Anzah or 'Anza (
Arabic: عنزة) is a
Palestinian village in the located 18 km southwest of the city of
Jenin in the northern
West Bank. Its total land area consists of 4,740
dunams of which nearly a 1/4 is covered with
olive orchards. According to the
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of 1,938 inhabitants in 2017.[3]
In 1830, during the
Ottoman era, when the forces of
Bashir Shihab II besieged
Sanur, they were harassed by the people of Anzah.[5] In 1838, 'Anaza was noted as being in the District of esh-Sha'rawiyeh esh-Shurkiyeh, the eastern part.[6]
In 1870,
Victor Guérin found it "situated on a hill and counting scarcely a hundred inhabitants today. A belt of olive trees surrounds it."[7]
In 1882, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine described it as: "A village of ancient appearance on a hill perched above the plain, the houses descending the slope on the south-east. It has two
wells down the hill and a good olive grove near the road on the south. The houses are of stone."[8]
In the
1944/5 statistics, the population was 880 Muslims,[11] with a total of 4,740
dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey.[12] Of this, 958 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 2,110 dunams for cereals,[13] while 16 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[14]
Since the
Six-Day War in 1967, Anzah has been held under
Israeli occupation. According to the Israeli census of that year, the population of Anza stood at 807, of whom 13 were registered as having come from Israel.[16]
Demography
The village has six major families: Obaid, Sadaqa, Barahmeh, Ataya, Khader, and Omour.
Anzah's residents has origins in
Yatta. They say they have longstanding roots in the area.[17]
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p.
16Archived 2018-09-05 at the
Wayback Machine
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.
54Archived 2012-02-29 at the
Wayback Machine
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.
98Archived 2014-01-04 at the
Wayback Machine
^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.
148Archived 2014-01-04 at the
Wayback Machine
^Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p.
25
^Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 350-351