Beit Fajjar ( ar, بيت فجّار) 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 ...

town located eight kilometers south of

Bethlehem Bethlehem (; ar, بيت لحم ; he, בֵּית לֶחֶם '' '') is a city in the central West Bank, Palestine, about south of Jerusalem. Its population is approximately 25,000,Amara, 1999p. 18.Brynen, 2000p. 202. and it is the capital ...

in the

Bethlehem Governorate The Bethlehem Governorate ( ar, محافظة بيت لحم, Muḥāfaẓat Bayt Laḥm) is one of 16 Governorates of Palestine. It covers an area of the West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Its principal city and district capital is Bethlehem. Accordi ...

, in the central

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

. 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 ...

, the town had a population of over 13,403 in 2017.2017 PCBS Census

History

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...

, dating from about the time of

Constantine the Great Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterran ...

, or the 4th century C.E, have been excavated here. Beit Fajjar is believed to have been a camping area for the

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

Caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

Umar ibn al-Khattab ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb ( ar, عمر بن الخطاب, also spelled Omar, ) was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () as the second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate ...

.Kark and Oren-Nordheim, 2001, p
334
/ref>

Ottoman era

According to the people of Beit Fajjar, they came from

, and settled at Beit Fajjar in 1784. Edward Robinson noted the village on his travels in the area in 1838, as a

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

village in the Hebron district. According to

Kark KARK-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KARZ-TV (channel 42); Nexstar also provides certain services to Fox a ...

and 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 the

Hauran The Hauran ( ar, حَوْرَان, ''Ḥawrān''; also spelled ''Hawran'' or ''Houran'') is a region that spans parts of southern Syria and northern Jordan. It is bound in the north by the Ghouta oasis, eastwards by the al-Safa field, to the s ...

. The lands formerly belonged to the village of ''Buraikut''.

Victor Guérin Victor Guérin (15 September 1821 – 21 Septembe 1890) was a French intellectual, explorer and amateur archaeologist. He published books describing the geography, archeology and history of the areas he explored, which included Greece, Asia Min ...

visited 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. An Ottoman village list of about 1870 indicated 27 houses and a population of 81, though the population count included only men. In the 1883, 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 Survey of Western Palestine and in 1880 for the Survey of Eastern Palestine. The survey was carried out after the ...

'', 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". In 1896 the population of ''Bet faddscar'' was estimated to be about 624 persons.

British Mandate era

The site's high altitude was the highest point in the area and later the town expanded into other hills. During British rule in Palestine in the 1920s-1940s, Beit Fajjar was used as an observation point for the Bethlehem-Hebron area. 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, Bait Fajjar (alternative spelling) had a population 766, all Muslims.Barron, 1923, Table VII, Sub-district of Bethlehem, p.
18
/ref> In the 1931 census the population of Beit Fajjar was counted together with Umm Salamuna, Marah Ma'alla and

Marah Rabah Marah Rabah is a Palestinian village located twelve kilometers south of Bethlehem. The village is in the Bethlehem Governorate central West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the town had a population of over 1,320 in ...

. The total population was 1043, still all Muslims, in 258 houses.Mills, 1932, p
35
/ref> In the 1945 statistics the population of Beit Fajjar was 1,480, all Muslims,Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, 1945, p
24
/ref> who owned 17,292

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 amou ...

s of land according to an official land and population survey. 2,572 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 2,633 for cereals, while 87 dunams were built-up (urban) land.

Jordanian era

In the wake of the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

, and after the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,Jordanian rule. In 1961, the population was 2,182.

After 1967

Since the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 ...

in 1967, Beit Fajjar has been under

Israeli occupation Israeli-occupied territories are the lands that were captured and occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. While the term is currently applied to the Palestinian territories and the Golan Heights, it has also been used to refer t ...

. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 2,474. The former head of Beit Fajjar's local council, Saber Mohammed Abdul Latif, testified to

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

representatives 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. After the 1995 accords, 85.7% of Beit Fajjar land was classified as

Area B The Palestinian enclaves are areas in the West Bank designated for Palestinians under a variety of U.S. and Israeli-led proposals to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The enclaves are often compared to the nominally self-governing black ...

land, while the remaining 14.3% is Area C. Nibal Thawabteh was the first woman to be elected to the Beit Fajjar Village Council, where she served for seven years.

Economy

The primary economic sectors are agriculture and stone-cutting. Beit Fajjar is a major player in the stone industry, supplying

meleke ''Meleke'' ( ar, ملكي, "royal", "kingly"; he, אבן ירושלמית), also transliterated ''melekeh'' or ''malaki'', is a lithologic type of white, coarsely-crystalline, thickly bedded-limestone found in the Judaean Mountains in Israel a ...

, widely known as Jerusalem stone, used in the construction of buildings in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Beit Fajjar
Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation There are 138 stone production outlets in Beit Fajjar, out of 650 in the West Bank. After about 1998, the Palestinian quarry owners have experienced difficulties in renewing their permits. According to

HRW Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human ri ...

, 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."

Arab-Israeli conflict

On 4 October 2010, a

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 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 David The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...

symbol and the words 'Price Tag'" over the doorway; the slogan is associated with militant

Israeli settler Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

s, who Palestinian residents accused of responsibility for the attack.

Gush Etzion Gush Etzion ( he, גּוּשׁ עֶצְיוֹן, ' Etzion Bloc) is a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the Judaean Mountains, directly south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank. The core group includes four Jewish agricultural v ...

is close to the village. 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. On October 30, 2015, the PA health ministry reported that an 8 month old boy from Beit Fajjar had died after inhaling tear gas fired by the

IDF IDF or idf may refer to: Defence forces *Irish Defence Forces *Israel Defense Forces *Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006 *Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917 Organizations *Israeli Diving Federation *Interaction ...

during violent clashes In July, 2019, 30 (or 31) year old ''Nassar Taqatqa'' from Beit Fajjar was found dead in Israeli

solitary confinement Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which the inmate lives in a single cell with little or no meaningful contact with other people. A prison may enforce stricter measures to control contraband on a solitary prisoner and use additi ...

. He had been arrested by the Israelis six weeks earlier, suspected of "ties to

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni- Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qas ...

", but had not been charged with anything. 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 to

IMEMC The International Middle East Media Center (or IMEMC) is an independent news organization run by Palestinians living in the Palestinian territories, working together with international journalists, who report on events in both Israel and the Pa ...

, the death of Taqatqa brought "the number of alestiniandetainees, who were killed or died in Israeli prisons since 1967, to 220."Palestinian Detainee Dies In Solitary Confinement In Nitzan Israeli Prison
IMEMC

References

Bibliography

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External links

Welcome To Bayt Fajjar Beit Fajar
Welcome to Palestine *Survey of Western Palestine, Map 21:
IAAWikimedia commonsBeit Fajjar Town (Fact Sheet)

Applied Research Institute–Jerusalem The Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ; ar, معهد الابحاث التطبيقية - القدس) is a Palestinian NGO founded in 1990 with its main office in Bethlehem in the West Bank. ARIJ is actively working on research proje ...

(ARIJ)
Beit Fajjar Town Profile
ARIJ
Beit Fajjar aerial photo
ARIJ
The priorities and needs for development in Beit Fajjar town based on the community and local authorities’ assessment
ARIJ {{Bethlehem Governorate Towns in the West Bank Populated places in the Bethlehem Governorate Municipalities of the State of Palestine