Al-Judeira () is a

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

village in the

Jerusalem Governorate The Quds Governorate (), also known as Jerusalem Governorate, is one of the 16 governorates of Palestine and located in the central part of the West Bank. The current governor, appointed by the Palestinian National Authority, is Adnan Ghaith s ...

of the

State of Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, in the central

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ) is the official statistical institution of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures at the national and international levels. It is a state institution that provid ...

, the town had a population of 2,634 in 2017.

Toponymy

E. H. Palmer of the

Palestine Exploration Fund The Palestine Exploration Fund is a British society based in London. It was founded in 1865, shortly after the completion of the Ordnance Survey of Jerusalem by Royal Engineers of the War Department. The Fund is the oldest known organization i ...

wrote that Al-Judeira means " sheep-fold", after the , "fold".

Location

Al Judeira is located (horizontally) north-west of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. To the east is

Kalandia Qalandia or Qalandiya (), also known as Kalandia (), is a Palestinian village located in the West Bank, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, just west from the Jerusalem municipality boundary. The village had a population of 572 residents in 2017. ...

, Rafat is to the north,

Al Jib Al Jib or al-Jib () is a Palestinian territories, Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Governorate of the State of Palestine, located ten kilometers northwest of Jerusalem, partially in the Seam Zone, seam zone of the West Bank. The surrounding l ...

is to the west, and Bir Nabala is to the south.

History

Ancient period

Several scholars have suggested that Judeira is the site of Gederah in

Benjamin Benjamin ( ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the younger of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel, and Jacob's twe ...

, which is mentioned in the Bible as home to Yozabad the Gederathite, a Benjaminite warrior who defected to

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

. It is mentioned shortly after the nearby sites of Azmaveth (identified with modern-day Hizme),

Anathoth Anathoth is the name of one of the Levitical cities given to "the children of Aaron" in the tribe of Benjamin (; ). Residents were called Antothites or Anetothites. Name The name of this town may be derived from a Canaanite goddess, `Anat. It ...

(probably

'Anata Anata () is a Palestinian town in the Jerusalem Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the central West Bank, located four kilometers northeast of Jerusalem's Old City. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 'Anata had a po ...

) and Gibeon (

Ottoman era

In the Ottoman

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of the 1500s, ''Jadira'' was noted as a village located in the ''

nahiya A nāḥiyah ( , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiyeh, nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level divisi ...

'' of

. In 1838 ''el-Jedireh'' was noted as a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

village, located north of Jerusalem. In 1863 Guérin described it as a small village, with a

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

consecrated to a Sheikh Yassin. In the courtyard in front of this sanctuary, he noticed what was possibly an old Corinthian

capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

, which had been made into a mortar, where the villagers pounded coffee. An Ottoman village list from about 1870 found that the village had a population of 40, in a total of 13 houses, though the population count only included men. It was also noted that it was located east of

.Socin, 1879, p
153
/ref> In 1883, the PEF's ''

Survey of Western Palestine The PEF Survey of Palestine was a series of surveys carried out by the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) between 1872 and 1877 for the completed Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) and in 1880 for the soon abandoned Survey of Eastern Palestine. The ...

'' (SWP) described it as "a small village on a slope, surrounded by figs and olives, and with rock-cut tombs to the north."Conder and Kitchener, 1883, SWP III, pp.
910
/ref>

British Mandate era

In the

1922 census of Palestine The 1922 census of Palestine was the first census carried out by the authorities of the British Mandate of Palestine, on 23 October 1922. The reported population was 757,182, including the military and persons of foreign nationality. The divis ...

conducted by the British Mandate authorities, ''Ijdireh'' had a population of 122, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Jerusalem, p
15
/ref> increasing in the 1931 census to 139 Muslim inhabitants, in 31 inhabited houses.Mills, 1932, p
40
/ref> In the 1945 statistics Judeira had a population of 190 Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
25
/ref> with 2,044

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

s of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 353 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 1,314 used for cereals, while 7 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Jordanian era

In the wake of the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 328 inhabitants in ''Judeira''.

Post-1967

Since the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

in 1967, al-Judeira has been under

Israeli occupation Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian terr ...

. After the 1995 accords, 25.4% of the village’s land was classified as Area B, the remaining 74.6% is classified was

Area C Area C (; ) is the fully Israeli-controlled territory in the West Bank, defined as the whole area outside the Palestinian enclaves (Areas A and B). Area C constitutes about 61 percent of the West Bank territory, containing most Israeli settle ...

. Al Judeira Village Profile
ARIJ, p. 17 In 2005, Israel started the construction of a

separation barrier A separation barrier or separation wall is a Barricade, barrier, wall or fence, constructed to limit the movement of people across a certain line or border, or to ethnic segregation, separate peoples or cultures. A separation barrier that runs a ...

around al-Judeira,

, Bir Nabala, Beit Hanina al-Balad and Kalandiya.''High Court approves Bir Nabalah enclave''
B'Tselem, 26 November 2006 The wall was built on Palestinian land seized by Military Orders. ''Israel’s Segregation Wall Encircles Three Palestinian Villages in Northwest Jerusalem''
ARIJ, 7 May 2005 The wall completely surrounds the villages, forming an

enclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...

References

Bibliography

* * (p
43
* * * * * * * * * * *

External links

*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 17
IAAWikimedia commons

Al Judeira Village (Fact Sheet)

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research projects in the fields of management of natural resources, water m ...

(ARIJ)
Al Judeira Village Profile
ARIJ
Al Judeira area photo
ARIJ
Locality Development Priorities and Needs in Al Judeira
ARIJ {{DEFAULTSORT:Juderia, al- Seam Zone Villages in the West Bank Jerusalem Governorate Municipalities of Palestine