Burin () 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

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 ...

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 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 ...

, located southwest 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 ...

. The town had a population of 2,844 in 2017.

History

The name itself may conserve the

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...

of ''Beera'' mentioned in the Book of Judges 9:21. In the 12th and 13th centuries, during the Crusader era, Burin was inhabited by Muslims, according to the historian

Diya al-Din al-Maqdisi Diya may refer to: * '' Diya (film)'', 2018 Indian Tamil- and Telugu-language film * Diya (Islam), Islamic term for monetary compensation for bodily harm or property damage * Diya (lamp), ghee- or oil-based candle often used in South Asian religi ...

.Ellenblum, 2003, pp
244 263
/ref> In 1176, a part of the

tithes A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Modern tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques or via onli ...

from the village was pledged to the Church of

Mount Zion Mount Zion (, ''Har Ṣīyyōn''; , ''Jabal Sahyoun'') is a hill in Jerusalem, located just outside the walls of the Old City (Jerusalem), Old City to the south. The term Mount Zion has been used in the Hebrew Bible first for the City of David ( ...

, but there is no evidence that it was ever collected. The founder of the Banu Ghawanima family, Shaykh Ghanim, was born in the village in 1166 and entered

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 ...

with the army of

Saladin Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...

in 1187.Auld, Hillenbrand and Natsheh 2000, pp. 66, 146. He was appointed as the

sheikh Sheikh ( , , , , ''shuyūkh'' ) is an honorific title in the Arabic language, literally meaning "elder (administrative title), elder". It commonly designates a tribal chief or a Muslim ulama, scholar. Though this title generally refers to me ...

of the city's al-Khanqah al-Salahiyya Mosque founded by Saladin in 1187 and he and his descendants served as the head judges of the

Shafi'i The Shafi'i school or Shafi'i Madhhab () or Shafi'i is one of the four major schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionis ...

fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

'' (Islamic school of law) in Jerusalem. The Ghawanima Minaret
commons
and Bab al-Ghawanima gate
commons
of the

Haram esh-Sharif Al-Aqsa (; ) or al-Masjid al-Aqṣā () and also is the compound of Islamic religious buildings that sit atop the Temple Mount, also known as the Haram al-Sharif, in the Old City (Jerusalem), Old City of Jerusalem, including the Dome of the R ...

were both named after the family.

Ottoman era

Burin 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 Qubal, part of the

Nablus Sanjak The Nablus Sanjak (; ) was an administrative area that existed throughout Ottoman Empire, Ottoman rule in the Ottoman Syria, Levant (1517–1917). It was administratively part of the Damascus Eyalet until 1864 when it became part of Syria Vilayet ...

. It had a population of 120 households and five bachelors, all Muslim. They paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, summer crops, olives, and goats or beehives, and a press for olives or grapes; a total of 26,445

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. 132. The family of the Damascene scholar al-Hasan al-Burini (d. 1615) hailed from Burin. The village was destroyed during conflicts involving Zahir al-Omar, but it was likely rebuilt shortly afterwards.Grossman, D. (1986). "Oscillations in the Rural Settlement of Samaria and Judaea in the Ottoman Period". in Shomron studies. Dar, S., Safrai, S., (eds). Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing House. p. 352 In 1838, it was noted as ''Baurin'', located in Jurat Amra, south of Nablus.Robinson and Smith, 1841, vol 3, Appendix 2, p.
127
/ref>

Robinson Robinson may refer to: People and names * Robinson (name) Fictional characters * Robinson Crusoe, the main character, and title of a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719 Geography * Robinson projection, a map projection used since the 19 ...

further noted that it was "a large village, or rather a market town." In 1870/1871 (1288 AH), an Ottoman census listed the village in the ''

'' (sub-district) of Jamma'in al-Thani, subordinate to Nablus. 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 Burin as a "large village in a valley, with a spring in the middle and a few olives."

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, Burin had a population of 901, all Muslims,Barron, 1923, Table IX, Sub-district of Nablus, p
24
/ref> while in the 1931 census it had 215 houses and a population of 859 Muslims. In the 1945 statistics, Burin (with Iraq Burin) had a population of 1,200, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
18
/ref> with 19,096

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, 1,797 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 8,741 used for cereals, while 106 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 2,068 inhabitants in Burin.

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, Burin 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, 20% of the village land was classified as Area B, the remaining 80% as

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 ...

. Israel has confiscated land from Burin in order to construct 2

Israeli settlements 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 Jewish identity or ethnicity, and hav ...

: 621 dunams for

Bracha In Judaism, a ''berakhah'', ''bracha'', ', ' (; pl. , ''berakhot'', '; "benediction," "blessing") is a formula of blessing or thanksgiving, recited in public or private, usually before the performance of a commandment, or the enjoyment of food o ...

, and 233 dunams for Yizhar.

Demographics

In the 1997 census by 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), Burin had a population of 1,915.

Palestinian refugees Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country, village or house over the course of the 1948 Palestine war and during the 1967 Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refug ...

and their descendants accounted for 57.1% of the inhabitants. According to the PCBS, the town had a population of 2,573 inhabitants in mid-year 2006. The town had a population of around 2,800 in 2008.Confiscation of more Palestinian Lands in Burin village for the expansion of Bracha Settlement
1 May 2009, ARIJ Most of the locals in Asira al-Qibliya, another village in the vicinity, have their origins in Burin.

Expropriation and settler violence

The land and water resources of Burin has gradually been reduced since the 1967 Israeli occupation, due to the expropriation for Israeli settlements and military bases. Since 1982, more than 2,000 dunams of Burins land was first declared "state land" and then handed over to the settlers of Har Brakha. In 2008, a yeshiva student from Yitzhar was arrested after a failed rocket attack on Burin. After Israeli police demolished a trailer home in Adei Ad, a group of settlers from Yitzhar vandalized cars, smashed windows and cut electricity wires in Burin. From mid-June 2008 to August 2008 the human rights group Yesh Din documented nine attacks on Palestinian families living in Burin allegedly carried out by settlers living in outposts near Yitzhar or Har Brakha. Cases of "disturbances of the peace", a term referring to harm caused to Palestinians and their property, as well as harm to Israeli security forces, by Israeli citizens, rose in 2008, with 429 incidents in the first half of 2008, compared with 587 incidents in all of 2006 and 551 in 2007. In February 2010, an 18-year-old Palestinian from Burin was shot and wounded by a settler security guard, which the settlers said took place after Palestinians threw stones at them. There has been several attacks from Israeli settlers in Burin. Olive harvest days are coordinated with Israel, the Palestinian Authority and large clans in the area to prevent violence and vandalism. 7,714 Palestinian-owned trees were damaged during the first months of 2013. According to a report by Yesh Din, Burin had lost the most trees. A spokesman for the Israeli governing body in the West Bank said that were also cases where Palestinians has damaged trees owned by Israel, but they were fewer. In 2019, Jewish settlers physically assaulted Israeli human rights activists in Burin. The human rights activists had arrived at the village to assist Palestinian farmers to harvest their olive trees and were attacked by masked assailants with iron rods and hurled stones. Three days later, another incident took place in Burin as masked settlers again promoted a stone attack against Palestinian farmers on Palestinian agricultural land near Burin; two Palestinians were harmed and taken to a hospital in Nablus, and none of the settlers were arrested. In 2022, Israeli human rights activists were again attacked by Jewish settlers near Burin, where the activists had come to help Palestinian farmers plant trees in areas that had been damaged or vandalized in previous attacks. Seven of the Israeli activists were wounded by the settlers in the attack, which was labeled by the Israeli public security Minister as "terrorism".

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Welcome To Burin
*Survey of Western Palestine, Map 11:
IAAWikimedia commons

Burin CouncilBurin 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)
Burin (aerial photo)
ARIJ
Development Priorities and Needs in Burin
ARIJ
Burin olive orchards under settlers' attack
29, December, 2005, POICA
Confiscation of more Palestinian Lands in Burin village for the expansion of Bracha Settlement
01, May, 2009, POICA
Setting 1200 Olive Trees Alight in Burin village – Nablus Governorate
17, July, 2011, POICA
Ravaging 17 Olive Trees in Khallet Siwar, Burin Village - Nablus Governorate
11, May, 2012, POICA
Burin Burin
{{Authority control Nablus Governorate Villages in the West Bank Municipalities of Palestine