Battir
| Battir | |
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| Other transcription(s) | |
| • Arabic | بتير |
| • Also spelled | Bateer (official) |
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 Battir
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| Coordinates: 31°43′28.59″N 35°08′11.89″E / 31.7246083°N 35.1366361°ECoordinates: 31°43′28.59″N 35°08′11.89″E / 31.7246083°N 35.1366361°E | |
| Governorate | Bethlehem |
| Government | |
| • Type | Municipality |
| • Head of Municipality | Akram Bader |
| Area | |
| • Jurisdiction | 7,419 dunams (7.4 km2 or 2.9 sq mi) |
| Population (2007)[1] | |
| • Jurisdiction | 3,967 |
Battir (Arabic: بتير) is a Palestinian village and ancient town located in the West Bank, 5 km west of Bethlehem, and south west of Jerusalem. Habitation at the village site extends back to the Iron Age. Ancient Betar, also Bittir, Bitir, Beitar, whose name it preserves, was once a Jewish village, the site of the final defeat of the second century CE Bar Kokhba revolt where the leader of the revolt fell. Also inhabited during the Byzantine and Islamic periods, its population is recorded as being almost exclusively Muslim in the Ottoman imperial census and British Mandate censuses. It is situated just above the railway from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which also served as the armistice line between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967. Occupied by Israel during the 1967 war, today Battir has a population of about 4,000 inhabitants and is administered by the Palestinian National Authority.
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[edit] Geography
Battir is located on a hill above Wadi el-Jundi, which runs southwest through the Judean hills to the coastal plain. At an altitude of around 720m, Battir's summers are temperate, and its winters mild with the occasional snowfall.
[edit] History
[edit] Ancient period
Battir is the site of ancient Betar. The modern Arab village is built around the ancient site "Khirbet el-Yahud" (Arabic, meaning "ruin of the Jews" ) and "is unanimously identified with Betar, the last stronghold of the Second Revolt against the Romans, where its leader, Bar-Kochba, found his death in 135 CE."[2][3][4] "A modern agricultural terrace follows the line of the ancient fortification wall".[3]
Archaeologist D. Ussishkin dates the village to the Iron Age, and states that at the time of the Revolt it was a village of between one and two thousand people chosen by Bar Kochba for its spring, defensible hilltop location, and proximity to the main Jerusalem-Gaza road.[3] There is no evidence of habitation in the period immediately after the Revolt.[3]
There is a tradition that the village is also the site of the tomb of the Tannaic sage Eleazar of Modi'im.[5]
A mosaic from the late Byzantine or early Muslim period was found here.[6]
[edit] Modern era
In 1596, Battir appeared in Ottoman tax registers as a village in the Nahiya of Quds in the Liwa of Quds. It had a population of 24 Muslim households and two bachelors, and paid taxes on wheat, summercrops or fruit trees, and goats or beehives.[7]
In the 20th century Battir's development was linked to its location alongside the railroad to Jerusalem, which provided both access to the city's opportunities as well as direct income from passengers who would disembark when the locomotives stopped to take on water.[8] After the 1948 war, the armistice line fell along the railroad, and Battir ended up just meters to the east of Jordan's border with Israel.
After the 1967 War, Battir passed to Israeli control along with the rest of the West Bank, though after the 1995 signing of the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, it has been administered by the Palestinian Authority. There is some concern that the construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier might negatively impact the environment in the area, especially due to Battir's proximity to the Green Line.[9] In 1970 two Katusha rockets were fired from the village vicinity toward Jerusalem[10]
In 2007, the village of Battir sued the Israeli Defense Ministry to try to force them to change the planned route of the West Bank Barrier. As planned, the fence would cut through part of Battir's world famous 2,000 year old irrigation system, which is still in use and maintained by the villagers. Some villages, such as Bil'in, have managed to have the route of the fence changed by Israeli courts. Many others have not been able to convince courts to force the Defense Ministry to reroute the fence. Battir's lawsuit is still pending as of May 2012.[11] [12]
In 2011 UNESCO awarded Battir a $15,000 prize for "Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes" due to its care for its ancient terraces and irrigation system.[11]
In May 2012 the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) sent a delegation to UNESCO headquarters in Paris to discuss the possibility of adding Battir to its World Heritage List. The PNA's deputy minister of tourism, Hamadan Taha, said that the organization wants to "maintain it as a Palestinian and humanitarian heritage," making special note of its historic terraces and irrigation systems.[13]
[edit] Demographics
At the time of the 1931 census, Battir had 172 occupied houses and a population of 755 Muslims, 2 Christians and 1 Jew.[14] It had increased to 1,050 Muslims by 1945.[15]
[edit] Notable people
- The father of Dean Obeidallah, famed Arab-American comedian, emigrated from Battir to the United States.
- The father of Palestinian-American journalist/author Ali Abunimah, a Jordanian diplomat, also came from Battir.[16]
[edit] Sister cities
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Battir |
- ^ 2007 PCBS Census Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. p.116.
- ^ David Ussishkin, "Soundings in Betar, Bar-Kochba's Last Stronghold", http://www.tau.ac.il/humanities/archaeology/projects/proj_past_betar.html
- ^ a b c d D. Ussishkin, Archaeological Soundings at Betar, Bar-Kochba's Last Stronghold, Tel Aviv 20, 1993, pp. 66-97.
- ^ K. Singer, Pottery of the Early Roman Period from Betar, Tel Aviv 20, 1993, pp. 98-103.
- ^ אוצר מסעות - יהודה דוד אייזענשטיין
- ^ Claudine Dauphin (1998). La Palestine byzantine, Peuplement et Populations, Vol. III : Catalogue. BAR International Series 726. Oxford: Archeopress. p. 911.
- ^ Wolf-Dieter Hütteroth and Kamal Abdulfattah (1977). Historical Geography of Palestine, Transjordan and Southern Syria in the Late 16th Century. Erlanger Geographische Arbeiten, Sonderband 5. Erlangen, Germany: Vorstand der Fränkischen Geographischen Gesellschaft. p. 115.
- ^ http://ags.ou.edu/~bwallach/documents/A%20Window%20on%20the%20West%20Bank.pdf
- ^ http://www.arij.org/pub/EIABattir/index-1.htm[dead link]
- ^ Yosef Zuriel (21.12.1970). "Four women were saved when Katusha missile "plowed" apartment in Jerusalem". Maariv: pp. 9.
- ^ a b Daniella Cheslow (May 14, 2012). "West Bank Barrier Threatens Farms". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:AWNB:PPGB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=13EC90164E2955F0&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=0D663DC0A81A15EA. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18012895
- ^ "PNA intensifies efforts to add more sites to World Heritage list". Xinhua News Agency. May 30, 2012. http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:AWNB:WXNA&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=13F1D3FBE4FEBFB8&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated5&req_dat=0D663DC0A81A15EA. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
- ^ E. Mills, ed. (1932). Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas. Jerusalem: Government of Palestine. p. 37.
- ^ Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in S. Hadawi, Village Statistics, 1945. PLO Research Center, 1970, p56. [1]
- ^ Naomi Zeveloff (March 16, 2012). "Abunimah Brings One-State Vision to Campus". The Forward. http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_topdoc=1&p_docnum=1&p_sort=YMD_date:D&p_product=AWNB&p_text_direct-0=document_id=%28%2013DA04086D790590%20%29&p_docid=13DA04086D790590&p_theme=aggdocs&p_queryname=13DA04086D790590&f_openurl=yes&p_nbid=J67O58OPMTM0NTY5NjMwNi4zMjM4OTk6MToxMzoxOTIuMTYwLjIxNi4w&&p_multi=FORB. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
- ^ [2] Britain Palestine Twinning Network.
[edit] External links
- Battir Village (Fact Sheet)
- Battir Village Profile
- Battir Village Area Photo
- The priorities and needs for development in Battir village based on the community and local authorities’ assessment
- www.battir.i8.com
- Battir village photos
- Battir Video
- Obidallah, Mohammed T.. "Water and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict". Central European Journal of International and Security Studies (CEJISS) (Metropolitan University Prague) 2 (2): 103–118. http://cejiss.org/articles/vol2-2/obidallah/. Retrieved 05-02-2009.
