a Muslim village, located in the Beni Malik district, west of Jerusalem.
In 1863, the French explorer Victor Guérin noticed there a "beautiful piece of antique wall", with several layers, formed of large stones.
An official Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that "Bet Surik" had a total of 32 houses and a population of 125, though the population count included only the men.
In 1883, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine described Beit Surik as a "small stone village on a hill-top. To the east in a flat valley is a spring with lemon and other trees. The place appears to be ancient, having rock-cut tombs near the spring."
In 1896 the population of Bet Surik was estimated to be about 264 persons.
British Mandate era
A shrine for Sheikh 'Abd el-'Aziz near Beit Surik was damaged during the fighting in WWI.
In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Bait Suriq had a total population of 352; all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 432 Muslims, with 87 houses.
In the 1945 statistics the population was 480 Muslims, while the total land area was 6,879 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 581 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 1,827 for cereals, while 33 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.
Jordanian era
Many women and children were moved from Qastal to Beit Surik at the end of March, 1948. On 15 April, 1948, Nahshon HQ issued a series of specific orders: Battalion 2 was ordered ‘to attack with the aim of annihilation and destruction and arson [litkof bimegamat hashmada veheres vehatzata]’ the village of Beit Suriq.