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Beit Fajjar

Coordinates:31°37′29″N35°09′20″E/ 31.62472°N 35.15556°E/31.62472; 35.15556
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Beit Fajjar
Municipality type B
Arabic transcription(s)
•Arabicبيت فجّار
•LatinBayt Fajjar (official)
Beit Fujar (unofficial)
Minaret in Beit Fajjar
Minaretin Beit Fajjar
Beit Fajjar is located in State of Palestine
Beit Fajjar
Beit Fajjar
Location of Beit Fajjar withinPalestine
Coordinates:31°37′29″N35°09′20″E/ 31.62472°N 35.15556°E/31.62472; 35.15556
Palestine grid164/114
StateState of Palestine
GovernorateBethlehem
Government
• TypeMunicipality
• Head of MunicipalityUmar Abdel Aziz Taqatqa
Area
• Total7,933dunams(7.9 km2or 3.1 sq mi)
Population
(2017)[1]
• Total13,520
• Density1,700/km2(4,400/sq mi)
Name meaningRelating to Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb[2]

Beit Fajjar(Arabic:بيت فجّار) is aPalestiniantown located eight kilometers south ofBethlehemin theBethlehem Governorate,in the centralWest Bank.According to thePalestinian Central Bureau of Statistics,the town had a population of over 13,520 in 2017.[1]

Beit Fajjar was founded in the 18th century.[3]

History

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Mosaic from aByzantineChurch dating from the 5th century, fromKh. Breikut,just north of Beit Fajjar, and west ofUmm Salamuna[4][5]

Atomb,dating from about the time ofConstantine the Great,or the 4th century C.E, have been excavated here.[6]

Beit Fajjar is believed to have been a camping area for theIslamicCaliph,Umar ibn al-Khattab.[7]

Ottoman era

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According to the people of Beit Fajjar, they came fromBethlehemdue to a conflict in the town, and settled at Beit Fajjar in 1784,[8]or 1738.[3]

Edward Robinsonnoted the village on his travels in the area in 1838,[9]as aMuslimvillage in the Hebron district.[10]According toKarkand Oren-Nordheim, Beit Fajjar was mostly farmland until the 19th century, when it gradually transformed into an urban settlement. The residents were descendants to a semi-nomadic family from theHauran.The lands formerly belonged to the village ofBuraikut.[7]

Victor Guérinvisited the village in 1863, and described it as a village on the top of a hill, with about 400 people. The villagers still buried their dead in rock-cut tombs, below the village.[11]An Ottoman village list of about 1870 indicated 27 houses and a population of 81, though the population count included only men.[12][13]

In the 1883, thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine,Beit Fejjar was described as a "small stone village standing very high on a ridge. It is supplied by the fine springs and spring wells of Wady el Arrub".[14]

In 1896 the population ofBet faddscarwas estimated to be about 624 persons.[15]

British Mandate era

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The site's high altitude was the highest point in the area and later the town expanded into other hills. DuringBritish rule in Palestinein the 1920s-1940s, Beit Fajjar was used as an observation point for the Bethlehem-Hebron area.[16]

In the1922 census of Palestineconducted by theBritish Mandate authorities,Bait Fajjar (alternative spelling) had a population 766, all Muslims.[17]In the1931 censusthe population of Beit Fajjar was counted together withUmm Salamuna,Marah Ma'allaandMarah Rabah.The total population was 1043, still all Muslims, in 258 houses.[18]

In the1945 statisticsthe population of Beit Fajjar was 1,480, all Muslims,[19]who owned 17,292dunamsof land according to an official land and population survey.[20]2,572 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 2,633 for cereals,[21]while 87 dunams were built-up (urban) land.[22]

Jordanian era

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In the wake of the1948 Arab–Israeli War,and after the1949 Armistice Agreements,Beit Fajjar came underJordanian rule.

In 1961, the population was 2,182.[23]

After 1967

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Since theSix-Day Warin 1967, Beit Fajjar has been underIsraeli occupation.The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 2,474.[24]

The former head of Beit Fajjar's local council, Saber Mohammed Abdul Latif, testified toUnited Nationsrepresentatives that after his arrest on November 1, 1969, how Beit Fajjar had been besieged for about four months, no water had been allowed in and some 70 houses had been blown up. Abdul Latif was then deported on August 28, 1970.[25]

After the1995 accords,85.7% of Beit Fajjar land was classified asArea Bland, while the remaining 14.3% isArea C.[26]

Nibal Thawabtehwas the first woman to be elected to the Beit Fajjar Village Council, where she served for seven years.[27]

Economy

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The primary economic sectors are agriculture and stone-cutting. Beit Fajjar is a major player in the stone industry, supplyingmeleke,widely known asJerusalem stone,used in the construction of buildings in Israel and the Palestinian territories.[16]There are 138 stone production outlets in Beit Fajjar, out of 650 in the West Bank.[28]After about 1998, the Palestinian quarry owners have experienced difficulties in renewing their permits. According toHRW,while "Israel issued a permit to the European company to operate the quarry on an area of land that Israel declared belongs to the state, Israel has refused to issue permits for nearly all of the 40 or so Beit Fajar quarries, or for almost any other Palestinian-owned quarry in the area of the West Bank under Israel’s administrative control."[29]

Arab-Israeli conflict

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On 4 October 2010, amosquein Beit Fajjar was attacked by arsonists, who doused carpets with kerosene and ignited them at approximately 3am local time. The attackers left a "Star of Davidsymbol and the words 'Price Tag' "over the doorway; the slogan is associated with militantIsraeli settlers,who Palestinian residents accused of responsibility for the attack.Gush Etzionis close to the village.[30]After the attack, a delegation of Rabbis from the adjacent Jewish settlements arranged with Beit Fajjar leadership and the PA security and visited the mosque in solidarity, while condemning the arson attack.[31] On October 30, 2015, thePAhealth ministry reported that an 8 month old boy from Beit Fajjar had died after inhaling tear gas fired by theIDFduring violent clashes[32]

In July, 2019, 30 (or 31) year oldNassar Taqatqafrom Beit Fajjar was found dead in Israelisolitary confinement.He had been arrested by the Israelis six weeks earlier, suspected of "ties toHamas",but had not been charged with anything.[33]The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) and the man’s relatives stated that Taqatqa was a "completely healthy" young man when he was detained by the Israelis. According toIMEMC,the death of Taqatqa brought "the number of [Palestinian] detainees, who were killed or died in Israeli prisons since 1967, to 220."[34][35]

References

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  1. ^abPreliminary Results of the Population, Housing and Establishments Census, 2017(PDF).Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics(PCBS) (Report).State of Palestine.February 2018. pp. 64–82.Retrieved2023-10-24.
  2. ^The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem, 2010, p. 5[1]
  3. ^abGrossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". inShomron studies.Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 366
  4. ^Tsafrir et al, 1979
  5. ^Toledano, 1984, p. 291, hasBarikutat location 31°38′40″N 35°08′15″E.
  6. ^Husseini and Iliffe, 1935, pp.175-178
  7. ^abKark and Oren-Nordheim, 2001, p.334
  8. ^Beit Fajjar Town Profile,p. 5, ARIJ
  9. ^Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 2, p.183
  10. ^Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol. 3, 2nd appendix, p.115
  11. ^Guérin, 1869, p.301
  12. ^Socin, 1879, p.154
  13. ^Hartmann, 1883, p.142,also noted 27 houses
  14. ^Conder and Kitchener, 1883, vol. 3, p.303
  15. ^Schick, 1896, p.123
  16. ^abBeit FajjarCentre for Cultural Heritage Preservation
  17. ^Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Bethlehem, p.18
  18. ^Mills, 1932, p.35
  19. ^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p.24
  20. ^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics.Village Statistics, April, 1945.Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.56
  21. ^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics.Village Statistics, April, 1945.Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.101
  22. ^Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics.Village Statistics, April, 1945.Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p.151
  23. ^Government of Jordan, Department of Statistics, 1964, p.15
  24. ^Perlmann, Joel (November 2011 – February 2012)."The 1967 Census of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: A Digitized Version"(PDF).Levy Economics Institute.Retrieved24 June2016.
  25. ^UN DocArchivedFebruary 12, 2007, at theWayback MachineA/8389 of 5 October 1971
  26. ^Beit Fajjar Town Profile,p. 17, ARIJ
  27. ^"Trailblazer Opens Doors for Palestinian Women | IIP Digital".Archived fromthe originalon 2016-03-03.Retrieved2014-08-22.
  28. ^Palestinians' stones cut both ways,Csmonitor
  29. ^Occupation, Inc. How Settlement Businesses Contribute to Israel’s Violations of Palestinian Rights,January 19, 2016,HRW
  30. ^Korans burnt in West Bank mosque attackReuters, 4 October 2010
  31. ^Rabbis visit torched mosque, condemn attack
  32. ^PA: Palestinian baby dies from inhaling tear gas fired by IDF,October 30, 2015, Times of Israel
  33. ^Palestinian Prisoner's Death in Israeli Medical Ward Prompts Raised Alert,Jack Khoury and Josh Breiner, Jul 16, 2019,Haaretz
  34. ^Palestinian prisoner dies in solitary confinement in Israeli jail,16 Jul 2019Al Jazeera
  35. ^Palestinian Detainee Dies In Solitary Confinement In Nitzan Israeli Prison,IMEMC

Bibliography

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