Mas-ha

Mas-ha
Other transcription(s)
• Arabic	مسحة
Mas'ha, seen from Elkana
Mas-ha Location of Mas-ha within the Palestinian territories
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
Governorate	Salfit
Government
• Type	Village council
Population (2007)
• Jurisdiction	2,003
Name meaning	"Gravelly soil"[1]

Mas-ha (Arabic: مسحة‎‎) is a Palestinian village located in the Salfit Governorate in the northern West Bank, 37 kilometers southwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, it had a population of 2,003 in 2007.^[2]

History

Potsherds from the Byzantine, Byzantine/Umayyad, Crusader/Ayyubid and Mamluk era have been found.^[3]

Ottoman era

Potsherds from the early Ottoman era have also been found.^[3] Masha appeared in 1596 Ottoman tax registers as being in the Nahiya of Jabal Qubal of the Liwa of Nablus. It had a population of five households, all Muslim, and paid taxes on wheat, barley, summercrops, olive trees, occasional revenues, goats and beehives, and a press for olives or grapes.^[4]

French explorer Victor Guérin passed by the village in 1870, and estimated it as having about 300-350 inhabitants, and fig-tree lined borders.^[5] In 1882 the Palestine Exploration Fund'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."^[6]

British Mandate era

In a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Mas-ha (called: Masha) had a population of 80, all Muslims,^[7] while in the 1931 census it had 20 occupied houses and a population of 87, again all Muslim.^[8]

In 1945 the population was 110, all Muslim^[9] while the total land area was 8,263 dunams, according to an official land and population survey.^[10] Of this, 1,612 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land, 2,482 for cereals,^[11] while 18 dunams were classified as built-up areas.^[12]

1948-1967

In the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Mas-ha came under Jordanian rule.

Post-1967

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Mas-ha has been under Israeli occupation.

References

1. Palmer, 1881, p. 239
2. 2007 PCBS Census Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p. 112.
3. Finkelstein, 1997, p. 264
4. Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 131
5. Guérin, 1875, p. 145 ff
6. Conder and Kitchener, 1882, SWP II, p. 286
7. Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p. 26
8. Mills, 1932, p. 63
9. Department of Statistics, 1945, p. 19
10. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 60
11. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 107
12. Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. 157

Bibliography

• Barron, J. B., ed. (1923). Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922. Government of Palestine.
• Conder, Claude Reignier; 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.
• Department of Statistics (1945). Village Statistics, April, 1945. Government of Palestine.
• Finkelstein, Israel; Lederman, Zvi, eds. (1997). Highlands of many cultures. Tel Aviv: Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University Publications Section. ISBN 965-440-007-3.
• Guérin, Victor (1875). Description Géographique Historique et Archéologique de la Palestine (in French). 2: Samarie, pt. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale.
• Hadawi, Sami (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 (PDF). 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.

External links

• Welcome To Mas-ha
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 14: IAA, Wikimedia commons
• 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, ARIJ
• Difficult olive harvest season in Mas-ha Village 27 November, 2006, ARIJ
• Israeli Occupation Forces prevent Mas-ha villagers from reaching their lands behind the Isolation Wall, 24 January, 2010, ARIJ
• Confiscation until further Notice Az Zawiya and Mas-ha- Salfit Governorate 10 January, 2012, ARIJ
• Mas-ha map
• Mas-ha Village (Fact Sheet), ARIJ
• Mas-ha Village Profile, ARIJ
• Mas-ha, aerial photo, ARIJ