The village is associated by some scholars with a biblical locality in the
Kingdom of Israel, located between the city of
Jezreel and the kingdom's capital
Samaria. It is mentioned in
the Book of Kings as
Beth Ekad of the Shepherds () which can be translated as "meeting place of the shepherds". In this place,
Jehu, king of
Israel, slaughtered 42 relatives of
Ahaziah, king of
Judah. The village is also associated with a village mentioned in the
Onomasticon (
Gazetteer) of the Greek historian
Eusebius called
Beth Ekamat. Some intact
Roman buildings can be found in the village, and ceramics from the
Byzantine era have also been found there.
Ottoman era Beit Qad, like the rest of Palestine, was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire in 1517. During the
16th and
17th centuries, it belonged to the
Turabay Emirate (1517–1683), which encompassed also the
Jezreel Valley,
Haifa,
Jenin,
Beit She'an Valley, northern
Jabal Nablus,
Bilad al-Ruha/Ramot Menashe, and the northern part of the
Sharon plain. In the
census of 1596, Beit Qad appeared in the
nahiya of
Jenin in the
liwa of
Lajjun. It had a population of 20 households, all
Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olive trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 9,500
akçe. Beit Qad was described by the census as a
hamlet. In 1870
Victor Guérin found the village to have 200 inhabitants. In 1882, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Beit Kad as “a small village on a knoll near the plain. It has a large cemented
cistern, now broken. The houses are of stone and mud.” In 1870/1871 (1288
AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the
nahiya (sub-district) of Shafa al-Qibly.
British era In the
1922 census of Palestine the population of the village was 199 Muslims, decreasing slightly in the
1931 census to 185, in 35 households. In the
1944/5 statistics, the population was 290, all Muslim, with a total of 8,915
dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 608 dunams were used for plantations and irrigable land, 6,976 dunams for cereals, while 10 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
Jordanian era In 1948
Palestinian refugees from
Mount Gilboa were absorbed in the village and stayed there as
sharecroppers. In 1951 they built, with the aid of the Jordanian government, another agriculture-based village, 2 km north of Beit Qad, called ''Mashru' Beit Qad
which means "Project of Beit Qad''" The Jordanian census conducted in 1961 recorded 247 persons in Beit Qad and 197 persons in Mashru' Beit Qad.
1967, aftermath Since the
Six-Day War in 1967, Beit Qad has been under
Israeli occupation. In a census conducted by Israel after it occupied it, Beit Qad "south" (respectively "north") were reported to have 223 (respectively 216) residents, including 86 (respectively 53) persons in households whose head was a refugee from Israeli territory. During the early months of the
First Intifada on 27 March 1989 Anjad Hashem Nasser, 4 years old, was shot dead. Press reports said the shooter was an
Israeli policeman and that the
Israeli army had launched an investigation. Five months later Minister of Defence
Yitzhak Rabin sent a letter to MK
Yair Tsaban acknowledging that a force of the Israeli Police was in the area and "therefore" the incident was investigated by the police. ==Geography==