Yatta
Other transcription(s)
• Arabic	يطّا
• Also spelled	Yattah (official)
Official logo of Yatta Municipal Seal of Yatta
Yatta Location of Yatta within the Palestinian territories
Coordinates: 31°26′52.00″N 35°05′24.00″E / 31.44778°N 35.09°E / 31.44778; 35.09Coordinates: 31°26′52.00″N 35°05′24.00″E / 31.44778°N 35.09°E / 31.44778; 35.09
Governorate	Hebron
Government
• Type	City
• Head of Municipality	Khalil Younis
Area
• Jurisdiction	133,080 dunams (133.0 km2 or 51.4 sq mi)
Population (2007)
• Jurisdiction	48,672
Website	www.yatta-munc.org

Yatta or Yattah (Arabic: يطّا‎; Hebrew: יטה‎) is a Palestinian city located in the Hebron Governorate on a high approximately 8 km south of the city of Hebron in the West Bank.^[1] According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics it had a population of 48,672 in 2007.^[2][3]

History[link]

Yatta is located on the site of the Biblical town of Juttah.^[1] A Jewish burial complex dating to the 2nd century CE was found in the town in 1931.^[4] Eusebius (4th-cent.) wrote that Yatta was "a very large village of Jews eighteen miles south of Beit Guvrin."^[4]

In 1596 it was recorded as having a population of 127 Muslim families, and paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives, goats and bee-hives.^[5] In 1931 the population was counted as 4,034 Muslims.^[6] Today, some Palestinian-Arab residents believe they originate from the Jewish kingdom of Khaybar in the south-western Arabian peninsula and are descended from the Jewish tribes of Arabia.^[7] Research by Yitzhak Ben Zvi in 1928 also suggested that three out of the six extended families in Yatta belonged to the "Mehamra" group and possibly descended from an Arabian Jewish tribe.^[4]

The Survey of Western Palestine described the village in the 1870s as being a "large village standing high on a ridge. It is built of stone, but some of the inhabitants live in tents. The water supply is from cisterns. On the south there are rock-cut tombs, and rock wine-presses are found all round the village. The neighbourhood is extremely stony; south of the village are scattered olives, which are conspicuous objects; on the west, a little lower under a cliff, is a small olive yard in which the camp of the Survey party was pitched in 1874; to the south-west of camp were a few figs. The inhabitants are very rich in flocks; the village owned, it was said, 17,000 sheep, beside goats, cows, camels, horses, and donkeys. The Sheikh alone had 250 sheep. ... South of the village are several tombs; one has a shallow semicircular arch cut above a small square entrance. West of the village and of el Muturrif is a very fine rock-cut wine-press. A second occurs north of the village."^[8]

At least seven Palestinians were killed in Yatta during the Second Intifada in different incidents from 2002-04.^[9] On March 8, 2012 Israeli soldiers shot dead 20-year-old Zakariya Abu Eram and injured two others during an raid in the town with the intent of arresting Abu Eram's uncle. The Israeli Army said they fired at the men after one of them stabbed a soldier during the arrest attempt.^[10]

Culture[link]

A Jillayeh dress from Yatta from around 1910 is part of the Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA) at Museum of New Mexico at Santa Fe.^[11]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Stillman, Yedida Kalfon (1979), Palestinian costume and jewelry, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, ISBN 0-8263-0490-7 

External links[link]

• Yatta Town (Fact Sheet)
• Yatta Town Profile
• Yatta Town Areal Photo
• The priorities and needs for development in Yatta city based on the community and local authorities’ assessment

v t e Cities in Palestinian National Authority areas West Bank Abu Dis Arraba Bani Na'im Beit Sahour Beit Jala Beit Ummar Beitunia Bethlehem al-Bireh ad-Dhahiriya Dura al-Eizariya Halhul Hebron Idhna Jenin Jericho Nablus Qabatiya Qalqilyah al-Ram Ramallah Sa'ir Salfit as-Samu Tarqumiya Tubas Tulkarm Ya'bad al-Yamun Yatta *Gaza Strip Abasan al-Kabera Bani Suheila Beit Hanoun Beit Lahia Deir al-Balah Gaza Jabalia Khan Yunis Rafah az-Zawayda *Since June 2007, the Gaza Strip has been under de facto Hamas governance.

v t e Hebron Governorate Cities Bani Na'im ad-Dhahiriya Dura Halhul Hebron (al-Khalil) Idhna Sa'ir as-Samu Tarqumiyah Yatta Municipalities Beit Awwa Beit Kahil Beit Ula Beit Ummar Deir Sammit Kharas Nuba ash-Shuyukh Surif Taffuh Village Councils Anab al-Kabir Arab al-Ka'abneh Beit 'Amra Beit Einun Beit ar-Rush al-Fauqa Beit ar-Rush al-Tahta al-Baqa al-Bowereh al-Burj Deir al-'Asal al-Fauqa Deir al-'Asal al-Tahta Deir Razih ad-Deirat ad-Duwwara Hadab al-Fawwar al-Heila Hitta Hureiz Imneizil Imreish Karma al-Karmil Khallet al-Maiyya Khallet Salih Khirbet Safa Khirbat al-Simia Khursa al-Kum Kurza Kuseis Ma'in al-Majd an-Najada Qalqas Qla'a Zeta Qila Rabud al-Ramadien ar-Rihiya Sikka Shuyukh al-Arrub as-Sura at-Tabaqa Tarrama al-Uddeisa Wadi al-Amayer Zif Refugee camps al-Arroub Fawwar