al-Bikai'a also spelled al-Buqei'a ( ar, البقيعة) is a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

village cluster in the

Tubas Governorate The Tubas Governorate ( ar, محافظة طوباس, Muḥāfaẓat Ṭūbās) is an administrative district of the Palestine in the northeastern West Bank. Its district capital or ''muhfaza'' is the city of Tubas. In 2007, the population was 50, ...

that includes the three hamlets of Khirbet al-'Atuf, al-Hadidiyah, and Khirbet Humsa al-Fawqa. The area spans 29,250

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...

s, most of which is covered by Khirbet al-'Atuf. It is situated on a flat plain surrounded by mountains and with an altitude of 50 meters above sea level. The total population of al-Bikai'a was 227 in 1997 and 1,850 in 2005.Al-Bikai'a Villages Profile
Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem. February 2006. According to the

Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS; ar, الجهاز المركزي للإحصاء الفلسطيني) is the official statistical institution of the State of Palestine. Its main task is to provide credible statistical figures a ...

, al-Hadidya had a population of 183 inhabitants.Projected Mid -Year Population for Tubas District by Locality 2004- 2006

. The Abu Bakr as-Sadiq Mosque is the only

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

in al-Bikai'a and is located in Khirbet al-'Atuf. There is one school, and one kindergarten. Most residents go to nearby

Tammun Tammun ( ar, طمّون) is a Palestinian town in the Tubas Governorate, located 13 kilometers northeast of Nablus and five kilometers south of Tubas in the northeastern West Bank. Tammun has a population of approximately 10,795 inhabitants in 2007 ...

for education. About 72.3% of the inhabitants are literate with women comprising nearly two-thirds of the literate population. Agriculture constitutes 95% of the labor force while the remaining 5% work in Israeli construction.

History

Al-Bikai'a has been settled since the Ottoman era of rule in

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

. The villages in the area were abandoned including one named al-Sakaif. Eventually

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

s from nearby

, mainly the Bani Odeh and Bsharat families settled in the area. Khirbet al-'Atuf was named after 'Atif, an

Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni ...

soldier who died during the

Crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were i ...

s and al-Hadidiya was named after its black soil.

Government

Khirbet al-'Atuf is the only locality in the al-Bikai'a cluster that has a governing committee. It consists of four elected members and one paid employee. Its responsibilities include purchasing and distributing water to its residents, opening roads and providing electricity to the residents.

References

External links

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 Survey of Western Palestine and in 1880 for the Survey of Eastern Palestine. The survey was carried out after the ...

, 1880 Map, Map 12
IAA

Wikimedia commons Wikimedia Commons (or simply Commons) is a media repository of free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used across all of the Wikimedia projects in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bikaia, al- Villages in the West Bank