Burqa, Nablus
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Burqa () is a village in the
Nablus Governorate The Nablus Governorate () is an administrative district of Palestine located in the Central Highlands of the West Bank, 53 km north of Jerusalem. It covers the area around the city of Nablus which serves as the ''muhfaza'' (seat) of the go ...
in the northern
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 ...
,
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 ...
, located northwest of
Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...
. 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 ...
(PCBS), the village had a population of 4,030 inhabitants in mid-year 2006 and 4,152 by 2017.


Location

Burqa is located northwest of
Nablus Nablus ( ; , ) is a State of Palestine, Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 156,906. Located between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a ...
. It is bordered by
Beit Imrin Beit Imrin (, transliterated as "House of Princes") is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in northern West Bank, located 18 kilometers northwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village ...
and Nisf Jubeil to the east, Jaba’, Fandaqumiya, Silat ad-Dhahr, and Al ‘Attara to the north, ‘
Anabta Anabta () is a Palestinian town in the Tulkarm Governorate in the northern West Bank, located 9 kilometers east of Tulkarm. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Anabta had a population of 8,077 inhabitants in 2017. Anabta ...
, Bizzariya and Ramin to the west, and
Deir Sharaf Deir Sharaf () is a Palestinian territories, Palestinian town in the Nablus Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the northern West Bank, located northwest of Nablus. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town h ...
and Sabastiya to the south.


History

Ceramics from the late
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...
era have been found here,Zertal, 2004, pp
419
420
as has ceramics from the
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...
era, and Early
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 ...
era.


Ottoman era

Burqa was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
in 1517 with all of Palestine, and in 1596 it appeared in the tax registers as being 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 ''Jabal Sami'', part of the
Sanjak of Nablus The Nablus Sanjak (; ) was an administrative area that existed throughout Ottoman rule in the Levant (1517–1917). It was administratively part of the Damascus Eyalet until 1864 when it became part of Syria Vilayet and then the Beirut Vilaye ...
. It had a population of 15 households, all Muslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33,3% on various agricultural products, such as wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, goats or beehives, a press for olives or grapes, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 5,132
akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...
.Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 125 In 1838, Edward Robinson described Burqa as "a large village situated upon a sort of terrace on the side of the northern ridge, overlooking the whole basin of Sebustieh." He further noted that the village had a mixture of Greek Christians and Muslim inhabitants.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
128
/ref> In 1863,
Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (; 15 September 1821 – 21 September 1890) was a French people, French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included ...
found the village to have one thousand inhabitants. In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village 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 ...
'' (sub-district) of Wadi al-Sha'ir. In 1882, 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 ...
'' described Burka as a "A large stone village on a terrace, with a good grove of olives and two springs to the west, and well to the south. The road ascends the pass through the village. There are cactus hedges round the gardens north of the village, and a large threshing-floor in the middle of the place which is built in a straggling manner along the hill-side. Some of its inhabitants are Greek Christians."


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, Burqa had a population of 1,688; 1,589 Muslims and 99 Christians,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p
24
/ref> where the Christians were 56 Orthodox, 41 Roman Catholics and 2 Church of England.Barron, 1923, Table XV, p
47
/ref> In the 1931 census it had 448 houses and a population of 1,890; 1,785 Muslims and 105 Christians. In the 1945 statistics, Burqa had a population of 2,590; 2,410 Muslims and 180 Christians,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
18
/ref> with 18,486
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, 2,451 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 8,283 used for cereals, while 173 dunams were built-up land. There were Christians living in the village until 1946, when they moved to
Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...
.


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,Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
ian rule. The Jordanian census of 1961 found 3,352 inhabitants.


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, Burqa 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 ...
. The population in the 1967 census conducted by Israel was 2,477, of whom 92 originated from the Israeli territory. After the 1995 accords, 27% of the village land is defined as being in Area A, 29% in Area B, while the remaining 44% is defined as being
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 ...
land. Israel confiscated 1,014 dunams of land from Burqa in order to establish the
Israeli settlement Israeli settlements, also called Israeli colonies, are the civilian communities built by Israel throughout the Israeli-occupied territories. They are populated by Israeli citizens, almost exclusively of Israeli Jews, Jewish identity or ethni ...
of Homesh. The settlement was evacuated in 2005, but later used by the Israelis as a military base. Burqa village profile
ARIJ, pp. 15-16
In 2017 construction of a women's centre funded by
UN Women The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity charged with working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women is charged with advocating for the righ ...
and
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
was done and the centre was subsequently named
Dalal Mughrabi Dalal Mughrabi (, ; ''c.'' 1959 – 11 March 1978) was a Palestinian militant who was a member of the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and participated in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel. The attack resulte ...
Women Community Center after a Palestinian woman who was killed in 1978 when she with 8 other militants in 1978 hijacked two buses in
Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
, an incident which claimed the lives of 38 civilians, of whom many were children. As she is considered a terrorist in Norway, the Norwegian government asked for their funds to be reimbursed as Norway does not support violence.


References


Bibliography

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External links


Welcome to BurqaBurqa
Welcome to Palestine *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11:
IAAWikimedia commons Burqa village profile
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)
Burqa (aerial photo)
ARIJ
Development priorities and needs in Burqa
ARIJ {{Authority control Nablus Governorate Villages in the West Bank Throne villages Municipalities of Palestine