Ottoman Era In the 1596
tax records, Beit Sira was a part of the
nahiya ("subdistrict") of
Ramla, part of
Gaza Sanjak, in the
Ottoman Empire, with a population of 17
Muslim household. The villagers paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, vineyards, fruit trees, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 4,500
akçe. All of the revenue went to a
Waqf. In 1838, it was noted as a Muslim village in the
Ibn Humar District, part of the
er-Ramleh area. In 1863
Victor Guérin noted Beit Sira as a considerable village on the summit of a rocky hill. A saint, revered under the name of
Neby Sira, had a sanctuary there with his tomb.
Socin, citing an official Ottoman village list compiled around 1870, noted that
Bet Sira had 39 houses and a population of 125, though the population count included only men.
Hartmann found that
Bet Sira had 29 houses. In 1873,
Clermont-Ganneau was told that Beit Sira supposedly housed the tomb of Neby Sira, a son of
Jacob and brother to Neby Ma'in (possibly
Benjamin), the founder of
Bir Ma'in. In 1883, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described it: "A small village on a swell in the low hills. A main road passes through it. The water supply is artificial."
British Mandate era In the
1922 census of Palestine conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, Beit Sira had a population of 381 Muslims, increasing in the
1931 census to 460 Muslims in 113 houses. In the
1945 statistics the population was 540, all Muslims, while the total land area was 4,687
dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 205 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 1,924 for cereals, while 23 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas. File:Bir Ma'in 1944.jpg|Beit Sira 1944 1:20,000 from 1919 survey File:Burj 1945.jpg|Beit Sira 1945 1:250,000
Jordanian era In the wake of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Beit Sira came under
Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 746 inhabitants in Beit Sira.
Israeli occupation Since the
Six-Day War in 1967, Beit Sira has been under
Israeli occupation. After the
1995 accords, 9.3% of Beit Sira land was classified as
Area B, the remaining 90.7% as
Area C. In 2012, approximately 78% of the village population worked in the Israel labor market. Israel has confiscated 1,499
dunams of land from Beit Sira for the construction of the
Israeli settlement of
Maccabim, presently part of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut. According to the
Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Beit Sira had a population of 2,840 inhabitants in 2006. In the 2007 PCBS census, there were 2,749 people living in the town. By 2017, the population was 3,343. ==References==