Ayta al-Jabal

Ayta el-Jabal has been identified with Beth Ayit, a place mentioned in Rabbinic literature as being positioned on the border that signified the northernmost limit of Jewish settlement upon their return from Babylonian captivity in the 6th to 5th centuries BCE. Contemporary research indicates that this text was composed in the 2nd century CE, approximately six centuries after the return to Zion. Despite its later origin, it mirrors an ancient reality, likely harking back to the Hasmonean or Herodian periods, around the 2nd or 1st century BCE.[3][4]

In the 1596 Ottoman tax records, the village, named 'Ayta al-Gajar, was located in the Ottoman nahiya (subdistrict) of Tibnin under the Liwa of Safad, with a population of 12 households and 3 bachelors, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, such as wheat (2,600 akçe), barley (1,400 akçe), olive trees (500 akçe), goats and beehives (400 akçe), in addition to "occasional revenues" (137 akçe) and a press for olive oil or grape syrup (12 akçe); a total of 5,049 akçe. Part of the revenue went to a waqf.[5][6]

In 1856 it was named Aithat et Tut on Kiepert's map of Palestine/Lebanon published that year,[7] while in 1875, Victor Guérin passed by and noted: “to my left, beyond a wadi, [is] the village of A'ïtha, on a high hill; it does not look very considerable and is inhabited by Metualis."[8]

Ayta al-Jabal shown amongst the villages surrounding Tebnine in the 1880s PEF Survey of Palestine.

In 1881, the Palestine Exploration Fund's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described the village (which it called 'Aita ez Zut): "A village, built of stone, containing about fifty Metawileh, situated on a hill-top, with figs, olives, and arable land around. There are two cisterns in the village."[9]

The current Bint Jbeil province was created in 1922 by French mandatory authorities.[10]