Al-Eizariya, Palestine: The Biblical Village of Bethany and Its Heritage
Al-Eizariya, Palestine carries two names that tell two different stories about the same hillside. In Arabic, al-Eizariya (العيزرية) means "place of Lazarus," a direct reference to the man the Gospel of John says was raised from the dead there. Its older name, Bethany, likely comes from the Aramaic beth ananya, "house of the poor," a name scholars connect to the village's traditional role sheltering pilgrims and the destitute just outside Jerusalem's gates. That double inheritance, sacred and practical, still shapes the town today: it sits on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives, less than two miles from the Old City, and borders Abu Dis to the south. The same Jerusalem hill country carries the tatreez and hand-worked craft traditions that Palestinian heritage apparel at FALASTIN is built to honor. People have lived on this ground continuously since at least the 6th century BCE, longer than either name has existed.
Al-Eizariya, Palestine: A Name Drawn From Two Languages, and Bethany's Other Name
TL;DR
Al-Eizariya (Arabic: العيزرية), known in the New Testament as Bethany, is a Palestinian town on the Mount of Olives, under two miles from Jerusalem's Old City. It is the traditional site of the Tomb of Lazarus, and archaeologists have excavated four superimposed churches beneath it dating to the 4th and 5th centuries. The town has been inhabited continuously since the 6th century BCE and its population reached 21,175 at the 2017 census, up from 506 Muslim and 9 Christian residents recorded in 1922. Since Israel built its separation barrier through the area in 2004, roughly 87 percent of Al-Eizariya's land falls under full Israeli control, and the wall has cut into the strip of shops that once ran along its main commercial road.
Excavations carried out between 1949 and 1953 found pottery fragments from the Persian and Hellenistic periods beneath the modern village, along with rock-cut tombs, houses, wine presses, and cisterns, evidence of a working agricultural settlement long before Bethany appears by name in any gospel. Beneath the site now venerated as the Tomb of Lazarus, archaeologists uncovered four churches built one on top of the last, the earliest dating to the 4th century, each generation rebuilding on the ruins of the one before it.
What Does the Tomb of Lazarus Mean to Al-Eizariya?
According to the Gospel of John, Jesus raised Lazarus of Bethany from the dead here, a moment that has drawn Christian pilgrims to the site since at least the 4th century CE. The tomb itself is reached down a flight of uneven rock-cut steps, and the site has been revered by both Christians and Muslims for centuries: the Ottomans built the al-Uzair Mosque directly over the traditional tomb entrance in the 16th century, honoring Lazarus under his Quranic name. The Franciscan Order rebuilt the Church of Saint Lazarus on the site between 1952 and 1955, a Greek Orthodox church followed in 1965, and in 2014 the Sheikh Khalifa Mosque opened nearby as the second-largest mosque in the wider Jerusalem area. Four different religious communities, building on the same hillside across sixteen centuries, is not a coincidence; it is what happens when a place is worth returning to.
From Crusader Abbey to Ottoman Tax Register
In 1138, King Fulk and Queen Melisende of Jerusalem purchased the village outright and established a Benedictine abbey beside the tomb, a foundation abandoned after Jerusalem fell back into Muslim hands in 1187. When Ottoman tax collectors surveyed the village in 1596, they counted 67 Muslim households, and by 1838 a European visitor described it as "a poor village of some 20 families." The population did not begin its real recovery until the British Mandate period, climbing from 506 residents in the 1922 census to 1,060 by 1945, a mix of Muslim and Christian families sharing the same hillside their neighbors had shared for centuries.
How Has the Separation Wall Changed Al-Eizariya?
Jordan controlled the village from 1948 until Israel occupied the West Bank in the Six-Day War of 1967, and Palestinian Authority administration followed the 1993 Oslo Accords. Today, 87.3 percent of Al-Eizariya's land is classified as Area C, under full Israeli control. Israeli settlements built nearby have claimed 4,217 dunams for Ma'ale Adumim and a further 2,749 dunams for the Mishor Adummim Industrial Center, land that once belonged to Al-Eizariya's own agricultural base. The separation barrier, built through the area starting in 2004, cut directly into the strip of shops that had lined the town's main commercial road for generations, work that depended on the through traffic between Jerusalem and Jericho that the wall now blocks.
Tatreez, Neighbors, and What Outlasted the Wall
Al-Eizariya's own population has kept growing regardless, from roughly 16,000 at the turn of the millennium to 21,175 by the 2017 census, a town that includes Abu Dis in its everyday orbit and shares the same hill-country cross-stitch tradition explored at Tatreez: The Language of Palestinian Embroidery. The regional differences between that hill-country needlework and the styles of Bethlehem, Hebron, and the coast are laid out at Traditional Palestinian Clothing: Regional Styles and Patterns. What the wine presses cut into the rock two thousand years ago and the mosque built over a Christian tomb four hundred years ago both point to the same fact: this hillside has always belonged to more than one story at once, and no single wall has managed to make that untrue.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Al-Eizariya the same place as Bethany in the Bible?
Yes. Al-Eizariya is the modern Arabic name for the town the New Testament calls Bethany, home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. The Arabic name means "place of Lazarus" and refers directly to the same site.
Why is the Tomb of Lazarus important to both Christians and Muslims?
Christian tradition holds that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead at this site, drawing pilgrims since at least the 4th century CE. Muslims also revere Lazarus under his Quranic name, and the Ottomans built the al-Uzair Mosque directly over the traditional tomb entrance in the 16th century.
How close is Al-Eizariya to Jerusalem?
Al-Eizariya sits on the southeastern slope of the Mount of Olives, less than two miles from Jerusalem's Old City. Since 2004, Israel's separation barrier has physically cut the town off from the city despite that short distance.
Al-Eizariya is a Palestinian town that has been lived in since the 6th century BCE, named twice over for two different kinds of mercy, a shelter for the poor and a man raised from the dead. Its churches were rebuilt on top of each other for sixteen centuries, its mosque and its churches still stand within sight of one another, and its population has grown even as the wall of 2004 cut off the trade that once ran through it. None of that history depends on which name a visitor uses first.
At FALASTIN, we aim to keep that heritage alive through our Palestinian Clothing collection.
100% of profits from FALASTIN are donated to the United Palestinian Appeal.